RealAge is a division of Sharecare that provides health information to consumers. The stated mission of RealAge is to encourage consumers to maximize their health and wellness by making their "RealAge" younger. It was founded by Michael Roizen, currently the chief wellness officer at The Cleveland Clinic. In the RealAge Test, users typically fill out a questionnaire about their health history, which is then used to generate personalized content, including highly targeted advertisements. Most revenue comes from pharmaceutical companies paying to advertise their drugs to individuals who have taken the website test and become members. RealAge has fueled five New York Times #1 best-selling books, including RealAge: Are You as Young as You Can Be?, which has been promoted by Oprah Winfrey. RealAge was owned by Hearst Magazines, which purchased it for an estimated $60 million to $70 million in 2007, when the company had $20 million in revenue. As of 2009, the company was profitable, making its money from pharmaceutical companies for which it compiles test results of RealAge members to whom it sends highly targeted marketing messages by e-mail. On March 8, 2012, Sharecare acquired RealAge for an undisclosed amount.
The RealAge Test
The RealAge Test has reputedly been taken by over 42 million people since 1999. The RealAge Test measures what is referred to as the "real age" of the test taker's body based on a questionnaire pertaining to how well he or she maintains their physical health. The RealAge concept suggests that what they call calendar age reflects a test-taker's age since birth, while their RealAge Test gauges the physiological age of the body and provides the true rate of an individual's aging. Through RealAge, Sharecare features a large number of supplementary health-risk evaluations that generate sets of proposals for individual users wellness regimes. Users of the site are given access to advice, articles, blogs, and advice aimed to improve their lifestyle choices and consumer habits, which purportedly will lower a person's "RealAge."
