Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Perfectmatch Advertising on TV

PR NEWSWIRE -- Feb 27 -- Perfectmatch announced their plans for a series of new television advertisements in 2007.  The first ad campaign, out March 1st, will introduce relationship-minded adults to an alternative to rival eHarmony.com, and a more relationship-centric approach to Match.com. Said Duane Dahl, Founder/CEO of Perfectmatch. "We're now prepared to actively compete with eHarmony and Match, and television will play an important role." The TV ads (by Oberon Studios of Seattle), take a narrative approach by emphasizing how quickly life and love can pass us by. See Ad. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS-CON

Match.com Has Around 15 Millions Boomers as Regulars

SENIORS COPIE -- Feb 27 -- Match.com has around 15 million boomers as regular goers, and the global figure of boomers using an online dating service increased by 350% in six years. There are also eHarmony.com, Lavalife.com and Plentyoffish.com, all of which offer Boomer-friendly s ervices. Match.com has built the largest online dating site in America, and maintained its dominance in recent years in part by aggressively marketing to singles over 50 and divorcees. ~1.7 million of its 15 million members are 45 to 59. (Sun Florida Sun-Sentinel, "More and more boomers turn to online dating services", 02/18/07) FULL ARTICLE @ SENIORSCOPIE

Online Personals Aussie Rankings

OPW -- Feb 27 -- Meir from Date.com had asked me about SNS rankings worldwide so here they are...  Here's the Alexa online personals rankings for Australia extracted from the Australian top 100. - Mark Brooks

Australian Alexa Rankings for Online Dating and Social Networking as at 2/26/07.

1. MySpace (5)
2. YouTube (7)
3. Bebo (17)
4. Flickr (22)
5. LiveJournal (41)
6. Friendster (44)
7. Photobucket (47)
8. Orkut (59)
9. Xanga (73)
10. Hi5 (88)

1. RSVP (34)
2. AdultFriendFinder (66)
3. AdultMatchMaker (69)
4. Red Hot Pie (94) 

Match Acquires Netclub and Edodo

PRESS RELEASE -- Feb 27 -- Match.com has acquired Netclub in France and edodo China. Match had record revenue of $311 million in 2006 (up 25%). Global market development contributed greatly, most notably in the U.K. and Scandinavia. Match operates 35 country sites in 15 languages. Netclub is the #3 French dating site. According to JupiterResearch, European online dating is expected to grow 30%. 

There are 64 million online singles in China. iResearch.com forecasts the online dating category will nearly double in 2007. Social networking site, eDodo has 180,000+ paid members and gains ~3,000 new paid subscribers each day. 

Mark Brooks: China offers a lucrative long term opportunity. Acquisition is the sensible way to enter this market. Netclub is #14 in Canada, down from #6 in October 2006. I don't see them in the French Alexa top 100, but I'm sure that will change soon. See OPW left bar. 

Male/Female Quantcast Ratios of Top Dating Properties

OPW -- Feb 26th -- Here are the male/female ratios, most popular age range, and proportion of visits from 'regulars' and 'addicts.' Ranking courtesy of Hitwise. Ratios, age range and addiction levels courtesy of Quantcast. '100' represents the 'internet average.'

