Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

McAfee Warns of 'SMiShing' Wttacks From Dating SMS

PC ADVISOR -- Aug 29 -- Some mobile phone users have started receiving an SMS that reads: "We're confirming you've signed up for our dating service. You will be charged $2/day unless you cancel your order," David Rayhawk wrote in the McAfee Avert Labs blog. The message includes a URL that, if clicked on, downloads a Trojan horse that could allow a web-enabled phone to be controlled by hackers. FULL ARTICLE @ PC ADVISOR

Social Networking Advertising; Low Click Thru

POF -- Aug 28 -- I spent  $436 on bebo last week via google. 1,831 clicks, 1,641,390 impressions. Conversions 30 times worse then the average adsense site. I estimate 95%+ of the clicks coming from bebo where accidental, considering the click thru rate was 0.11% that isn't unreasonable. There are many forums on the internet where people complain clicks from big social networks are useless as they are pretty much all accidental. Even yahoo has come out and said myspace clicks are worthless and has banned users from using YPN ads on their msypace profiles because they don't convert at all, and yahoo didn't want to make a deal with myspace. If myspace inventory starts flooding adsense, publishers will switch to YPN by the hundreds of thousands when so much junk inventory gets tossed into the system. FULL ARTICLE @ POF 

Mark Brooks: Anyone found the same/different?

Pincus Back at Tribe's Helm; Pledges "New Direction"

SILICON BEAT -- Aug 28 -- Mark Pincus declared on the Tribe site: "...as of today jan and the board are gone. i've taken over tribe and you're going to see big changes fast like getting rid of this big stupid masthead and returning tribe to the users where it belongs."  Mark is the only board member, is in full control and will be taking Tribe in "a new direction." Tribe will focus on grownups. Before Mark came back into the picture a few months ago, Tribe's previous CEO Jan Gullet was trying to sell the company, but Tribe never got the deal it wanted. Investors at Friendster reportedly did the same, trying to sell for $18 million or so, before throwing the towel, restarting, and now doing quite well. FULL ARTICLE @ SILICON BEAT

Mark Brooks: Long time Friendster C-level and investor, Kent Lindstrom is turning around Friendster.  Mark will do the same with Tribe. Jonathan Abrams (Friendster CEO), meanwhile, is working on Socializr. 

Thomas Arms JLove with Personality Profiling

TORONTO -- Aug 28 -- Thomas Technologies, provider of behavioral assessment software, has partnered with JLove to offer JType™ consisting of four components: Thomas' Personality Assessment (PPA) with audio and photo questions, A Romance Profile, Compatibility Reporting and Personality Search.  Deployed in over 50 countries and 22 languages, Thomas tools have been used to assess over 4.5 million people.

Group Dating Takes Off in China

BBC NEWS -- Aug 28 -- Group dating events, which draw hundreds of single men and women, have climbed in popularity since they were introduced in Chinese cities. One event in Zhejiang in April attracted 12,658 participants, Xinhua news agency said, while 10,000 showed up for another in Shanghai. Cities are full of young workers, but singletons who spend long hours at the office end up with no time to meet other people, said Wu Xiuping of the Beijing Municipal Women's Federation. The federation has been organizing sessions in the capital for three years. At the dating events, men and women are put into groups to get to know each other and, if they want to, can swap telephone numbers at the end. Ms Wu said group dating was particularly popular with women. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC

Mark Brooks: I visited China for the Asian internet dating convention in May this year. The city was dotted with building cranes and in some areas on the outskirts the entire skyline was lined with tall building cranes manically erecting the new Beijing 'burbs. I had a very pleasant girl chat me up on a bus. She went so far as to request that I call her. Times are changing in China. Internet dating is hot, but the challenges are significant. It's rather like going back in time to the late '90's, only in China, there's the prospect of reaching a billion people. Sites like Baihe.com and Yeeyoo.com are growing fast. How fast?  I'll see if I can get some ranking numbers from iresearch.

PlentyofFish Surpasses 10 Zillion Members

PRNEWSWIRE -- PlentyofFish had 300,000 users log in this Monday. 10 zillion singles have signed up on PlentyofFish since the site was started in 2003, but unlike many dating sites, the old inactive profiles have been removed. So there's no longer 10 zillion profiles sitting on PlentyofFish. Just the people who are active, that will probably respond.  Mike Jones, CEO of Userplane, which was recently acquired by AOL, said, "since the inception of our relationship with PlentyofFish we have seen unequaled growth in their usage of instant messaging."  Markus Frind commented, "I continually see sites boasting about how many registered members they have. Yes, they may have millions of members registered, but that's to their detriment. We cull and clean out old profiles once they become inactive and unresponsive. Most other sites prefer to keep the old profiles in place for excessive periods. It's good for conversions, but bad for users. I won't do that to my users. I don't have to, we're free."  Markus automated the PlentyofFish site with personality based matchmaking based, not on what people say they want, but rather on what they indicate they want through their search behavior. The PlentyofFish mission is to cut the crap and do the work for singles who want to meet without shelling out hundreds of dollars for services that should be free.  FULL PRESS RELEASE

TRUE Surpasses 10 Million Members

PRNEWSWIRE -- Aug 24 -- "We are so excited that TRUE has eclipsed the 10 million member mark and continues to maintain that growth, signing up nearly a thousand new singles per hour," says Herb Vest, founder and CEO of TRUE. Hitwise ranked TRUE the #1 site in the Lifestyle-Dating category for three months in a row, out of the more than 1,421 sites.  By conducting criminal background screenings before allowing members to communicate with one another, TRUE significantly reduces the number of felons on its site. TRUE also works with Federal and State agencies, including parole boards, by notifying them that a member has misrepresented his or her criminal or married status in order to improperly communicate with members. "I can't guarantee that ex-felons and marrieds cannot get on TRUE; but, I can guarantee that they will be very, very sorry that they did," says Vest. TRUE is the only online relationship service to offer scientifically based compatibility testing, uniquely endorsed by Psychology Today and independently certified to meet the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing.  FULL PRESS RELEASE

Mark Brooks: Your comments please.

Paltalk Social Network: Video, Voice, IM

PR WEB -- Aug 25 -- Paltalk (four million active members) launched Paltalk People 2.0, with video, voice and text chat. People 2.0 users can build video chat communities. The Paltalk Messenger is free and lets users chat with people on the People 2.0 site, existing Paltalkers, and friends on AOL, Yahoo and ICQ buddy lists. Since 1998 the company has grown to become one of the most popular online services with more than 42 million downloads accounting for eight billion voice minutes per year. Paltalk has 250 volunteer moderators making sure discussions are open and appropriate, and also operates web conferencing service HearMe. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

SkaDate Dating Software

PR WEB -- Aug 25 -- SkaDate SuccessPoint includes all of our 5 years of experience in the dating software business. Our specialists took special care to improve usability for site members and moderators alike. All of this is packed into the robustness of a new platform which is insured by our 30 days money back guarantee. Live demo can be found at SkaDate dating site software demo. 

Mark Brooks: You can judge a company by the condition it keeps its toilets. Also, by the level of English in its press releases. Emil, please, please, get a native English speaker to review your press releases.  They do not do your company justice, or perhaps they do?  You can find someone on Elance. Shark Dating had a similar release back in May which I felt compelled to critique.  And it goes on...

SkaDate SuccessPoint has shown that with the usual features of a dating web site there's plenty of room to improve the things millions of people have to deal with every day.  Also, there are new features like profile tags, multimedia upload, friends networking and video chat which are more popular in the social networking industry but also get more and more recognition on dating sites. Unlike in other products, it is unbelievable how many things can be done through the administration panel without resorting to software code modification. SkaDate Managed Solution is what makes the difference for the small business entities. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

AirG Launches Latin Social Net

RED HERRING -- Aug 25 -- AirG opened a social network Friday aimed at the cell phones of Spanish-speaking young people in the U.S., Conexion Latina.

PlentyofFish Larger Than Other Free Dating Services Combined

OPW -- Aug 25 -- I took a look over PlentyofFish this morning to see Markus is listing PlentyofFish as the, "3rd Largest Dating site in the world, larger than all other free dating services combined."  Looking at the Hitwise rankings...he's certainly larger than all the other free dating sites combined at this stage, but for the world?  What free dating sites do you know of worldwide?  Your comments please.  I just came across Amoureux which is big in France and makes it's money off advertising and mobile usage fees.  - Mark Brooks

Delightful New Social Network, OurStory

OPW -- Aug 25 -- A friend referred me to OurStory.com, which allows users to upload a multimedia chronology of their life. The free service allows photos and social networking. The paid service allows video. Thought provoking questions help open up users lives one easy question at a time. "What childhood memory still makes you laugh, even today?" "Describe your circle of friends around the time of your thirtieth birthday." OurStory is a delightful (and viral) social network geared towards the mature ( i.e. non-teens) audience. - Mark Brooks

