Research Outline

Missing Persons Software

Goals

To validate a new potential business idea by determining the market need and competitive landscape for missing persons software.

Early Findings

Missing Persons Software Market Need

  • The missing persons software market is currently distinct from the more established global industry for lost and found software, which primarily focuses on lost goods in the airlines and hotels businesses.
  • However, the need for software specifically focused on finding missing persons remains large and growing.
  • According to the FBI and the National Crime Information Center, the incidence of abductions and/or missing persons has grown by 444% in the past 20 years.
  • Notably, 90% of all missing persons are children, and these missing person reports for minors amount to approximately 797,000 per year, 2,185 per day or 1 every 40 seconds in the US.
  • While very few (1 in 10,000) missing children are not found alive, a much higher percentage (2 in 20) of those involved in familiy abductions are not found alive.
  • In all of these cases, timing is considered critical in ensuring the safety of an abducted person, given that 74% of deaths due to abduction take place within three hours.

Missing Persons Software Market Competitors