1 Singlesnet 
Male 112, Female 88, age 45-54, 91% of visits from regulars and addicts LINK
2 Yahoo Personals
Male 114, Female 85, age 45-54, 78% regulars and addicts LINK 
3 TRUE
Male 116, Female 83, age 45-54, 77% regulars and addicts LINK 
4 Match
Male 100, Female 99, age 45-54, 94% regulars and addicts LINK
5 eHarmony
Male 73, Female 125, age 25-34 and 35-44, 95% regulars and addicts LINK 
6 Plentyoffish
Male 112, Female 87, age 45-54, 98% regulars and addicts LINK
7 Mate1
Male 97, Female 102, age 45-54, 74% regulars and addicts LINK
8 Blackpeoplemeet
Male 94, Female 105, age 35-44, 96% regulars and addicts LINK
9 Manhunt.net
Male 177, Female 24, age 35-44, 99% regulars and addicts LINK
10 Adam4Adam
Male 170, Female 31, age 35-44, 99% regulars and addicts LINK
11 American Singles
Male 120, Female 89, age 45-54, 82% regulars and addicts LINK
12 Gay.com
Male 171, Female 30, age 35-45, 96% regulars and addicts LINK
13 Hot or Not
Male 122, Female 78, age 18-24, 95% regulars and addicts LINK
14 MSN Match
Male 103, Female 97, age 45-54, 71% regulars and addicts LINK
15 Cupid
Male 110, Female 89, age 45-54, 95% regulars and addicts LINK

eHarmony clearly has more guys than girls. Given the raunchy TRUE advertising, one would expect a higher representation of males than the 116 scored here.  I think this is because TRUE is using their raunchy advertising in male oriented spots, and also, the edgy ads still manage to attract women.  American Singles scored higher with a 120 for males. The gay sites and PlentyofFish have the highest addiction levels. Yahoo Personals, TRUE, and Mate1 scored a little low for user engagement. All in the 74-78% range. - Mark Brooks

On Niche Dating Sites, Many More Women

NY TIMES -- Feb 26 -- During the week of Feb. 5, SeniorPeopleMeet, had 81% women, BBW Datefinder 76% and Catholic Match 72%, according to Hitwise. Greg Waldorf, the CEO of eHarmony (69% women visitors) said, "If you asked me would I rather have more women or men, I'd rather have more women. If you have a good healthy population of women, I think men are attracted to that." FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

LinkedIn and Imeem Tap Gomez

PR NEWSWIRE -- Feb 26 -- LinkedIn and imeem will leverage the Gomez ExperienceFirst(TM) network to test, monitor, manage and optimize the performance of their web sites worldwide. They join care2, JibJab, Piczo, Snapvine, Tagged and others. The Gomez ExperienceFirst network has 12,000 performance testing locations worldwide.

2007 Wharton Tech. Conference Features Leading Business Figures

BUSINESS WIRE -- Feb 1 -- The 11th Technology Conference will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Friday, February 23rd. Speakers include Rob Carter the CIO of FedEx, Al Nugent the CTO of Computer Associates, Frank Abagnale Jr. of  'Catch Me If You Can.'  Also, Keith Rabois the VP Business Development of LinkedIn, Markus Frind the CEO & Founder of Plentyoffish.com, and Art Chang, President & Founder, Tipping Point Partners on Web 2.0 technology. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Chemistry.com Needs Guys

OPW -- Feb 26 -- Chemistry.com has done a great job of reeling in the ladies. Possibly too good a job. Here's an email that was sent to Match.com members today. - Mark Brooks

"We have too many women* and we need your help. We created a marketing campaign to attract as many of the most captivating women to our site as possible. And it worked! Actually, it worked so well that our ratio of women to men is way off. So men, come visit Chemistry.com and see what it's like to have the odds in your favor!  *Disclaimer: We know you see a lot of disclaimers at the bottom filled with all kinds of legal mumbojumbo, however, we just want to use this space to reassure you, we really do have too many women and need your help."

I Have Seen the Future (Thanks to Regular Coffee)

MEDIA POST -- Feb 22 -- Intel's New Super Chip promises to be a performance breakthrough of breathtaking proportions and while it's destined for supercomputers, the trickle-down effect to our everyday computing requirements is inevitable...mobile computing. If you can pack enough horsepower into your average mobile device to facilitate things like speech recognition and more robust support for virtual displays, the mobile computing experience becomes much less frustrating. And when that happens, our entire interaction with the Web changes with it.

Mark Brooks: Just think 'Star Trek.' Remember the little mobile pads that listen and talk. The future has already been laid out for us by Star Trek. Now technology has to catch up. Speech recognition and Location Based Services and GPS and iPod'esque personal entertainment will all unify within the next ten years.  Apple and Nokia will be at the forefront.

