39. Ancestry.com
U.S. 2010 digital revenue: $230 million
Snapshot: More than one million people pay as much as $159 a year to access Ancestry’s archive of digitized historical records, which they typically use to build family trees. The company routinely also makes waves for its genealogical discoveries. (Example: Strom Thurmond was related to Al Sharpton). An unusual competitor is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which makes available a huge collection of genealogical records — for free — on FamilySearch.org.
Key digital move in 2010: Ancestry.com, which went public in late 2009, made several acquisitions, picking up iArchives in September and Swedish family history site Genline in June.
How we generated our estimate: The publicly reported company said sales were $300 million in 2010. About 25 percent of its sales come from abroad.
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