Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

BharatMatrimony.com Live On Airtel

PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 29 -- BharatMatrimony.com, Indian matrimony portal launch its services on Airtel, India's leading mobile telecom service provider. Airtel subscribers can access the matrimony services with GPRS enabled handsets across the country. FULL ARTICLE @ OPEN PR

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10 Ways To Recession-Proof Your Romance

PR WEB -- Sep 27 --

1. Show each other the money - "In romantic relationships, communication is key," said Tasha Cunningham, creator of DontDateHimGirl.com.
2. Share the pain - Talk to your significant other about any concerns, fears or thoughts you might have about your finances.
3. Give up the goods - Cut back on dinners out and cook together at home instead.
4. Go date-free and still have fun - Plan dates with your sweetheart that don't cost a thing.
5. Don't fight over money
6. Don't hide money from your partner
7. Book a lavish vacation
8. Challenge each other to save
9. Do things for a dollar - Check out a dollar movie theatre, or hit a dollar store together for fun.
10. Retrain your brains - Train yourself to cut back on the things you both love

FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

PlentyofFish Passes 2 Billion Matches

PARADIGM SHIFT -- Sep 26 -- I saw this post from eHarmony this morning showing 1 billion matches since 2000.  PlentyofFish passed 1 Billion emails this weekend at iDate in London. We also passed 2 Billion matches generated by our matching system since 2005 or so. Stay tuned for  2 major press releases in the coming weeks,  both of which will have a major impact on the industry. FULL ARTICLE @ PARADIGM SHIFT

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DontDateHimGirl.com Integrates Free Sex Offender Search

1888PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 26 -- DontDateHimGirl.com has implemented a new search interface on the site, created by PredatorBarrier.com, which will allow users to find out if the guy they're dating is a registered sex offender in the U.S. PredatorBarrier.com offers its services at no charge in the form of both traditional and mobile device portals. FULL ARTICLE @ 1888PRESS RELEASE

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Japan's Online Social Scene Isn't So Social

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD -- Sep 26 -- The vast majority of mixi's roughly 15m users don't reveal anything about themselves. It's not just mixi. It's Japan. Fewer than half of Match's members in Japan are willing to post their photos, compared with nearly all members in the U.S. Google, which operates YouTube, has tried to convince the Japanese to loosen up, running events in Tokyo in which girls in miniskirts roam the streets with giant picture frames and video cameras, soliciting pedestrians to frame themselves and record a clip for the site. "When we did research in Japan, we found that the No. 1 reason for not using online dating is that they don't know if people are real or not," says Match.com's Japan president, Katsu Kuwano. The company hopes to make more people show themselves online by defining itself in a less Web-centric way. Match has also held offline events at Tokyo restaurants. FULL ARTICLE @ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

See all posts on Match.com

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Interview With Darren Richards, Founder Of Dating Direct

GLOBAL EDGE -- Sep 25 -- Darren Richards grew Dating Direct from nothing into the UK's largest dating site with over 4m monthly users. He sold out to Meetic for £30m in 2007. He talks to Globaledge about his plans to repeat his success in the property portal market with PropertyIndex.com.

Q: How running a dating site compares to operating a property portal?
A: The challenges are actually very similar. Both businesses are about using the internet to bring people together, either on a date or introducing buyers to sellers in the case of property.

Q: You had first-mover advantage back in the nineties with Dating Direct. It must be very different working in such a saturated market?
A: We always put the user at the heart of the online experience and stayed two steps ahead of the competition.

Q: How do you plan to do this with PropertyIndex?
A:  We have over 150,000 properties from over 1,000 agents. We offer agents very competitive pricing but we realise that we need to be more innovative, both in terms of our offering to consumers and agents.

Q: For example?
A:  On the consumer side, we have a number of Web 2.0 innovations in the pipeline and we plan to go further than anyone else in this respect. I'm a big fan of sites like TripAdvisor. 

