Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

True Legislation; Added Support of California

PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 28 -- True today announced that California is the sixth state to commit to its ground-breaking initiative to implement legislation to protect online daters from interacting with sexual predators and convicted criminals. The campaign, which started in Texas last year, has gained support in states across the country, including Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Michigan.

Mark Brooks: If the legislation passes, competitors will have to prominently state that they don't do background checks on their sites.  Very smart PR campaign...seems to be getting more traction than even the CEO, Herb Vest, expected.

TheFaceBook; Business, Casual

HARVARD CRIMSON -- Feb 26 -- They wanted to make a website that would connect the Harvard campus with $1k startup money. They didn't anticipate meeting the CEOs of Friendster and Google—or that they would take time off Harvard to share a house in Silicon Valley with the co-founder of Napster, Sean Parker. TheFacebook.com serves 1.5 million. Zuckerberg estimates he’s been to 40 meals with interested VC's and other companies, like Google, to discuss investment. Advertising income exceeds their operating costs; $50k monthly server costs and salaries for eight employees. “We’re in a really interesting place because if you look at the assets we have, we’re fucking rich,” says Zuckerberg. “But if you look at like the cash and the amount of money we have to live with, we’re dirt poor." ConnectU filed suit in September '04 charging that Zuckerberg used their source code, business model, and original ideas to build TheFaceBook. Normally investors shy away from companies facing a federal lawsuit, but Peter Thiel—co-founder of PayPal—was willing to take the risk. FULL ARTICLE @ CRIMSON

Mark Brooks: Peter Thiel, Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle were the power triage (smart money) involved with Friendster as Jonathan moved from homespun startup to VC darling.  (I worked with Friendster when Jonathan was working out of his apartment).  Ram and Tim are also on Plaxo's board.

Relationships Aren’t What They Used to Be

PRWEB -- Feb 26 -- The way we look at ourselves as part of a relationship has evolved. Until the 1970’s, it was inconceivable that a woman would have a baby without being married, unheard of that she would have one without a partner. Yet in 2003, 43% of single women polled in a Match.com survey say they would consider having a child without a husband or romantic partner.  FULL RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: Less marriages, more singles, higher divorce rates.  Less babies, older first time parents.  First marriages later in life.  The institution of marriage seems more and more disenfranchised.  What's next?  Are casual, finite relationships the way of the future?  Should we admit there is no 'one,' rather, three or four 'ones' that we are supposed to be with in our lifetimes?

Friendster; Student Barred From School

INQ7 -- Feb 26 -- A 15-year-old student was barred from school after she admitted that she, and two classmates, created an account for their "enemy" at "Friendster.com," where they wrote testimonials full of obscenities and vulgarities maligning her reputation.

Mark Brooks: Friendster discourages and removes 'Fakesters.'  Anonymity anon.  Unlike online dating sites, anonymity is not allowed on Friendster.  A factor that makes the Friendster service seem more 'safe.' 

Kurzweils Law and Friendster

ZDNET AUSTRALIA -- Feb 24 -- Which will have a greater impact on the history of humanity--Friendster or penicillin? Coined by futurist Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil's Law, otherwise known as the Law of Accelerating Returns, states that building on past accomplishments, the pace of technological change doubles every decade--leading to a Moore's Law vision of progress.  Early stages of technology--the wheel, fire, stone tools--took tens of thousands of years to evolve and be widely deployed. A thousand years ago, a paradigm shift such as the printing press took on the order of a century to be widely deployed. Today, major paradigm shifts, such as cell phones and the World Wide Web, were widely adopted in only a few years time.  The social networking site Friendster debuted in 2002. Penicillin was invented in 1928.  FULL ARTICLE @ ZDNET

Mark Brooks: We have yet to see the best of Friendster.

Park Place Singles Offers Columbus Singles a Safer Way to Meet

PRWEB -- Feb 24 -- If you’re married, you can’t join. They check.  Park Place Singles was formed to accommodate Columbus singles through fun and relaxed events. Many of the members like having the ability to communicate and network with other members through an interactive ‘member’s only’ website. Peace of mind is an added benefit. Through a National Background check, Park Place screens all applicants for marital status and any felony or other reported convictions that may have been of a physically violent or threatening nature.  FULL RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: True popularized background checks for simples and now the idea is morphing over to 'real world' singles clubs. 

UK Mobile Communities Roundtable

NMK -- Feb 24 -- Match Mobile users are urban, younger, of a lower socio-economic base, and (in the US) more from the immigrant population, with Match Mobile growing at a rate of 15% per month.  The most favoured mobile content applications, according to recent Enpocket research in the UK: Sharing pictures with friends and family7 – 46%, Making / receiving video calls – 36%, Downloading songs -23%, Video clip of sports highlights – 20%, Text flirting / dating – 16%, Watching movie trailers – 12%, Help in managing a diet – 11%, Celeb news / gossip – 9%.  There are 52 million handsets and 60 million people in the UK. China has 350 million handsets and 300 million texts a month are sent in Singapore and the Philippines.  overall, Japan and Korea are 2-3 years ahead of the UK, who are in turn about 1-2 years ahead of the US. 

MSN Viral Campaign Mentions True

MEDIADAILYNEWS -- Feb 24 -- MSN will supplement its massive TV, radio and Web ad campaign for its new search service with a viral campaign dubbed “MSN Found” built around six fictional bloggers who collect MSN Search results, also links to phenomenon like exploding whales.  42 Entertainment will be creating viral programs to promote the search engine.  msnfound.com collects all the blogs together.  Several of the blogs also mention the dating site True; MSN declined to comment on any relationship with the dating service by publication time.  FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA DAILY NEWS

Mark Brooks: MSN is (currently) partnered with Match.com for MSN Match.  Denise is the blogger in question.  "Age: 31, Occupation: I own my own local dating service, True.  Drooling over: The new True dating questionnaire. Talk about soulful!"

Match Launches Happen Magazine

PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 23 -- For the first time 80 million singles have a magazine of their own.  Match.com today announced the online launch of Happen Magazine www.happenmagazine.com focused exclusively on dating and relationships. Happen Magazine will be free until April 2005. After that full access by subscription or as part of a Match.com subscription.

Mark Brooks: Ahem...  Mary Spio is hooked into Hollywood and launched the first quality, glossy singles magazine One2One Living; Started in 2002, now has 178,000 distribution. 

Lycos Launches Dating Search

PRNEWSWIRE -- Feb 23 -- Lycos Dating Search www.datingsearch.lycos.com allows users to browse results from iMatchup.com, LoveAccess, Matchmaker, Tickle and True all in one place.  "Rather than searching on many different dating sites, online date seekers can now quickly narrow the available field of prospective matches on Lycos Dating Search.  We also reintroduced Lycos the dog and the familiar 'Go Get It' slogan," said Adam Soroca, GM Search Services.  50% of online daters evaluate more than one dating site during any given month. 

Mark Brooks: From an end user perspective this is a great service.  But, does Lycos Dating Search commoditize the online dating sites involved?  If many more sites jump on this bandwagon Lycos will be on to an extremely good thing. 

College; Internet Dating Expedites Meeting Process

SACRAMENTO STATE -- Feb 23 -- Online personals have become an alternative for college students looking for a more objective way to find dates.  Everybody should be familiar with the phrase “you get what you pay for.” Internet dating is no exception to this rule.

The Story of Money, Love and Friendster

ABS-CBN NEWS -- Feb 22 -- Friendster endured three CEO's during 2004 and has seen a spate of senior executives depart in recent weeks.  New CEO Scott Sassa "has figured out how to make a business of this," said John Doerr (VC Google, Amazon). Doerr said they would announce a partnership deal in February and "reach profitability within the next 90 days."  Friendster has 16 million registered users, MySpace has 7.6 million.  5x people visited MySpace as Friendster in December and they spent far more time there (Friendster - 17 mins, MySpace - 78 mins) according to Nielsen/NetRatings.  According to MediaMetrix, MySpace logged 2 billion+ page views last month compared to 152 million page views at Friendster.  "Unique visitors and page views drive revenues, not registered users," said MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. MySpace now hosts sites for 110,000 musicians. Users IM, play games, contribute to blogs or browse events.  Geoffrey Yang, VC with Redpoint Ventures, said he is days away from investing in MySpace; "these guys in a sense are trying to be an MTV for the Internet."  Marissa Mayer, who manages Orkut, acknowledged that it and Friendster have "similar capabilities and similar limitations." 

Mark Brooks: Friendster has been out-Friendstered.  What has Scott Sassa got up his sleeve?  Your comments please?

Match.com; Senior Singles

WINSTON-SALEM JOURNAL -- Feb 20 -- You were dating when Paul McCartney was a young rocker. Now you're dating again and he's an icon, which is what you are when you're 62 and still get to rock the halftime show at the Super Bowl.  Match.com reports that memberships for ages 50 and over boomed by 322% from 2000 to 2003 and that about 10% of their total members are over 50. Older singles told a Match.com survey that intelligence is the most important personal characteristic, followed by fidelity, confidence and humor. 

Mark Brooks: SeniorFriendFinder is the category leader.  Spark Networks runs SilverSingles

Online Community Under Question; Pioneer Blogger Quits After 11 Years

SFGATE -- Feb 20 -- For 11 years, father of blogging, Justin Hall documented his life online at www.links.net.  Then he released a short film, "Dark Night."  Hall speaks directly into the camera.  He is visibly upset, crying at several points.  "What if intimacy happens in quiet moments?" he said. "I think the Web makes me not alone and I feed it my intimacies, and the Web is my constant connection to something larger than myself ... but what if something you do, something you practice like religion as a dialogue with the divine, drives people away from you?"  Hall's dramatic statement fits the scale of his endeavor.  He was one of the most committed advocates for the bonding powers of interactive, web-based writings. But now, his sudden expression of doubt over the Internet's ability to foster intimacy marks a huge change in attitude from the one expressed in work over the past decade and shows that his philosophy may be evolving with the medium in which he works."  FULL ARTICLE @ SFGATE

Mark Brooks: This seemed a little off topic for OPW at first glance, but there's a very powerful and important message here...  Online 'community' is a facade.  Community only comes into a truly fulfilling existence when people actually meet in the real world.  The promise of online personals sites > to put compatible people in front of each other, in the real world.  Your comments please...

MySpace Spammer Arrested

LA TIMES -- Feb 19 -- Spimmer arrested for broadcasting 1.5 million instant messenger ads on MySpace.com for pornography and cheap mortgages.  Federal prosecutors said it was the first criminal case involving this new form of spam — known as "spim."  Anthony Greco, 18, was arrested at LAX, where prosecutors lured him from his upstate New York home for a bogus meeting with MySpace president.  Greco had threatened to tell other spammers how he sent the unsolicited instant messages to MySpace users if he wasn't given an exclusive marketing contract with MySpace, which has 9 million users.  about 1% of traffic on AOL Instant Messenger is spim.  Greco, faces 18 years in prison if convicted.  He was released under a $25,000 bond.

Willing to Buy a Little Help in Finding Love

TORONTO STAR -- Feb 19 -- It's Just Lunch is a growing operation with annual revenue of more than $30 million, 70-odd franchises, and plans to expand all over the world.  Websites like match.com and lavalife are reportedly runaway successes and business darlings.  Tory Howat started Equal Chemistry in 2004 after deciding to turn her knack of knowing who would love whom into a business. The focus of her business is fitness: those people who are serious about sport and training (therefore have something in common right away).  FULL ARTICLE @ THE STAR

Mark Brooks: Many predicted the demis of traditional dating services with the rise of online personals.  Both seem to be faring well. 

A Date With Faith

HOUSTON CHRONICLE -- Feb 18 -- Thanks to everything from faith-based Internet dating sites to 1,000-member singles groups within congregations, spiritually minded solos across the country are looking to religion for love.  "It's not always so easy when you're single, so it gives them some common ground," said Diana Howard who estimates she has about 2,200 people on her Jewish Community Center singles mailing list. Faith is also an important factor for online daters at Soulmatch. Since launching in mid-2004, the site has picked up 100,000 users president Sujay Jhaveri.

Mark Brooks: Faith based sites represent one of the strongest online personals verticals.  Bigchurch, JDate, ChristianMingle and ChristianCafe.com are the market leaders.

Meet a Real-Life Hitch

USA TODAY -- Feb 17 -- Charges run the gamut - $45 for an e-mail, up to $250 for a phone consultation and as much as $1,500 for face-to-face meetings over a period of time.  Some will shadow a date and film the encounters to show their clients where they erred. Others take the Hitch approach and will even tutor on-the-spot with clever comebacks as they go to the grocery store or on errands with their clients.  David Wygant, for $10,000, will even move in for the weekend and provide 24/7 access to his wisdom for the next three months.  Dating gurus say well-educated professionals who are accomplished in the workplace but haven't found the same rewards in their personal lives seem to be the most in need of advice.

Mark Brooks: And why not.  Choosing the right 'one' is the most important decision a person can make.  Pays to make a good decision.  Costly to make a bad decision.  Online personals companies are leaving money on the table, it would appear.  In time we'll see more and more premium service emerge as online personals customers demand more and more.  eHarmony charges $50 a month.  Tip of the iceberg!

Japanese Alleged Offenses Tied to Online Dating Fell 9.2% in 2004

KYODO NEWS -- Feb 17 -- Alleged Japanese offenses related to online dating fell 9.2% in 2004 from the previous year to 1,582, while the number of victims younger than 18 in these cases dropped 15.1% to 1,085, reported the National Police Agency.  The declines were partly attributed to the introduction of a new law in September 2003 that bans online dating websites for soliciting sex involving minors.  The report showed that 96% of the victims accessed dating sites via mobile phones.  Warnings were issued to 47 website operators; cited for violations such as failing to stipulate that the sites were intended for adults. Prefectural authorities did not order any website operator to change their content.  FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO ASIA

Mark Brooks: 96% of the victims accessed the dating sites via mobile phones!?!

Jambo Software Seeks Out Casual Connections

ZDNET -- Feb 16 -- Jambo Networks users start by registering and building a profile via the company's Web site. Tell Jambo anything you might want other folks to know, such as your alma mater, occupation or musical tastes, then Jambo assigns you an ID number and provides software that works with a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wireless networking connection.  Jambo contracts with organizations such as universities, trade show organizers and Wi-Fi hot-spot providers to sponsor its service in a given area. The software alerts users when someone with similar interests is within wireless range and starts an instant messager. "We'd love to partner with someone like Match.com," Jim Young said.  FULL ARTICLE @ ZDNET INDIA

Mark Brooks: WiFi users will love this idea!  Proximity based matching will be huge fun, and huge business one day.