Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Interview with Gong Haiyan, CEO of Jiayuan.com

INTERFAX CHINA -- Nov 30 -- The Chinese online dating industry is still in its honeymoon period, with leading Web sites such as Jiayuan.com (formerly known as Love21.cn), Baihe.com and Marry5.com proving as attractive to venture capitalists as they are to their users. In April this year, Jiayuan received venture capital of RMB 40 million ($5.42 million) and a further RMB 73.81 million ($10 million) in June. In 2005, Marry5 raised around $12.5 million in venture capital, while Baihe.com got $11 million last year. Interfax spoke with Jiayuan.com CEO, Gong Haiyan, about managing the site, and how she sees the industry developing...

Interfax: What difficulties have you faced?
Gong: In China, a lot of people, don't trust online dating, especially those born in the 1950s and 1960s.

Interfax: What are your expectations for the future of online dating in China?
Gong: People born in the 1990s have grown up with the Internet and they'll be open to this method of dating. The market is growing as people's attitudes change.

Interfax: What makes Jiayuan.com different from other Web sites?
Gong: Our Web site is for well-educated people. We ask members for education certification and copies of their ID cards.

Interfax: What's the plan to raise your profit?
Gong: We plan to offer wedding services to our members who succeed in finding partners Jiayuan.com

Mark Brooks: See Int'l Internet Dating Rankings on the right bar for official Chinese internet dating rankings from iResearch.

First Virtual iDate Conference

IDATE -- Nov 30 -- The very first virtual iDATE conference will be held in Dec 19th from 8am - 9pm EST. People attending the Miami event Jan 31 - Feb 1, 2008 will maximize their time and efficiency. The conference will allow delegates to see exhibitiors, learn what they do, have a chat with them and schedule appointments at their desks in their offices. The event is totally free for anyone to attend. The exhibitors can create a virtual booth with flash banners, images and videos to show their products. Click here to pre-register. SEE MORE DETAILS @ IDATE

FriendFinder Donates $200k

PRESS RELEASE -- Nov 29 -- FriendFinder Network is giving $200k to charity and members can suggest the charities to distribute the $200k to. Top charities picked by members so far (30k votes) include: American Red Cross, St. Jude's Children's Hospital, American Cancer Society and Make a Wish Foundation. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

A Fresh Approach - CrazyBlindDate

FOX -- Nov 29 -- CrazyBlindDate launches in the all the major markets early next year. Meanwhile it’s in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Austin. Sam Yagan, CEO of CrazyBlindDate.com and OKcupid.com was on Fox’s Morning Show with Mike and Juliet and says…

The idea comes from complaints that we’ve heard about traditional online dating sites. First, it’s a lot of work to set up a profile, to spend all kinds of time browsing profiles, sending messages back and forth to other users all to set up a date that may not even happen.  If you run a business that’s charging subscription fees, you just want to keep them on your site. Our site is the exact opposite. We don’t want you on our site at all. It’s true we want to get you out on the crazy blind date so that you’re actually out there interacting with other people. …The way it works is we set you up for a 20 to 30 minute blind date at a bar or coffee shop. We’re not sending you out to a 3 hour baseball game or to a $200 dinner.  It’s all about going out and spending 20 or 30 minutes out with a stranger and see if you have that connection. …We send you on dates in public places that really are well lit, well known bars or coffee shops.

Do I see a picture at least of the blind date?
No! 

Are you kidding?
It wouldn’t be a blind date. It would be a crazy non blind date. You do get to set some parameters. You get to say of course the age, gender, orientation of the person you want to me but also you can have height parameters, body type, etc.

Is TRUE Paying Affiliates?

