Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

The Internet's New Social Order

THE NEWS FACTOR -- JAN 26 -- Web sites specifically built to put people in touch with one another -- are booming in terms of participation and new services. Whether you are looking for social chatter, dating, gaming, or networking with other professionals, the Internet has the forum for it, and it has become both easy and fast to acquaint yourself with like-minded people. The communities are becoming so popular that some wonder whether they could fundamentally alter the way humans interact with each other. In addition to the networking behemoth MySpace, which currently has 47.3 million members, there's Friendster, The Well, Tribe Networks, and Bebo. Smaller sites that specialize in just a few topics are springing up, too, like Yelp, an online community devoted to chat about local watering holes and entertainment.  Dating online seems even easier thanks to aggressive recruitment efforts by sites like eHarmony and Match.com; both claim eight million and credit for thousands of marriages.  FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS FACTOR

TroopNet is Friendster for Soldiers

WEB PRO NEWS -- JAN 26 -- An online community for American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, called TroopNet, went live last Monday. Sponsored by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America organization, the website is modeled after popular social-networking sites Friendster and MySpace exclusively for the troops and veterans of those wars.  FULL ARTICLE @ WEB PRO NEWS

Searching for Love (With Conditions)

THE NEWSQUEST HERALD -- Jan 27 -- Loveandfriends.com as well as Ivorytowers.net are just two sites where professionals can meet similarly able, cultured and thoughtful souls. Other suitor-specific websites include dating agencies for vegans, farmers, volunteers or bikers. With predictions of 16 million single men and women in the UK by 2010, professional matchmaking continues to boom.  "At present there is no legislation for internet sites and it is completely unregulated. Members of the public on the whole are much safer with introduction agencies, because more checks are made." Other sites mentioned include: CSV Make a Difference, Gothic Souls, Association of British Introduction Agencies, Biker Dating, Veggie Romance, Marriage Bureau, Match.com, Parship. 

Sex.com Owner Sells Domain

Gary Kremen has just sold sex.com for $14m.  Now he intends to spend his time recovering the $65m he is still owed by the con-man who stole the domain 10 years ago.  FULL ARTICLE @ THE REGISTER

Mark Brooks: Kremen founded Match.com and sold it to Cendant in 1997. 

TheMeetery.com Takes Online Dating Off the Web

PR WEB -- Jan 25 -- TheMeetery.com will host a singles event at The Sandbar, Brielle, NJ in conjunction with WADB-AM Radio 1310.  TheMeetery.com is a new and unique online approach to finding someone to meet and finding somewhere to eat.  The Sandbar will offer a complimentary buffet.  RELEASE @ PR WEB

Online Social Networking Keeps Friends Together

ECOMMERCE TIMES-- Jan 26 -- The Internet  and e-mail help to expand and strengthen the social ties that people maintain in the offline world, according to a new report released today by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.  The report, "The Strength of Internet Ties," highlights how e-mail supplements, rather than replaces, the communication people have with others in their network.  The study concludes that one major payoff comes when people use the Internet to press their social networks into action. With the help of the Internet, people are able to maintain active contact with sizable social networks, even though many of the people in those networks do not live close to them.  FULL ARTICLE @ ECOMMERCE TIMES

Mark Brooks: I'm surprised we haven't seen a social network adopt PIM/CRM (Personal Information Manager/Customer Relationship Manager) functionality yet.  Power users (i.e. 'connectors') need more tools for organizing their considerable networks. 

The Dating Revolution Cleans up its Act

THE NEWSQUEST HERALD -- Jan 26 -- This month a survey - by a British subsidiary of Europe's largest dating service which has more than 1.5 million members - reported that 3.6 million Britons used online dating services last year. That represents 65% of the 5.4 million Britons who are looking for a relationship, according to parship.co.uk. Not only are more people looking online for love but the mechanics of doing so have also improved enormously. A few of the UK's top websites; Datingdirect  promises "your next date is just a click away...", LoveandFriends provides "internet dating for thinking people", FriendsReunitedDating has "thousands looking for genuine relationships". Mysinglefriend.com has 15,000 members; a friend can register their single friend who then has a chance to look over, approve and add comments to the description before it goes live.  Or a single person can nominate themselves, ask a friend to describe them and, again, approve the description and add any comments before it goes online. 

Mark Brooks: The European online dating market is hot; growing at the same fast clip as the American market 2-3 three years ago.

'Internet Casanova' to Appear in Court Today on Theft Charges

MIAMI HERALD -- Jan 19 -- Ivan Urquiza, 35, is set to appear this morning in a Fort Lauderdale courtroom on grand theft and identity theft charges stemming from a 2004 Broward Sheriff's Office investigation that landed the Miami man the nickname 'Internet Casanova.' 

Internet Dating User Films Dates

FOX 7 -- Jan 26 -- 33-year-old Matthew Ferguson used Match.com; the registered sex offender is accused of videotaping sex with 18 women at his San Marcos apartment. He was removed from Match.com after he was arrested in December. Match.com emphasized that safety of their members is their number-one priority, and that there are several safety tips available online for concerned members.  FULL STORY @ FOX 7

Plentyoffish Radio Ad

Jan 29 -- Plentyoffish.com is advertising on radio in 17 cities in the USA and on TV in Canada!?!  Here's an old Canadian radio spot fyi.  Their revenue comes entirely from advertising, mostly from Google ad spots.  - Mark Brooks  (btw, this is the 1000th post on OPW)

SoThere.com

Jan 28 -- A friend of mine, Jenifer Jourdanne, has been running this unique site since 1998.  So There, 'It's About Closure,' publishes closure love letters, daily. - Mark Brooks

Unicast Veteran To Launch Social Site For Women

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Jan 25 -- Sisterwoman, slated to launch by March, is targeting women ages 28 to 50--closer to iVillage's demographic than to MySpace's younger crowd. Visitors will be encouraged to create closed circles of friends as well as open hobby- and location-based circles. Savarino, who helped launch the streaming media company Unicast, believes that advertisers and publishers are just now catching on to women's unique Internet usage habits.  FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

Mark Brooks: iVillage advertising is among the most premium priced on the net today. 

Looking for Love in London?

RESPONSE SOURCE -- Jan 24 -- SnogLondon presents the opportunity to really find out about the person behind the profile. Through the use of interesting and fun questions including “dream dinner guests”, “if I could be any animal for a day, I would be…” and “in my bedroom you will find…” as well as profile content specific to London; for example favourite venues, best & worst things about living in London etc, which allow subscribers to learn more about each other. Individuals can also engage in online games such as “Blind Date”; and “Who Wrote That?” where members match profiles and photographs to quotes. RELEASE @ RESPONSE SOURCE

Mark Brooks: Other sites in their niche network include Over50sRomance, VeggieRomance, YogaRomance, GothicSouls, OtherSingleParents

O2 Partners with Enpocket and Time Out to provide Time Out Dating

NEW MEDIA KNOWLEDGE -- Jan 18 -- The partnership will enable singles to search for dates and chat with other singles using their i-mode phones. The site will offer mobile consumers access to thousands of profiles of like-minded individuals on its i-mode site from £3 per month.

Mark Brooks: Enpocket built Match.com's mobile app.  Match mobile users can search a database of a couple hundred thousand other match mobile users. Match made the decision to spend less on the initial application development which does not allow the Match mobile users access to the millions strong
entire Match.com database of users.  Webdate allows access to the full database.  A distinct advantage

Sprint Launches Three New Mobile Chat Services

BUSINESS WIRE -- Jan 24 -- Sprint announced the availability of Jumbuck Island from Jumbuck Entertainment, The Lounges from AirG, and Webdate Mobile from Trilibis Mobile for Sprint PCS Vision and Sprint Power Vision subscribers. Each service features an exclusive element available only through Sprint.

Mark Brooks: Internet dating takes a sizable time commitment.  Mobile services allow users more convenience and freedom.  Webdate Mobile is the leading mobile dating application allowing users to search a database 5 million strong.  Webdate is 'channel agnostic.' 

Userplane Provides Video Chat and IM to Dating Sites in UK

BUSINESS WIRE -- Jan 24 -- According to Britain's TimesOnline, a survey reported 65% of U.K. singles have used an Internet dating service. Userplane is now providing its apps to: Single2Couple.com, Face-pic.com, TotallyJewishDating.com, Christiansuk.com, PartyFlirt.co.uk.  "We have recently seen a rapid embrace of online social networking and online dating in Europe," said Michael Jones, co-founder and CEO, Userplane. "Many of our European clients are actually seeing faster growth than their US counterparts."  Jones will participate in the annual meeting of IDEA OASIS, a not-for-profit association for the Online Dating and Social Networking industries, on February 3rd at the Internet Dating Conference in Miami. Jones is a founding board member of the organization.

iDate2006 Online Ticketing Available Through Friday

Jan 26 -- Online Registration for iDate2006 has been extended one day.  Register before Friday, January 27^th 5pm EST and save $100.  See you there - Mark Brooks

Hotel Rooms Available at Wyndham for iDate2006; Next Week

Jan 25 -- Some rooms have freed up.  You can call Wyndham Miami Beach Resort, (4833 Collins Avenue, Miami) at 305-532-3600.

Yahoo's Social Circle

YAHOO FINANCE -- Jan 23 -- Yahoo is on a quiet acquisitions tear. First, it snapped up photo-sharing site Flickr in March. In December, it acquired del.icio.us, a service that bookmarks and shares users' favorite Web sites. And on Jan. 6, Yahoo purchased WebJay, a site for creating and sharing music playlists. By cultivating online communities -- and encouraging people to tap into the collective knowledge of these groups -- Yahoo is hoping to change the way people find information online. Known in industry parlance as "social search," it presents a significant departure from the Google approach, which relies on complicated mathematical models to help users find sites.  Social search gleans input and preferences from the communities which searchers are associated with. Someone seeking "Mexican restaurants," for instance, would arguably be better served by results reflecting preferences of people in the same neighborhood. It could represent a monumental shift in search technology. Google has done far less than Yahoo in the arena of online community building. Google's long-term bet remains on using computing horsepower.  Startup Eurekster hit the market first with its social search technology in early 2004. Jeteye Technologies and Kaboodle followed.  Yahoo is applying social search on a limited basis in its My Web 2.0 beta product. "Social search is not one of these things that will take off overnight," says Forrester Research analyst Charlene Li. "It will take a lot of time to build." 

Mark Brooks: At the core of social search, Yahoo is attempting to capture and bottle 'friendly referrals/recommendations.'  Wouldn't you rather get a referral/recommendation from a friend?  This is groundbreaking work. Yahoo may well apply the social search spin to Yahoo Personals.  They have the critical mass to make this work. A great differentiator that plays to Yahoo's size.  Friendster tried it.  Yahoo has the usership clout to make social search really fly for online personals.  Check out Yahoo's Web 2.0 Search. 

Lonely Kenyan Singletons

BBC NEWS -- Jan 24 -- Many young urban Kenyans are finding it hard to meet a partner because of changing lifestyles. "We never used to approach men, we waited at home. They were able to identify a good girl and then finally in that situation you waited to be asked to be married." For Claire, the modern way of meeting her man has so far failed. Enter Lovepot.com  FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS