Home > All interviews Miles Avison ( overfiftiesfriends.co.uk ) : " Our community is intended for people who are over 50 and looking to expand their social horizons " By . 09-05-2008 Could you present Overfiftiesfriends.co.uk The Overfiftiesfriends.co.uk community is intended for people who are over 50 and looking to expand their social horizons. Here you can find friends to share your interests, organise activities, or join those organised by others. Meet in groups without the pressures of dating. Or just chat with other seniors. We saw a gap in the market between senior dating sites (our users do not necessarily want to go out on a "date") and senior lifestyle sites (offering everything from insurance advice to travel and healthcare, rather like a magazine). We decided to fill this gap with a simple friendship and activity site, or social network (like Facebook for the 50+). Who are the founders ? Overfiftiesfriends.co.uk was founded by mother and son Sue and Miles Avison. Sue is an active over 50, whilst son Miles is an almost-as-active 31 year-old, now based in Stockholm, Sweden. The partnership works well, and the distance certainly helps! Both Sue and Miles work for themselves, in the furniture and language businesses respectively. Sue had the vision for the site and understands the over 50s and Miles was able to help her make it a reality. Their vision is for Overfiftiesfriends.co.uk to become the best UK community for over fifties looking for friendship and activities. Simple, and so far, effective! What kind of services do you propose ? Our site aimed to fill the niche between senior dating (there are many such sites) and senior lifestyle sites (even more of these - offering everything from gardening to health tips). So we wanted to offer a simple friendship and activities community. A social network where the members themselves create the activities. And this is what we have: a successful community where 3,000 or so members organise everything from meals out to theatre trips, dancing and even holidays! Members do not have to be single or looking for dates, they usually just want to find friends. And they are doing so... lots of friends! We offer a simple concept where over 50s can get together without the pressures of "dating" and with safety in numbers. Full membership of the site requires a small fee: just £10 for one year, and 10% of that goes to the Macmillan Cancer Support charity (we have ties to this charity for personal reasons). Who are your users ? Our users (around 3000 registered members) are people over or around fifty that are either alone for some reason (divorced, separated, widowed or relocated) or otherwise looking to expand their friendship circles. Most members are from 50-55, but we have plenty around and over 70. Women outnumber men 2:1 (so get joining, gentlemen!). They represent all walks of life. What are your future development plans ? In the coming months, we plan to upgrade the site significantly. We will add a lot of new functionality (including Blogs for members and clubs). Our aim is to make Overfiftiesfriends.co.uk the first choice social network community for senior Internet users. Those that have already found the site love it, so we aim to make it available to a wider audience. More info : http://wwww.Overfiftiesfriends.co.uk   Printer-friendly version | Send to a friend | React to this interview Copyright - Unless otherwise stated all contents of this web site are © 2007 SeniorStrategic. - All Rights Reserved. For permission to reproduce any contents of this web site, please email our Syndication department: Info@theMatureMarket.co.uk.