FREQUENT FLIRTERS -- Nov 29 -- Word on the street is that TRUE is leaving affiliates awash and not paying out. Here's the word from TRUE... " We have been migrating to Link Connector for some time now in response to the amount of fraud that comes in from Commission Junction. We are eliminating Commission Junction and will be building an in-house affiliate solution in the future. We do continue to use many affiliate networks through our major partners." If you're a CJ affiliate marketing TRUE, change out those links. Right now Primary Ads is running TRUE offers and paying out $3.50 a lead, and Link Connector is paying out $2 per lead. See full post at Frequent Flirters.

Email Data Source Ranks Dating Sites

PR WEB -- Nov 29 -- Email Data Source, a provider of email competitive analysis data, released its study ranking the Email Brand Equity Index™ of Online dating sites based on the quality and effectiveness of their marketing emails. The Email Brand Equity Index™ is determined by compiling historical data on email marketing messages and measuring the emails' perceived effectiveness in driving website traffic.

Email Brand Equity Rankings
1. Match.com   
2. Friendfinder
3. Spark Networks
4. eHarmony.com
5. Reunion.com
6. Cupid.com
7. True.com

8. Family Friends
9. eCube Media
10. Beliefnet 

FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Meetic Buys Neu

REUTERS -- Nov 29 -- Meetic buyS Germany's Neu.de matchmaking site with 26,000 subscribers for 25 million euros ($36.83 million) in cash. Meetic would merge its existing Meetic.de site under Neu.de. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

Nominate Your Favorite Social Networking Site for the Open Web Awards

The Open Web Awards, hosted by Mashable.com, are the first ever online, open collaboration awards event to recognize the best online communities representing web 2.0. 

OnlinePersonalsWatch has been given the honor to submit nominations based on what you think. After nominations are all in, you will be given the opportunity to vote for the winners which will be announced Dec 20.

There are 13 categories for which you can nominate your favorite sites or products. Scratch that. Let's add a 14th category, Internet Dating. To nominate please leave a comment in the following format: Nominate - Category - (company you wish to nominate). You may nominate a site for more than one category.

Nominations close on Dec 5, so get your nominations in now!

The 14 nomination categories are:

1. Mainstream and Large Scale Networks
2. Applications and Widgets
3. Social News and Social Bookmarking
4. Social Search
5. Sports and Fitness
6. Photo Sharing
7. Video Sharing
8. Start Pages
9. Places and Events
10. Music
11. Social Shopping
12. Mobile
13. Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
14. Internet Dating

The Open Web Awards, hosted by Mashable.com, are the first ever online, open collaboration awards event to recognize the best online communities representing web 2.0. 

OnlinePersonalsWatch has been given the honor to submit nominations based on what you think. After nominations are all in, you will be given the opportunity to vote for the winners which will be announced Dec 20.

There are 13 categories for which you can nominate your favorite sites or products. Scratch that. Let's add a 14th category, Internet Dating. To nominate please leave a comment in the following format: Nominate - Category - (company you wish to nominate). You may nominate a site for more than one category.

Nominations close on Dec 5, so get your nominations in now!

The 14 nomination categories are:

1. Mainstream and Large Scale Networks
2. Applications and Widgets
3. Social News and Social Bookmarking
4. Social Search
5. Sports and Fitness
6. Photo Sharing
7. Video Sharing
8. Start Pages
9. Places and Events
10. Music
11. Social Shopping
12. Mobile
13. Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
14. Internet Dating

Free Anonymous SMS

PRESS RELEASE -- Nov 28 -- Jangl customers can talk, exchange voicemails and now send text messages without sharing their phone numbers. Text messaging can be initiated from either a PC or a phone. Sending and receiving SMS via Jangl's web interface is 100% free. Fees to mobile providers will apply if the SMS are sent via cell phones. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: Jangl provides anonymous calling on Match as MatchTalk, and will be going live with more dating sites shortly.  Recently, Jangl hooked up with Jajah. (Disclosure: Jangl is a client of Courtland Brooks)

Stay Up To Date

OPW -- Nov 28 -- If you'd like to stay up to speed on the social networking industry news, add your email address to the Feedblitz box on the right and we'll send you all the news once a day. Also, rather than typing OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, you can type opw1.com, for short. Or, faster yet, download the OPW toolbar and you'll be able to see the news in your toolbar. - Mark Brooks

Plentyoffish.com #1 Dating Site In The U.K.

