Dyf'ul.ka
 | |
| Type | Private[n 1], allegedly a statutory corporation[citation needed] |
|---|---|
| Industry | |
| Founded | Founded Winter 1983 Launched May 1984 |
| Headquarters | Zhar'osyk, Kæra'zna |
Key people | Zhak'os Øfesak'fa (Chairman, co-founder) |
| Products |
|
| Services | Genetic testing, genealogical DNA testing, medical research |
| Revenue | SH$681.2 million (2020) |
| Website | www.Dyf'ul.ka |
Dyf'ul.ka, commonly referred to as Dyfulka, is an online company operating in Zhar'osyk, Kæra'zna, suspected to be underwritten by the Kæra Government.[citation needed] It is one of the largest for-profit genealogy companies on Urth, due to its large database of genealogical and historical data found on its website, as well as its accuracy in performing genetic genealogy. Dyfulka is most well known for their subsidiary Dyval.ka, which operates a similar genealogy service, with the additional claim to offer "Bloodline Evaluation", alongside a number of medical evaluations based upon a blood sample. While the service at first seemed odd yet benign, curious internet users discovered that the website vastly differed in tone to its parent site, speaking of the user in a derogatory tone based upon their perceived "blood quality", allowing the website to go viral in 2016.
As of January 2019, the company announced to have reached 3 million paying subscribers to its service, reporting a yearly revenue of over $675 million in the year previous, placing it amongst the highest earning genealogy companies on Urth should the reports be accurate. The service is offered in multiple languages, with the company proudly claiming to be "available to use for a majority of internet users across the globe", with the service currently supporting over 70 languages for site navigation.
History
Origins
According to the company's information page, the service was founded by Za'tsæ Øfesak'fa[n 2] and Zhak'os Øfesak'fa in Winter 1983, having been provided an amount of resources to do so by the Government of Kæra'zna after several applications to do so was written by Za'tsæ. The system was first intended to be used by the relatively small populous of Kæra'zna, with the prospect of performing genealogical analysis on the relatively small set of information found within the Records of the Kæra Office of Citizen Appraisal being much more of a humble prospect than of the entire Urth. The name Dyf'ul had been chosen, originating from the Kæzhyn word for "Bloodlines", with the name equally able to be translated into "Red Lines", which formed the origination of the Company's Logo. The service was originally launched as a by-mail service on the 2nd of May, 1984. Customers would provide an up-front fee to the company before being sent a sample kit by mail. The kit would then be mailed to the company's lab in Zhar'osyk, who would use genetic genealogy and official records to provide to user with an accurate genealogical report by mail. The company received minor domestic success, being commended by Zhanyl Kosaky as "A useful tool for the curious." In 1998, a web version of the service was first offered on the recently created Kæra Collective Intranet, being one of the few "independent" sites permitted on it.
International Expansion
Having been successful in the relatively small market of Kæra with open access to the internet, the company decided to open its services to the open internet, officially changing the Company's name to Dyf'ul.ka to market the release of the website on the Internet in March 2001. They opened a second headquarters in Sint Arend, Vorpest in order to dissuade concerns over the nationality of the Company, with the creation of the more informal name Dyfulka, both to make the company name easier to pronounce as well as to appear more friendly on the global market.
The site was made available in Vistarian, Codexian, Vaaran and its original Kæzhyn iteration, though the latter was hardly used. The site was nominally successful, having accrued over 1 million registered users in the first 140 days of operation. This was owed to, in part, the number of free services offered by the site to its users, including a service for finding and connecting with family members through the sending of text and images, as well as a forum in which a user may post their information in order to get assistance in discovering and contacting their extended family. The site also included a rudimentary free Family Tree designer software, which would evolve into the Family Tree Creator Software released by the company later on. The company used the success in order to expand availability, creating site navigation for a number of languages including Salovian, Tavari and Ethalrian in 2002. This opened the site to a wider market - including the lucrative market of Tavaris, which possessed a high demand for such a service in order to track the culturally important Family Lines - which was also assisted by the Company receiving investments from both Posol Industries and Ranzalar Holdings.
Archives.ka
As the main service of the Company continued to expand, the Company reinvested their profits into acquiring a more wide range of services, including the purchase of several companies operating within the industry of historical documentation, creating the sister site Archives.ka, allowing for the ownership of assets used in scanning and digitizing newspapers and documents using microfilm, as well as a wide range of Historical Documents and Newspapers in which to offer to its customers. Archives.ka was released on the 4th of April, 2004 growing over the years to become the largest online newspaper archive in 2013, according to the Company. The purchase also allowed Dyfulka to expand into the industry of data and information, becoming a provider of microfilm products from 2005 to 2009 where their commercial microfilm assets were purchased by the Imperial Vistara Archives in September 2009 for both use within the archives and for use in the Imperial Library of Vistaraland and the Imperial University of Port Molebaai.
FTCS
Developed from a free service offered on the Dyf'ul.ka, the Family Tree Creation Software, often simply referred to as the FTCS or - as a victim of RAS syndrome - FTCS Software was released as a stand-alone proprietary software for a number of Operating Systems, as well as later a mobile app. It was first released on the Kæra State Operating System (K-SOS) in September 2004, with later releases for other Operating Systems being released throughout 2004 and 2005. The software was relatively popular, becoming the standard for all genealogy software due to its user-friendly interface and interconnectivity with the company's websites.
Notes
- ↑ While Dyf'ul.ka formally presents themselves as private and independent from the Kæra Government, such is of a controversial nature.
- ↑ In Kæra'zna, surnames are Honorific, with those used in this article equating to the State-Assigned address based upon Gender and Social Class, it is not specified whether or not the creators of Dyfulka are blood related, being more likely both were simply born into the same Social Class and identify as neither Male or Female.