Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

British Children to Get Happiness Lessons

YAHOO NEWS -- July 28 -- Some 2,000 pupils at English state schools are to have special classes in happiness under a pilot scheme aimed at cutting depression, self-harm and anti-social behaviour.  Lessons will include role play designed to help children build up self-esteem, challenge negative ways of thinking and express thoughts clearly. "They will also be shown special breathing exercises to keep them calm when their parents are arguing and avoid blaming themselves for situations that are beyond their control, for example, the fact their parents may be divorcing."

Mark Brooks: As leaders of online dating (and social networking) services, you can directly impact the divorce rates, and more importantly the mental well being of the next generation. Better matches, happier kids, happier human race. So the theory goes, anyway. Your comments please.

Shades of Change Felt across U.S.

STAR TRIBUNE -- July 28 -- The average American today, young or old, is 70% more likely than a generation ago to count a person of another race among his two or three best friends, according to an article in the current issue of American Sociological Review. The highest U.S. share of multiracial children is in Minneapolis. In 1992, 9% of 18- and 19-year-olds said they were dating someone of a different race. Ten years later, the figure was 20%, according to a 2005 (Grace Kao, University Pennsylvania and Kara Joyner, Cornell). In 1992, 9% of 20 to 29-year-old Americans were living with people of different races. A decade later, 16%. In 1980, 1.3% of U.S. marriages were interracial, according to the Census Bureau. By 2002, 3%. The pace of change varies by race, with Asians and Hispanics seeing more change than blacks. In 1990, two-thirds of Americans polled said they opposed having a close relation or family member marry a black person. That's dropped to about one-third. More integrated workplaces also have a lot to do with it.

Mark Brooks: Nice to see society is progressing along. Check out one of my favorite niche sites Interracialmatch.com. My first girlfriend was Persian (4 years). I've dated a Chinese girl (4 years), a Colombian girl (2 years) and an African American girl since then. Many singles find those of other races more attractive and appealing. Check out Friendfinder's sites AsiaFriendFinder, FilipinoFriendFinder and Amigos which actively caters to those interested in interracial relationships. WorldSingles.com offers ArabLounge, HyeSingles and IranianPersonals. Community Connect has been hugely successful with BlackPlanet, AsianAvenue and MiGente. An Indian friend advised me that he found it frustrating being on one of the major dating sites because he only wanted to communicate with women who were interested in meeting Indian guys. Reverse search was what he needed. i.e. He wanted to find the women who noted in their profiles that they were interested in Indian guys. Does your site offer reverse search?

European Social Networking and Mobile Dating Conference to be Held September 25-26 in Amsterdam

PR WEB -- July 27 -- Attending the event will be senior executives from all aspects of the European online dating industry and social networking industry, as well as executives from wireless telecommunication firms, SMS companies, software companies, marketing firms and entrepreneurs. Speakers at this event include executives from companies and organizations such as: Neu.de, Parship, FriendScout, Online Personals Watch, Plutolife, ComScore Media Metrix, Jupiter Research, playtxt, Wirenode, Kenet Works, 24/7 Real Media, Relationeering and Flytxt. Some topics include: current European online dating market size, EU social networking trends and future, European marketing for the personals business, social networking in the Baltic States, mobile dating, mobile marketing for communities, outsourcing, programming and coding for mobile communities, and mobile software development. See InternetDatingConferennce.com, iDate 2006 holds the largest industry events for the online dating and social networking industry. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Tech Companies Hope to Cash in on Web 2.0

STAR TELEGRAM -- July 23 -- Swahili for "hello," Jambo Networks is one of many companies trying to stand out in the increasingly crowded world of online social networking.  A kind of wireless matchmaker.  Jambo's software turns laptops and other Wi-Fi-enabled devices into a radar for nearby people who share common interests. Jambo.net is working on partnering with those sites and sharing in the revenue. Other location-based social networks include Meetro.com and Plazes.com and Dodgeball.com. A couple of Jambo deals will probably be announced this summer.  Jambo is raising venture funding and preparing to expand Jambo's capability to Bluetooth-enabled gadgets.

 
Mark Brooks: Jambo wants to partner with the online dating industry...big time. Seems like the perfect match. But, who will move first. Someone (dating site/socialnetwork) has to push this service to critical mass, then it will be very valuable and useful. So far they've been demoing the technology at conventions.

House Bill Blocks Social Networks, Chat Rooms

MARKETING VOX -- July 28 -- The House of Representatives rushed through and overwhelmingly approved a bill that could ban not only MySpace but also Amazon, Slashdot, LinkedIn and other sites from schools and libraries. The bill makes "chat rooms" and "social networking sites" inaccessible to minors who use terminals at publicly funded libraries and schools. But the bill's language is imprecise enough to categorize other sites among the censored - those that allow users to post profiles, include personal information and allow "communication among users," for example. The Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) - leaves it up to the FCC to define. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Mark Brooks: Let's see if it gets any further. It will still need to be approved by the Senate I believe.

Starbucks Mobile Promo

MARKETING VOX -- July 28 -- Participants in the promotion - the "Starbucks Summer Pursuit" quiz and sweepstakes - receive SMS questions and reply via text or by sending a picture of the answer. Starbucks is supporting the promotion with keyword buys, outdoor advertising, invitations distributed at stores and events, and an email blast to some two million Starbucks fans. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Mark Brooks: Starbucks ran a promotion with Yahoo Personals last Valentines. I wonder if they'll team up and run a mobile promo for their singles audience. There's an incredible synergy between top level brands Starbucks and Yahoo Personals. I hope we'll see more. 

Social Networks' Online Ad Revs to Near $2B in 2010

MARKETING VOX -- July 26 -- As social networking sites grow in popularity not only with users but also advertisers, they will begin to attract hundreds of millions in ad spend, and soon surpass the $1 billion mark. U.S. advertisers will spend some $280 million on social networking sites this year (mostly to create profile pages and sponsored promotions), or 1.7% of total U.S. online advertising spend. By 2010, social networking sites are projected to take in $1.86 billion, or 6.3% of all U.S. online advertising. MySpace is estimated to garner $180 million in U.S. ad revenue this year. Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report "Social Network Marketing: Carving Out MySpace said,"user-generated content and word-of-mouth are two big buzzwords right now in online marketing, and social networks give marketers an opportunity to experiment with both."  The average CPM is a mere 10c on MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Apple, Facebook Partner for iTunes Music Giveaway

MARKETING VOX -- July 26 -- Apple will provide up to 250 million songs to Facebook users who are members of the site's Apple's group page, which now has some 130,000 members. Apple will run banner ads on Facebook to inform users of the promotion. Apple will send a redemption code to group members to download each week's "sampler." FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Friendster Strengthens Executive Team

PR NEWSWIRE -- July 27 -- Friendster today announced the appointment of Aaron Barnes to VP Sales (Quote.com, WhenU, Looksmart), Chander Sarna to VP engineering and operations (Siebel Systems, Greenlight.com, Netscape, Intel), and Josh Hannah to its board of directors (Benchmark Capital).  Friendster recently reached an all-time high on Alexa.com with a sub-30 ranking.

Man Shocked His Photo is Part of Online Dating Scam

9 NEWS -- July 26 -- A software programmer and former model discovered that his picture was used for an online dating scam. "It's an off-shoot of the original Nigerian scam," according to Lon Garner of the Secret Service. The original scam asked people to invest in oil and gas and evolved into sweepstakes-type scams where you had to send in money to win. This new version of the scam targets online dating sites. If you're registered with online dating and someone asks you for money, experts say you should hit delete. If you have what you think is this type of mailing, where someone asks you for money, send the information to the U.S. Secret Service in Denver. Tel: 303-866-1010.

Mark Brooks: I'm still amazed people get duped into sending money...but the scammers are expert at playing on people's heart strings, which makes these kind of scams all the more brutal. The emotional damage can be as bad and worse than the financial hurt. Please, users, follow the simple rule. DON'T SEND MONEY TO PEOPLE THAT YOU HAVE ONLY MET ONLINE. (Especially if they are abroad, especially if they write in broken English).  And don't receive and forward packages. Case in point, Joe Hunk asks unwitting Debbie Dating Site User to forward a laptop to him in Nigeria because his business computer just failed...after a couple of months of romancing by instant messenger. She thinks nothing of it and forwards the package only to find it was bought on a stolen credit card and she, as the receiver, is now liable for the laptop. 

IncrediMail Co-Brand with Yahoo Personals!

BUSINESS WIRE -- July 26 -- "IncrediMail Personals provided by Yahoo! Personals," has launched. IncrediMail has a 10 million-strong active daily user base.

Mark Brooks: I'm surprised I haven't seen more cobranding deals of late. They make a lot of sense.  Two trusted brands in combination is a potent combination for improving conversions. Far better than straight advertising deals.

How to Market to India Online

MARKETING SHERPA -- July 25 -- With 1.1 billion people, India is second to China in terms of population, and its gross national income per capita remains low at $630 US for 2004. While Hindi is the country's national language (the government recognizes 22 languages), India has the second largest population of English speakers in the world -- more than 150 million. More than 500 million Indians are under age 21. The median age is 24.6 vs 30 in China, 36 in the US and 38 in the UK. 70% live in 550,000 villages and the remainder in 200 towns and cities. The marriage business is big business, with arranged marriages still the norm. Shaadi.com is India's biggest matrimony portal. 4.5% are online, typically just three hours per month. There were 77 million mobile phone subscribers by the end of 2005 growing 60% a year. Mobile services revenues (horoscopes, cricket scores, SMS, ring tones) topped $5.6 million US in 2005. Indians like to use credit and debit cards, but not to make online purchases because they're afraid of online credit card fraud. India lacks a "safe" online payment system. Hence, airlines have formed partnerships with gas stations so travelers can go to a gas station to pay for transactions in cash or via money order. If you want to spread your message you should have less reliance on straight banner ads and more on email and SMS to propagate your message. Samples of 4 Indian Online Campaigns

Top-tier Indian portals: 123India, Google, MSN, Rediff, Yahoo.

Association sites: DMA, Internet & Mobile Association, ISP Association, Mobile Marketing Association's Int'l Journal of Mobile Marketing, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Agencies/Consultancies: BC Web Wise, The Hackett Group, Wunderman India.

FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING SHERPA

Safer More Effective More Satisfying

PR WEB -- July 26 -- Enpocket, a leader in intelligent mobile marketing will produce a mobile application for the RatesYourDate on-line tool. Enpocket will develop the mobile component, which will allow people to make timely comments and get immediate feedback if they have been rated on RatesYourDate. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks: I took a look at this service at iDate San Francisco. Definitely worth a look in.  TrueDater.com is the key competition, although the services are quite different. TrueDater is the end site. RYD is entirely set up to partner with dating sites.

Dating Sites and Live Events

THE MIAMI HERALD -- July 22 -- A handful of online dating services -- once the go-to places for finding that significant other -- are realizing that the best way to meet is by actually -- meeting. ''We use the Internet to get people off the Internet,'' says Myles Weissleder, VP, Meetup.com, (two million members). JDate and Lavalife have organized both casual and elaborate events. Kristin Kelly, Match.com's spokesperson, ''At the end of the day, you need to meet. Online dating is only efficient if you know when to meet. Hanging online is not what we want you to do,'' Kelly said. But Match.com does not organize offline events. ''We used to have a separate events business but it just wasn't profitable for us,'' Kelly said.

Mark Brooks: Events offer dating sites a double edged sword. If you run GREAT events, you'll get great word-of-mouth. People like to talk about what they've done on their evenings and weekends. However, the other side of the sword can cut deep. Run mediocre to poor events and the negative word of mouth can be crucifying. You can't run a dating events business half heartedly.

Online Video Shakeout

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE -- July 17 -- While YouTube dominates Web of today, about 240 sites have dreams of success -- or getting gobbled up for big bucks.

You've heard of YouTube. You might have also heard of iFilm, Revver or Grouper. But have you heard of Frozen Hippo? Blennus? Eefoof? By one count, about 240 sites now dabble in online video...setting the stage for a shakeout. On any given day, people watch more than 100 million videos on YouTube.  "People lump us in with YouTube, but we have the technology to be much more than that," said Dmitry Shapiro, CEO of Veoh.  Veoh hopes the computer will become the future set-top box for television. Guba, meanwhile, sells movie and TV downloads from Warner Bros. and Sony. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE

Mark Brooks: As users warm up to watching TV on their computer, the online personals industry should warm up more to video dating. And don't forget video dating on your cell phone. That's next.

How Mobiles Changed Chat-up Lines

TIMES ONLINE -- July 24 -- According to a study by the London School of Economics, more than half of mobile-users aged 18 to 24 have sent or received an invitation to a date in a text message, while just as many have traded sexually explicit messages; and 53% agreed that sending a flirtatious message to someone while in a relationship was a form of cheating. FULL ARTICLE @ TIMES ONLINE

Young British Women Value Phones More Than Telly

UN -- July 25 -- Young British adults have become dependent on their mobile phones. Their phones mean more to them than television reveals a social study of mobile phones from The Carphone Warehouse, advised by The London School of Economics and Political Science. This appears to be particularly true for young women of 18-24 years old. 32% named it their most important electronic possession, ahead of television (at 11%). 19% of men in this age group also name their cell phone as their most important technology product.  The "Mobile Life Report" presents a survey of 16,500 people by polling organisation YouGov. Amongst its findings are that texting has overtaken talking as the most popular way to use mobile phones. FULL ARTICLE @ UN

MySpace Captures 17% Of June Ads

MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS -- July 18 -- MySpace last month garnered 17% of online display impressions--up more than two points from May's 14.6%, according to Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance. Yahoo Mail drew 35.7%, MSN Hotmail 7.2%. Financial services companies accounted for 24%, telecoms and web media 18%. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST PUBLICATIONS

Phish-Hooked on Social Sites

WASHINGTON POST -- July 16 -- The combination of young users and a culture that encourages sharing personal details presents opportunities for increasingly sophisticated methods to lure information. The FBI last month warned MySpace users of a phony bulletin post urging people to click on a link to "check out old school pictures." A virus seeking financial information recently invaded Orkut, Google's social networking site. Sites spoof the MySpace log-in page. Scammers can look at profiles and use information to better hone their attack, then craft phony messages that appear to come from friends to trick people into revealing credit card or cellphone numbers. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

MySpace - a Friendly Space for Advertisers

SUN SENTINEL -- July 18 -- MySpace has a marketing deal with the Improv chain of comedy clubs to bring performances, behind-the-scenes footage and other content to the new humor section of MySpace. Other MySpace sections include music and movies. The sports and games sections will be revamped. Pepsi-Cola's Sierra Mist beverage is the main sponsor of MySpace Comedy and it's Aquafina bottled water brand sponsored the Filmmakers section. 

Mark Brooks: By and large, you don't see much advertising on dating sites. The ROI on time for the amount of money to be earned hasn't be there. Click thru rates are relatively low. But, the targeting capability is A1. MySpace is doing a great job of warming up advertisers for dating sites.