PR NEWSWIRE -- Nov 27 --  According to comScore World Metrix, Plentyoffish.com is now the #1 online dating site in UK as ranked by unique visits. Plentyoffish.com received 7,209,000 visits in the U.K. during the month of October, 2007. Meanwhile, the combined total traffic of all the Meetic sites was 4,397,000, and 2,100,000 for Match.com in the same period. PlentyofFish has grown to be the #1 dating site in the world, overall. #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and the 2nd most popular in the USA. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Manhunt Parties On

SNW -- Nov 27 -- In case you hadn't noticed, Manhunt is just chewing up the gay dating/social networking market. See this Alexa comparison of Manhunt, Gay.com, Gaydar and Adam4adam. See this Compete comparison of Manhunt, Gay.com and Adam4adam. Jonathan Crutchley is co-Founder and Chairman. He's a regular attendee of the Internet Dating Conference /Social Networking Conference and likes to throw parties at his houses in Boston and Palm Springs. He's in the picture with Chi Chi La Rue who was DJ at his recent pool party in Palm Springs for Manhunt.net in honor of Palm Springs Gay Pride. 

What is Manhunt doing right? In short, they know the gay dating space, intimately. Their customer service is among the best in the industry and they charge just $12 a month. Also, have you noticed how the sites with the most 'playful' names are doing especially well on minimal ad spends. OnlineBootyCall, Manhunt, Plentyoffish.  All are playful, tongue in cheek names that travel well by word-of-mouth. Manhunt is full-on and adult and has it's antithesis in myPartner.com which is, essentially, eHarmony for gay men. (Disclosure: Manhunt, myPartner and Plentyoffish are clients of Courtland Brooks) - Mark Brooks

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Blabbermash: Video Agony Aunt

OPW -- Nov 27 -- Michael Alvear writes Manhunt.net's advice column as their Cruise Director and is host for the U.K. hit TV Series The Sex Inspectors. Now he's launched Relationships, Dating and Sex video advice site, Blabbermash. Users load up a video with their rants/questions and get advice from viewers/readers. Alicia wants to know why guys ask how many people she slept with, Sirbgb wants to know what kind of dog will help him reel in women 'cos his current dog is getting him the wrong kind of dates, while Diane wants to know what's up with the guys with creepy Asian fetishes. A little too revealing, or is this the shape of things to come? Your comments please... - Mark Brooks

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

WorldFriends Networks Looking For Funding

WORLDFRIENDS NETWORKS -- Nov 27 -- WorldFriends Networks, (Shanghai-based, owned by Meta4 Group) a provider of private label multi-lingual social network/internet dating services, is currently seeking Series B funding. Nicholas Paine and Bruce Croxon, the former co-founders of Lavalife who took Lavalife to $90 million in annual revenues, head the company's board.  WorldFriends Networks currently boasts 1.4 million registered members in 237 countries, and a 15% monthly growth rate. 

Mark Brooks: I visited Dominic, the CEO, and Nicholas, at their Shanghai offices earlier in the year.  WorldFriends Networks is strong in Japan and growing in China. See the lower left of Shanghaiist for an example of their personals service. They focus on travel minded, upscale users who want to learn a foreign language. Their first site was Hungry For Words which took off as a language learning and penpal service and has morphed into a social network (and dating) site. They raised $2.5m in February 2007 from Nicholas and Bruce and others. If you happen to have a couple of million handy, this could be a good bet. If you'd like to see how their service stacks up against 6 others, email me and I'll send you a 50 point analysis.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

PersonalityPro's Assessment On Singles365.com

PRESS RELEASE -- Nov 26 -- Singles365.com, UK based dating site powered by WhiteLabelDating.com, launched PersonalityPro's Personality Assessment tool. In 6-8 minutes, the test assesses member's basic personality characteristics, perceptions, motivators, communication style and unique strengths. PersonalityPro's tests are used to to increase members conversions on dating and social networking sites. PersonalityPro's test consists of 24 DISC-based questions as well as a number of photo and audio questions.

Mark Brooks: Personality Pro tests are short and fun. The incorporation of photo and audio questions helps keep users attention. If you'd like a copy of my 50 point analysis of 7 white label internet dating services, please email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com.

IAC Expanding in China

ASOCIATED PRESS -- Nov 23 -- IAC/InterActiveCorp will invest $100 million to expand in China. IAC's 30 Web brands include Match, Citysearch and Excite. IAC will also launch its Ask.com search engine in China within two years. With 162 million people online, China has the world's second largest population of Internet users after the U.S.

Mark Brooks: Match acquired China's eDodo.net in February. Meetic paid $20 million for YeeYou in January. See interview with Meetic's CEO.

Paul Falzone Appointed to Board Of Professional Matchmakers

OPEN PRESS -- Nov 22 -- Paul A. Falzone, CEO of The Right One, Together Dating and eLove has been appointed to the Matchmaking Institute's Board of Professional and Certified Matchmakers. The Matchmaking Institute is a school of matchmaking and relationship sciences and was founded in 2003. The Right One / Together Dating (300,000+ members at 60+ U.S. locations) is the largest brick and mortar dating service in the industry along with elove.com, their online hybrid. FULL ARTICLE @ OPEN PRESS

Mark Brooks: The Matchmaking Institute trains and certifies matchmakers. The board will help set standards for the brick and mortar matchmaking industry.

Dating Direct Has A New Mobile Payment Solution

TRADING MARKETS -- Nov 21 -- MIG, a multimedia mobile interactive services provider, delivered the first on-portal mobile payment service for Dating Direct, called Payforit. The key features currently include: trusted user functionality, flexible subscription engines, consumer identification. FULL ARTICLE @ TRADING MARKETS

Mark Brooks: Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com if you'd like a free copy of my 20 point analysis of 15 payment processors. 

A Kiss-Off To Online Dating

BUSINESS WEEK -- Nov 20 -- The era of Web 1.0 is over, online dating is dead. Going on sites like Facebook or MySpace it's like going to a bar with your friends, whereas a dating site is like walking past a bunch of animals in cages at the zoo. According to comScore, the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases. I doubt PlentyofFish will ever get to the size or valuation of a Match.com. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Mark Brooks: Match had $89.1 million revenue in Q3 (see quarterly report). That's ~$360 million a year.  PlentyofFish is now making $10 million+ a year. I doubted Markus would ever get into the top 10 when I met him in 2004. I underestimated him. PlentyofFish is #2, Match #4 on the Hitwise USA rankings.  On Comscore USA rankings, Match is #2 and PlentyofFish is #8.  In the UK, Hitwise ranks PlentyofFish.com as the #2 dating site, and Match comes in at #5.  And PlentyofFish comes in at #1 in Canada according to Comscore, with Lavalife at #2 and Match at #13. See the full rankings here. (Disclosure: PlentyofFish is a client of Courtland Brooks)

Mobestar Delivers New mDate Solution

AD HOC NEWS -- Nov 20 -- WhiteLabelDating.com, an industry leader in outsourced dating sites and owner of Singles365.com, launched a branded version of mDate provided by Mobestar. mDate is a mobile dating platform which offers live, anonymous voice and video calling. The contract will earn Mobestar £25k in November and the revenue share will be split 50/50. FULL ARTICLE @ AD HOC NEWS

Mark Brooks: Mobestar, Trilibis, Enpocket and Plutolife are the companies to talk to if you want to add a mobile component to your internet dating site.