Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Iovation Reduces Fraud For Online Dating Community

PRESS RELEASE -- May 29 -- WhiteLabelDating.com has implemented iovation's ReputationManagerTM, a device-based fraud management service that helps reduce online fraud and abuse, across the company's portfolio of over 500 sites. To date, iovation has helped WhiteLabelDating.com successfully block over 1,200 fraudulent and abusive attempts within its network. FULL ARTICLE @ AD HOC NEWS

Mark Brooks: iovation is now live with several sizable dating sites. In a nutshell, you can collaberate with other dating site owners to kick the bad guys off your site.  They are funded by Intel Capital and SAP amongst others.  See iovation.com for a news clip with the CEO,  Greg Pierson. He describes iovation as a virtual crime fighter.  41st Parameter is another option.  (Disclosure: iovation and WhiteLabelDating.com are clients of Courtland Brooks)

Online Matchmaking Sites Court U.S. Muslims

WOMENS ENEWS - May 29 -- Even though El Jamal lives in the United States, she expects her route to marriage will follow the customs of her Palestinian family and many traditional Muslims. Neither El Jamal nor her parents think the Internet is the place for a Muslim woman to meet a suitor. However a growing online matchmaking movement has Muslim women elbowing aside courtship traditions from their computer keyboards. Sites, such as Arablounge.com, which has 275,000 members including Arab Muslims and Christians, cater to ethnic communities. Others, like Muslima.com and Naseeb.com, are for Muslims of all ethnicities. FULL ARTICLE @ WOMENS ENEWS

Matchmaking Sites Work Harder To Attract Clients In Slump

DALLAS NEWS -- May 29 -- Along with the high-profile pay sites such as Match.com and True.com, a flood of free sites, such as PlentyofFish.com, niche sites and even social networks vie for amorous clicks. Match.com's nearly $350m in revenue and 1.35m paying subscribers place it atop the industry. True.com doesn't disclose revenue figures but its Internet traffic fell the most of any of the top 20 dating sites measured by ComScore in March, down 39% over last year. "The market for paying users of online dating is nearing its natural limit", said Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliott. Free sites and niche sites for ethnic or gay daters are a greater lure, he wrote. FULL ARTICLE @ DALLAS NEWS

OKCupid's Investor/Partner Pitch

THE PARADIGM SHIFT -- May 28 -- OKCupid power point investor/partner pitch. Evidently Match.com has only 1.2m active users every 8 weeks. Meetic only has 400,000 active users and no other dating sites in the industry break 100k active members in two month time span!  Okcupid supposedly has 500k "active members" and PlentyofFish is excluded. FULL ARTICLE @ THE PARADIGM SHIFT

WhiteLabelDating Debuts Mobile Platform

NETIMPERATIVE -- May 28 -- WhiteLabelDating.com has recently launched a mobile dating platform for its Singles365.com site. The new mobile platform, developed by Mobestar, will enable users to access their online dating services via their mobile for the first time. WhiteLabelDating.com will roll out its mobile services to all partners free of charge, allowing them to run their own mobile dating services alongside their regular online dating site, providing new revenue streams with no extra running costs. FULL ARTICLE @ NETIMPERATIVE

Mobestar Launches Its Own Branded Dating Site Using WhiteLabelDating.com

BUSINESS WIRE -- May 27 -- Mobestar launched its own branded dating site, 2nd Connection. 2nd Connection will be the company's first business to consumer (B2C) service and has been constructed using Mobestar's products and services. It will be aimed at the lucrative '30 plus' market. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: WhiteLabelDating.com is powering Mobestars's dating site.  Mobestar's key competitoin are Trilibis (powers Match and Webdate), Plutolife (powers a dating site that starts with L and ends in life), and Enpocket (powered Match in the past) are the leading competitors for Mobestar.  (Disclosure: WhiteLabelDating.com is a client of Courtland Brooks)

BharatMatrimony To Offer Health Check Ups

MONEY CONTROL -- May 27 -- Metropolis Health Services India, experts in healthcare since 1981, and BharatMatrimony, India's leading matrimony portal, launched a joint initiative to promote premarital health check ups. Members of BharatMatrimony can avail the pre-marital health check up at special prices and also upload the certificate as part of their profile. Such profiles will be highlighted as "Health Profiles". Premarital health check ups help in preventing untoward instances of contracting infectious or sexually transmitted diseases, abandonment due to the same, reducing health risk for future progeny. FULL ARTICLE @ MONEY CONTROL

 

Mark Brooks: Honesty Online offered a similar check in the U.S.A. but there was very little call for a $200+ in-person identity verification, background check, and health check including an AIDS test.  Now Honesty Online offers a ~$10 background check.

World Dating Partners Teams With BuddyCheck

PRESS RELEASE -- May 27 -- World Dating Partners (WDP) have selected BuddyCheck to provide Age & ID Verification Services to its' members. The BuddyCheck Age & ID Verification solutions consists of providing a matching technology driven through match codes that will confirm or deny the potential member when signing up for the service behinds the scenes. Verification is provided in a real-time transactional environment often taking an average response time ranges from 2.5 to 2.8 seconds. FULL ARTICLE @ SMP

Japan Panel Urges Limit On Mobiles Use By Children

AFP -- May 27 -- A Japanese government panel called on parents and schools to help limit the use of mobile phones by children to prevent them from accessing "harmful" information on websites. While about a third of Japanese primary school students aged 7-12 use mobiles, by the time they get to high school that figure rises to 96%, according to a government survey last December. The advisory council on education made the proposal to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda as children become more prone to crimes involving dating websites and bullying on Internet school bulletin boards. FULL ARTICLE @ AFP

Mark Brooks: I attended and spoke at the Asian social networking and internet dating conference in Tokyo earlier this month. 'Internet dating' seems like a dirty word in Japan, alas. The internet dating industry has developed a reputation for illicit encounters, under-age connections, and casual dating in Japan.      

Love Is Everywhere Launch

PR WEB -- May 27 -- Paul Falzone, a matchmaker with more than 30 years of experience and CEO of dating service The Right One/Together Dating, believes that everyone has a soul mate out there waiting to be discovered. He is promoting his "Love is Everywhere" campaign. Monthly, Falzone will issue tips on where the best places to meet singles are for that particular time of year. The Right One/Together Dating do it the old-fashioned way: one-to-one interviews, caring guidance and a focus on compatibility. "The average initial length of time we spend with a client can be as much as three hours," says Falzone, adding that the process includes being interviewed by a matchmaker, getting personal matches based on extensive research and even running background checks on prospective dates to improve the safety factor. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Dating Site For Miners And Gold Diggers

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK -- May 26 -- An Australian dating service Meet a Mining Man is being launched with the promise to play matchmaker between gold miners and "gold diggers". It is targeted at fly-in, fly-out workers, who spend weeks at a time in dusty mining camps. The dating service will be launched this week in Western Australia, the state profiting most from the sale of iron ore and other minerals, including gold, to China. FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

Matchmaking, The Ultimate Government Service

NY TIMES -- May 25 -- Next month, Justin Mei, 20, will be on his way to the Love Boat. That's the nickname for a month long cultural tour of Taiwan sponsored and partly subsidized by the Taiwanese government. The program, officially called the Expatriate Youth Summer Formosa Study Tour to Taiwan is designed to expose young people with Taiwanese roots to the motherland through courses in Mandarin, sightseeing and traditional arts. This trip has a reputation for flirtations, flings and wedding proposals. According to Census Bureau figures, the percentage of Asian women born in the US who marry Asian men has declined to 37% from 59% since 1994. The proportion of American-born Asian men who marry Asian women has also dropped, to 52% from 65%. Taglit-Birthright Israel, a program that sends young American Jews on 10-day trips to Israel, is less guarded about its romantic record. A survey conducted in 2000 and 2001 by United Jewish Communities found that American Jews who married since 1996 had an intermarriage rate of 47%. The Israeli government partly sponsors Taglit (Hebrew for "discovery"). FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

16% OF Canadians Found Love Online

CALGARY HERALD -- May 24 -- Canadians seem to love being in love, a new survey by Ipsos Reid has found. 7 in 10 Canadians are romantically in love right now -- with more women (80%) than men (67%) feeling amorous. The poll also found that 16% of Canadians had found love online, with the younger demographic having more success. Only 7% of those aged 55 and older had started a relationship online. But Markus Frind, founder of online dating site PlentyofFish.com, says the average age of his members is 37. "It's so obvious that people would use online dating over other methods," said Frind. "If you're 35 and single, what are the chances of you meeting someone at a bar or a grocery store who is exactly what you want?" FULL ARTICLE @ CALGARY HERALD. Also in the OTTAWA CITIZEN, the NANAIMO DAILY NEWS, the WINDSOR STAR, the VANCOUVER SUN, the STAR PHOENIX and the WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Mature Woman Seeks Suitor For Dates And Perhaps More

FINANCIAL TIMES -- May 24 -- Toyboywarehouse.com is aimed at strong independent women who don't want a pipe and slippers man", said its founder Julia Macmillan. She came up with the idea for a more targeted site after seeing how many friends were dating or marrying younger men. The site, launched 18 months ago and has 10,000 registered members. Julia is keen to expand internationally, starting with a US launch in the autumn. Mark Brooks, a US-based dating consultant and blogger with Onlinepersonalswatch.com says this part of the market may have been overlooked: "There is not too much in the way of competition in the so-called cougar niche. There are few niches left in the online dating industry and this is one of them. It should do well." Hitwise says there are 1,368 UK dating sites, up from 1,123 a year ago, of which the top 5 (Plentyoffish.com, SexintheUK.com, Gaydar.co.uk, DatingDirect.com and Match.com) account for 37% of visitors. Mr Brooks says: "You'd have thought the big sites would be trouncing the niches but they're just not." FULL ARTICLE @ FINANCIAL TIMES

Mark Brooks: You would think that biggest is best, when if comes to internet dating sites.  But many singles have a particular 'thing' that is extremely important for them.  They might want to just date a christian, or an Asian, or someone who has kids, or someone who is into bondage.  Internet dating sites have enabled singles to explore and discover and develop more specific preferences. There's a niche out there for most preferences these days.  Many singles want to choose from more specialized pools of singles. 

FriendScout24, Christoph Mempel - CEO Interview

OPW INTERVIEW -- May 24 -- FriendScout24 is the top internet dating site in Germany and Switzerland and ranked #3 in Spain. See rankings. Here's our interview with the CEO, Christoph Mempel. - Mark Brooks

What is FriendScout24's founding story?
FriendScout24 was founded 1997 under the name People United by private founders in Cologne. In 2000, People United was acquired by the Scout24 group, a private finance company, and was renamed FriendScout24. The company then moved from Cologne to Munich, where most of the Scout24 companies are located. In 2003, the Deutsche Telekom Group, the largest telecommunications group in Germany, which has an internet presence, bought the whole Scout24 group, including FriendScout24.

How many people work at FriendScout24 now?
Right now we have 90 employees, and we think by the end of the year there will be about 110. We are constantly growing. To give you an idea of our development: we started with 5 to 10 people after the acquisition by Scout24.

How would you characterize FriendScout24 against your competition, and how is the service different?
In Germany, we have with 7 millon members the largest database of singles. FriendScout24 is the market leader and stands for reliable and first class service. For example, we constantly work to secure the authenticity of the user profiles. We want to offer our users everything they need, to get the best chance of finding the right partner by offering them a big variety of interesting singles. I think this is the most important thing to know about FriendScout24.

I see you're in Germany and Spain, Italy, Austria and Switzerland. With your top 3 positions in Germany, Spain and Switzerland, how are things going in Italy, which I hear is the emerging market for Internet dating.
This year, we could add the Netherlands to that list. We launched our service in the Netherlands at the end of January. Regarding the Italian market, we're doing quite well. We entered Italy almost a year ago and the market situation is similiar to Spain. The challenge right now is getting more and more online traffic in Italy. We support our brand with a lot of press work, furthermore we are working on identifying different channels, which we can use to push the online traffic and the business opportunities in Italy in general.

How have you reached out to users via mobile phones?
In Germany, we launched a mobile application very early and we were one of the first companies to implement such a service. However, this was no focus for our business for quite a while, because the technical development of mobile phones was not that fast. Now it is emerging again. Therefore we will extend our mobile application features, and will also implement new product innovations in this field.

Have you also considered launching applications on social networks such as Facebook and other local networks?
It's interesting that you ask, as this is also on our list this year. We believe, that this is not a big topic right now. In Germany, the social network companies, including Facebook, are ready to start with a German site and there are further popular sites, e.g. StudiVZ. We are monitoring this segment of the market very seriously and will - based on the developments - check the appreciation for such applications.

One of the arguments that I hear time and time again is that social networking is pulling people away from the Internet dating market. Is that true or do you think the two can work together?
I think they can work together. We don't see a shift in people going away from dating sites to social network sites and I believe it's still a different business. Two years ago, when the hype about social communities started, we weren't sure if there would be an impact on our work and if this would draw a lot of users from our sites. In reality, we can't see a big impact of social communities on our work, because the focus is quite different. Besides, social networks are successful in Germany, and especially StudiVZ, in terms of page impressions, is a very highly ranked site, regarding the younger target group. However, our members are not only looking for a social network, but also for a targeted search of a soulmate. We have 9,000 registrations daily, so they don't appear to be a real threat.

What are your goals for FriendScout24 over the coming year?
One of our main goals for this year is to secure and expand our market leadership in Germany. We see a market consolidation right now in Germany. For the last 3 – 4 years everyone expected a consolidation, but it didn't happen in Germany. Therefore it is important for us, to keep and to strengthen our position. There is a lot going on in the German market. I'm sure you're informed about Meetic, which acquired Neu.de, a big player in Germany.

A second goal is to expand our European presence. We have a few other countries on our list to launch our product this year.

Talking about product innovation, we do have a lot of convenient features for our users. It's our main focus, to offer a big variety of attractive features which make it easy, fun and successful to find a partner.

 

Matchmakers To Introduce Quality Certification System In Tokyo

TMC NET -- May 23 -- A total of 2,871 complaints over marriage services were filed with the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan in 2007, surging about 80% from 2000. An industry association set up by eight major marriage-services, including O-net Inc. and Zwei Co will introduce a system to certify their quality of service. Under the new system, companies will be checked if their service is meeting a service guideline compiled by METI and the industry association. According to METI, an estimated 370 to 3,900 firms are providing marriage services, with service content ranging from traditional meeting arrangements to Internet-based matchmaking. About 600,000 people are said to have used the services of these companies. FULL ARTICLE @ TMC NET

Privacy And Online Dating Are Not Mutually Exclusive

THE CANADIAN -- May 23 -- Today, about 40% of single adults use online dating. The problem with most dating sites is they offer no privacy. On Sparkbliss, a free dating site founded in March 2008, each member develops a private network of trusted friends and families who can view his/her profile and make romantic introductions on their behalf. Members have complete control over who they invite into their private network. FULL ARTICLE @ THE CANADIAN

Social Networking Conference Speaker

OPW -- May 22 -- The Social Networking Conference in San Francisco July 10th-11th is shaing up very nicely. A very highly esteemed keynote speaker has been confirmed today and will be announced shortly. Hint: If it wasn't for this man, the social networking industry probably would not exist. Watch this space. - Mark Brooks

Homosexuality Around The World

OPW -- May 22 -- This is a fascinating map of how homosexuality is recognised and persecuted against around the world.  In South Africa gay marriage is recognised. Two countries over gays get 11+ years imprisonment in Malawi and Zambia. Further North, in the Sudan, gays are executed.

FastLife Speed Dating In China

PRESS RELEASE -- May 22 -- FastLife Speed Dating, the international singles events service, is set to launch in China on 31st May 2008. FastLife will invite Zhenai.com's (China's leading online dating website, formerly known as 96333.com) eight million registered members to participate in stylish speed dating events in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou. FULL ARTICLE @ FAST LIFE

Mark Brooks: Speed dating is popular in China. Irena and I spent 2 months in Shanghai last year after the Asian Internet Dating Conference. The main challenge for Chinese idating companies is monthly billing. Very few Chinese users have credit cards. So dating sites bill via cell phones. However, the government effectively halved the maximum amount that can be charged on a recurring basis...from ~$3 to ~$1.50 a month. 96333.com is run by Dr Song Li, a frequent, vocal and very knowledgeable attendee of the internet dating conferences.