Radio Ad Effectiveness

OPW -- Feb 25th -- If you're thinking about doing radio advertising, check out this study. Ad recall was dramatically enhanced in a study (27% vs 6%) when a mix of Radio and Internet ads was used compared to website ads alone. 'Radio ads can also improve website traffic and a brand's emotional bond with consumers when added to Internet exposures.'  Radio advertising is hairy ground for most internet dating companies but eHarmony, Match and Cupid.com are making it work.   Would I recommend it to the average dating company...no!  But for established brand players...radio advertising is worthwhile.

Romance Coach, Kathryn Lord - OPW Interview

OPW INTERVIEW -- Feb 23, 2007 -- Kathryn Lord is a romance coach and writes for Yahoo Personals. Example 1,  2.  She has written a book for baby boomer women and a book to help singles expand their social circles by hosting parties. She met her husband on Match in 1997, so she's walked the talk. She knows the ins and outs of online dating and provides great advice to her clients. Here's her story... - Mark Brooks

Kathryn, how did you become a romance coach?
I signed up for Match back in 1997 and met my husband there in 1998. I've been a psychotherapist for almost 30 years and I decided to get training in coaching and settled on romance coaching. I thought that it was something that people really needed. When I was doing online dating, I didn't know anyone who was doing it, nothing had been written about it, and it was pretty scary. So I was convinced that online dating could be better and easier and that I could help. I started in romance coaching in January 2002.

What is a typical client?
I would say my most typical client is a female and over 40. Although I'm having more and more men get in touch with me now, particularly around writing dating profiles. I do profile reviews and work ups for people, and romance coaching. I've worked with people as young as their mid-20's through early 70's.  My average client is between 40 and 60 and female.

What kind of income do they have?
I think that one of the difficulties of that population is that the women do not tend to have as high an income as men. Their earnings are around $40,000 on up. I have some clients who are fairly wealthy.  But, people want to find a partner so badly that they pull together the money that they need to, to be able to afford my services.

How long does a typical client work with you and what sort of hourly rate do you charge?
Almost all my work is done by phone. I have clients everywhere. My fees start at $75 a half hour and people buy them in packages, usually packages of four, so that's $300 up front. I do profile work ups for $99. When people sign up for four sessions of coaching I will do the profile work up as a part of that first package. Some people I've worked with for as long as a year to a year and a half, but sometimes people just need a little profile work or some help figuring out the mechanics of dating. Mostly clients stay with me 6 to 9 months with some intense work at the beginning tapering off as they get their feet under them. I will keep in contact with folks until they've found their partner.

When your clients first approach you, typically what dating services are they using?
I always recommend the big dating sites. My favorites are Match.com and Yahoo Personals. I usually suggest to folks that they pick one of those two and then if they have some other sub interest like they're looking for someone who is Christian or Jewish or vegetarian, maybe one of the smaller sites. E-Harmony as a third and maybe JDate. 

Have you worked with any dating sites?
I think I was the first romance coach that had the experience of marrying through a dating site myself. I have the added experience of 30 years of psychotherapy work and have spent the last 5 years really learning this niche. I've approached Match.com a couple of times, and Yahoo Personals connected with me a year ago. I write for their online magazine.

I have one book already out called, Find a Sweetheart Soon – Your Love Trip Planner For Women which I wrote for those aged 40 to 60. I have another book coming out about how to build a social circle by entertaining.

How can people improve their chances on online dating sites?
I have recommended getting new pictures to every single one of my clients and virtually every single one of them has resisted. I always recommend them to LookBetterOnline.com. I think they do a fabulous job and give a fabulous price. I have a hard time understanding what the resistance is to getting a good picture, but that's the biggest one, bad pictures.