Instant-Messaging Aggregators

PC MAG -- Aug 24 -- The five utilities reviewed work with AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! IM. When you chat with other users of BlowSearch Secured Messenger 2.1.0, your conversation is encrypted for security. The free, heavily ad- supported version uses 56-bit encryption. The open-source Gaim 1.1.4 handles nine IM systems and multiple accounts on each service. Dozens of plug-ins are available. Instan-t 4.5 serves as a free taste of the company's private IM service. It's online so you can use Instan-t anywhere just by logging in. Instan-t offers multiperson chat and audio/video messaging. Java-based Pexit! 2.5 offers IM aggregation and much more—too much more, as it turns out. Its configuration dialog is daunting, with over a dozen tabs of confusing options. Pexit!'s saving grace is its ability to create a multiperson chat across different IM services. Trillian 3.1 configuration is easy. Audio chat is available. For $25, Trillian Pro adds video conferencing, recording of audio/video chat, and various plug-ins. FULL ARTICLE @ PC MAG

Mark Brooks: I tried Gaim but ended up using the paid version of Trillian for the last two years. Meebo isn't mentioned here but is worth a lookin. I'm using their widget service at www.pingmark.com.  Instant-t is their direct competitor, but I'd rather trust Meebo, a Sequoia back startup, with my logins.  Gizmoproject.com (live on Livejournal.com shortly) offers an alternative to Skype (live on Bebo.com). Userplane is the gold standard for online community instant messaging and audio/video. Userplane was just acquired by AOL. 

Sony Pictures Buys Video-Sharing site, Grouper.com

USA TODAY -- Aug 23 -- Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that they have acquired video sharing site Grouper.com, for $65 million, in an effort to compete with the online video boom. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: Guba, BitTorrent, YouTube and Revver are competitors.

MySpace Founder Invests in China

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER -- Aug 24 -- Brad Greenspan founded eUniverse in 1999, which housed dozens of Internet sites including MySpace. He objected to the $580 million sale of MySpace to News Corp. (revenue was skyrocketing, the price tag was too low) and has now trained his sights on China.  He's founded BroadWebAsia, which has in turn taken stakes in 20 Chinese Internet companies that focus on entertainment and -- like MySpace -- social networking. Brad credits the promotional power of the eUniverse sites, in particular its dating sites, for allowing MySpace to overrun Friendster. His China investments so far have ranged from $200,000-$3 million and all have been financed through BroadWebAsia, which employs 15 people in offices in L.A. and Shanghai. He intends to raise $50 million through private equity or the public markets in the U.K. or China and invest in Asian companies outside of China. About 120 million people in China have Internet access, ~10% of the population, so the growth potential is phenomenal.

Microsoft Signs Ad Deal with Facebook

MARKETING VOX -- Aug 23 -- Using its online advertising platform, Microsoft will provide banner ads and sponsored links to Facebook, starting early fall and running through mid-2009. Microsoft launched adCenter in May to compete with Google and Yahoo. Earlier this month, Google struck a $900 million advertising deal MySpace. (Advertising group IPG took a 0.5 percent stake in Facebook earlier this year.) FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX

Card Based Dating Site Launches in Ireland

GALWAY -- Aug 23 -- With checkmeout.ie, people log onto the website and fill out a questionnaire. They are then sent out cards with a website address along with a pin number. If they see someone out they like, they can simply hand them the card, which allows them to see their details on-line. They can chat on-line and exchange emails.  

Mark Brooks: Why hasn't one of the major services (i.e. Match) partnered with Vistaprint to offer this quaint service. You'd think it would be great for word-of-mouth marketing.   

Instant Message Mark Brooks

OPW -- Aug 23 -- I'm trying out Meebome.  Meebo (funded by Sequoia Capital) is a hosted/online alternative to Trillian, which allows users to consolidate their instant messaging accounts into one IM system.  AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN Messenger, all in one place.  Meebome allows users to add an instant messaging box to their HTML-enabled profile. - Mark Brooks

SingleParents.ie Launches for Irish Audience

OPW -- Aug 22 -- SingleParents.ie was conceived and developed by web entrepreneurs Kevin Green (a regular at the internet dating convention) and Grainne Barry. Demographic figures in Ireland show an upsurge in the number of single parents. "Separation and divorce are on the upswing in Ireland. 2005 saw a 12.7% increase in divorces over the previous year. While overall divorce rates remain low at 16%, separations are on the increase and there is a fundamental shift towards smaller family sizes and one parent households." comments Greene. 

Mark Brooks: By 2008 the majority of family households will be headed by single parents in the USA.  This is already true in 15 US states.

Wiki-Based Social Network

TOP HOSTS NEWS -- Aug 22 -- Michal Frackowiak, a 28-year old Polish Web developer and PhD student launched Wikidot.com, a Wiki-based publishing platform and social network aimed mainly at advanced Internet users, content publishers and broadcasters. "We want to build a social network of users running their own sites. This distinguishes us from most Wiki or blog providers and takes us closer to social services like MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ TOP HOSTS