Watch out Facebook: FamilyHQ Comes Through

A Gold Coast couple is making moves over Facebook and Microsoft is behind them all the way.

FamilyHQ: a website that allows family members to connect by sharing photos and videos, communicate through live messages, instant chats and a family message board. And soon the site will be able to create a family tree.

Even though the site isn’t going to be launched in Sydney for two weeks, they already have 1,000 people signed up from 10 different countries.

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The couple Jase and Brooke Farmer began developing the site back in 2007 and recently had it valued at $10 million by an independent accountancy firm.

The Farmers are hoping to amass 500,000 members by the end of 2012. The main difference between FamilyHQ and Facebook is that it does not leave a “digital footprint” over the internet.

“If you searched on Google you would not be able to find your profile,” Mr. Farmer said.

“We do not claim any copyright ownership of any photos and we do not plan to. Everything is privately stored and secured for each user.”

The site was developed on the Microsoft Cloud platform Windows Azure and it quickly caught the attention of Microsoft bosses. The website is now part of Microsoft Partner Network.

“Our friends think we are crazy for putting our money on the line,” Mr. Farmer said. “But we would like to be a Gold Coast success story, so we will see how it turns out.”