Secondly profile essays are usually poorly written. I did a job for this fellow the other day told him his profile was too sexy. Women understand that sex is part of dating but they don't want to see it in the essay. Men put too much sex in the essays. Women don't want to see that.

Then, the spelling and grammar errors. Frankly. I'm cleaning up their profiles and getting the "I's" out.  People talk about themselves too much and they need to ask questions and engage the reader.

What should dating sites do to make their services easier for matchmakers to use?
I would make them all searchable in the same way. As a romance coach, I find it very difficult to go from one site to another and figure out how to find things. I would like to see a uniform platform. It would make it easier for the coaches. Secondly, weed out the scammers. I think that would be reassuring for daters. How do you spot a scam?  I'm going to do some writing about that. 

Interracialoasis.com Launches

NEWSWIRE -- Feb 13 -- Spiral Cities Marketing, LLC has closed its for-pay niche dating site ColorDates.com and launched social networking site Interracialoasis.com. Jon C. Coward, CEO, says, "I truly believe that the Interracial community is underserved on the Internet." The member base is being built from the ground up without a feeder database. "Every member on our site will be there because they believe in Interracial relationships and the way that we can strengthen the world through racial harmony." 

Mark Brooks: Said Amin of WorldSingles (Arablounge) quietly launched Nuzizo.com recently, in similar fashion. Users get to choose their home from various cities within the social network, work on their reputation score and spend 'zizos.'

Playing With Matches

DAILY PRESS -- Feb 22 --I'd like to see a law pass endorsing arranged marriages. In the meantime, I'll study the personal ads. I've bookmarked online dating sites like eHarmony and Perfect Match. Singles begin their adventure by filling in a few blanks. This brings them a handful of leads with names like "Goodtime Gertie." To view a more refined assortment, they must fork over some cash. But here's an exception: PlentyofFish.com is free.

Mark Brooks: I'm working on a study of the success story sections of the top 30 dating properties. JDate is strong with 195 complete with pictures.   

Tech's Younger Generation Leans on Web 2.0 for Love

SF GATE -- Feb 14 -- A growing trove of Web sites enable search for those who share feelings and fetishes.  Tag yourself and friends with keywords at Consumating.com. The site's motto? "A new way to find people who don't suck." Mobile group-messaging services like Twitter and Dodgeball allow people to find each other wherever they happen to be. Check out HotorNot.com or the free online dating site PlentyofFish.com. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE

Billionaire? Biker? Find Your Match

SUN SENTINEL -- Feb 21 -- Those looking to play the field without spending much cash should check out PlentyofFish.com. In addition to claiming to generate "300,000 relationships a year," the site does not charge visitors for its services.  People looking to improve their social status or income bracket should check out MillionaireMatch.com or SugarDaddie.com. BikerKiss.com and BikerPassions.com unite people through their  love for leather and chrome. Animal  lovers should give DateMyPet.com or LoveMeLoveMyPets.com a whirl.

Mark Brooks: Something for everyone. PlentyofFish and OKCupid are the top free dating sites. See the rankings for a list of the top niche dating sites on the right bar of this page. 

Adult Dating Site Introduces Payment by Mobile

BUSINESS PORTAL -- Feb 21 -- SexintheUK added a new payment method that allows members to upgrade their memberships via their mobile phone bill. This service has been embraced by members without credit cards or that didn't want their membership fee to appear on their credit/debit card statement. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS PORTAL

SMS to be $67bn Industry by 2012

MOBILE CRUNCH -- Feb 21 -- A report from Portio Research is forecasting SMS revenues to reach $67 billion mostly attributed to an expected increase in mobile subscriber base from 2.6 to 4.8 billion, sending 3.7 trillion messages. The Asian markets are expected to grow the fastest, comprising 50% of the subscriber base by 2008. SMS accounts for ~75-80% of carrier's non-voice plan revenue. Voice plans comprise 80% of worldwide mobile revenue. Competition amongst carriers has been eroding voice margins. SMS has been the fastest growing messaging service. FULL ARTICLE @ MOBILE CRUNCH

Community Next Notes

OPW -- Feb 21 --  On Saturday 10th February I attended Community Next in Silicon Valley, CA. Here are a few keypoints I picked up from the day of speakers which included the founders of Dogster, Hi5, Mychurch, PlentyofFish, HotorNot, and Userplane. - Mark Brooks

People will gather online around 'social objects' i.e. pictures (Flickr), bookmarks (Delicious), friends (Friendster).

Loopt offers location based services on phones. Mark suggested that the mobile platform is more appealing than the PC because it's 'Always Available.'

Threadless makes $15 million a year from community designed tshirt sales. One of the secrets of their success is they listen to members and make changes quickly. Side projects include ExtraTasty, NakedandAngry and IParkLikeAnIdiot. Start your site with minimal rules and then add rules to the community later on. Be evolutionary. Make frequent small incremental changes. 

The Dogster Founders recommended choosing appropriate advertisers and building campaigns around them that truly engage users. Don't be deceptive, ever! Write your advertisers copy. Offer something special to users. 

Currently MyChurch has 2700 church groups signed up. There are more churches than schools in the U.S.A. (300k) and Americans donate $88 billion a year in tithings. There are 88k Christian groups on Y! groups, and 82k on MySpace. 

Danah Boyd was not a speaker but was quoted as follows... "Community is a garden, tend it well."

From the final panel:
The Suicide Girls name was inspired by a book written by the author of Fight Club. Presently, their fastest growing revenue generator is from merchandising. 

PlentyofFish contrasted executive opinion on the final panel on two points.  Markus believes that advertising is actually very important in building an online community.  Other speakers (HororNot, Fark, Hi5, Slide, Suicide Girls) did not.  Markus stated that 'passion' is not as important as 'cold hard analytics skills.' Other speakers believed that passion for the site was their primary success factor.

James Hong of HotorNot suggested that being an entrepreneur was like volunteering to be bipolar. 

Fark was started when Drew Curtis put up a photo for 18 months of a squirrel with big nuts. Fark nearly ended up as a curry recipe site, but Drew decided to focus it on to focus on listing 'things you're ashamed you laughed at.' He's still the sole employee and maxim sells advertising for the site now. 

Slide has 50 employees and is not profitable yet. It's founded by Paypal co-founder Max Levchin.

Love Knows No Borders

MEDIA POST -- Feb 19 -- France has the highest proportion of Internet users visiting online personals sites. ComScore Networks recently reported that 22% of French Internet users, age 15+, visited online personals sites in December 2006, followed by the British with 20%, and the Americans with 13%. Interestingly, usage of dating sites seems to peak in the summer months in each country; July in the U.K. and U.S. and September in France.


Top Personals Sites in the U.K. (Visitors Age 15+ December 2006 Home and Work Locations)
Total Web Users in U.K. (Age 15+):  29,788,000
Personals Category Total:  5,836,000
DatingDirect - 1,427,000
LoopyLove - 960,000
GirlsDateForFree - 618,000
Match.com Sites -  510,000
Interrodate.co.uk - 452,000

Top Personals Sites in France (Visitors Age 15+ December 2006 Home and Work Locations)
Total Web Users in France (Age 15+):  24,409,000
Personals Category Total:  5,317,000
Meetic -  2,258,000
Easyrencontre -  724,000
CapFriends.fr - 369,000
2Become1-fr.com - 337,000
MSN Dating & Personals -  299,000

Top Personals Sites in the U.S. (Visitors Age 15+ December 2006 Home and Work Locations)
Total Web Users in the U.S. (Age 15+):  152,350,000
Personals Category Total:  20,555,000
Yahoo! Personals -  4,153,000
Match.com Sites** -  3,970,000
TRUE - 3,086,000
Spark Networks -  2,504,000
Singlesnet - 2,173,000

FULL ARTICLE @ CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH