DNA tests are a relatively new part of Ancestry’s business. I don’t have info about what percentage of their revenue they make up, but it’s certainly not a foregone conclusion that their the most important part of their revenue model. The other (and older) part of their business is subscriptions to their genealogy database and related software.

Yep my mother researched all of her familiy history, it took months and years. Then when she ran out, she researched my Dad's family history (even though they're divorced). Now she researches family history for friends or random local people. I'm assuming she's an outlier because she's a total history buff, but she's been subscribing for years.

And once you have looked into you family's past and saved what info the was to find, what benefits does Ancestry offer to keep customers around?

Genuine question, because I know very little about this stuff.

You keep going. It's no coincidence that Ancestry's in SLC; saving your ancestors through baptism by proxy is a bit of a big deal for the Mormons/LDS. It's nice that they can make a buck off of the basic curiosity of outsiders, but the real money happens when you can make it off of people's deeply held religious beliefs. (And it is possible to believe that you're genuinely helping people with one side of your brain while taking advantage of them with the other.)

It beats going through microfiche copies of census records in a church basement, that's for sure.

That is fascinating. It’s like they’re selling a do-it-yourself indulgence kit.

>once you have looked into you family's past

I think you are severely underestimating how much time this takes. I've seen people go down this rabbit hole. It can literally consume your entire lifetime. Most people seem to underestimate how many ancestors they have - and that's not even including those that are so far back that there are no records.

I bought form a company that lets me delete my data, I forgot the name though, but they regularly send me an email wanting to sell me a deeper dive.

I also routinely get spammed by people who want to connect with me because they have some extended family tree subscription and can see people they are like 1-3% related to.

It hasn’t worked of course, I haven’t logged back in since they told me I was 99,8% Scandinavian. Shattering the family myth is that we had that one gypsy great grandmother.