Q: Is there anything you can tell me about your plans to improve your proposition to agents and developers?
A: Our lead numbers are growing rapidly at the moment which is ultimately what agents judge us on. Leads were up 70% between July and August and so far for September, we are 25% ahead of where we were last month. In terms of improving the proposition, we recently introduced featured positions and branding on a cost-per-click basis which is something most other portals don't do. Pay-per-performance is generally what agents want and we'll continue to innovate with this in mind.
READ FULL INTERVIEW @ GLOBAL EDGE

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eHarmony: 1 Billion Served

EHARMONY BLOG -- Sep 25 -- Sometime this morning, eHarmony is serving its one billionth match. eHarmony's match ID turns ten digits sometime between 12 midnight and 3 am PST today. That's the number of pairings the system has made since it started off circa August 2000. FULL ARTICLE @ EHARMONY BLOG

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VIP Party Connecting Sugar Daddies With Gorgeous Girls

PR WEB -- Sep 25 -- SeekingArrangement.com, the sugar daddy dating site announces "SUGAR", the exclusive VIP party for wealthy sugar daddies, millionaires and gorgeous girls seeking arrangements. The event will be held in Las Vegas on December 3, 2008. Event ticket for men at the door is $2000, for girls $300. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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HOT Or NOT Gets Face Lift

BUSINESS WIRE -- Sep 24 -- HOT or NOT have redesigned their website. The site now includes more robust profiles that feature the company's proprietary HOTLISTS brand affinity application, new virtual gifts, buddy lists and faster access to HOT or NOT gossip and celebrity ratings. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

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Finding Love Is Still Worth The Investment

WASHINGTON POST -- Sep 24 -- Today an estimated 120,000 marriages a year result from Internet matches, according to Online Dating Magazine. The population of U.S. singles 15 and older (the Census Bureau's age cutoff) grew to 119.9m in 2007 from 100.9m in 2000 and 86.8m in 1990, according to census data. The U.S. online dating market totaled $649m in revenue in 2006, according to Jupiter Research, and is expected to reach $932m by 2011. Economists say it's not that people are spending more on dating, they're just willing to spend it differently. "Before they were spending money in bars " says Emir Kamenica of the University of Chicago. Now, he says, at least some of that money goes to dating services. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

Dating Sites Hang On Despite Increasing Competition

IDG SERVICE -- Sep 23 -- Owners and companies running dating Web sites are meeting Monday and Tuesday at the Internet Dating Conference in London to discuss challenges in their industry. The top dating sites in the U.K. for June were PlentyofFish, followed by Meetic, Match.com, Gaydar.co.uk and GirlsDateForFree, according to comScore. In North America, the top sites in June were PlentyofFish, Singlesnet, eHarmony, Match.com and Yahoo Personals. The number of page views for dating sites are falling, and people are spending less time but revenues are growing. The main revenue model is subscription. Other dating sites are offering premium services used by traditional matchmaking companies. A site in China, Zhenai, charges $200 a year for access to its online site and team of match matchers who work with singles over the phone. That's far less than fees charged by traditional matchmakers, which can cost $5,000 or more a year, said Mark Brooks, who runs a consultancy focusing on social networks and dating sites. FreeDating.co.uk is free, and makes money by showing ads. It's the same model used by PlentyofFish, a relatively simple site that debuted in 2003 and has surged to the top spot in the U.S. and U.K. markets. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD

See all posts on PlentyofFish                 See all posts on Singlesnet
See all posts on Meetic                          See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on Match.com                    See all posts on Yahoo Personals
See all posts on Gaydar                         See all posts on Zhenai
See all posts on GirlsDateForFree

David Thornton Named National Call Center Director At TRO & TD

PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 22 -- The Right One and Together Dating, the traditional dating service, has recently promoted David Thornton to the position of National Call Center Director. Thornton has 19 years of experience in the dating service industry. He started out working for TD in the Midwest in 1989 and was the service's first telemarketer. Over the years, Thornton wore many hats, including that of matchmaker, sales consultant and Regional Sales Director. Thornton's longevity at TRO & TD is matched by a number of other team members, including Terry Fitzpatrick, COO, who has been with the company for 18 years and Brenan McGarrigle, a Relationship Consultant who has approximately 600 marriages to her credit during her 25 year tenure. FULL ARTICLE @ PR-INSIDE

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WooMe Lets You Post Your Online Video Dates To The Public

TECH CRUNCH -- Sep 22 -- WooMe, the site that throws users into 60-second one-on-one online video sessions, will now allow users to post recordings of their brief dating sessions to the public. The site is a direct competitor to SpeedDate, a video dating site that has recently been caught using some deceptive tactics on Facebook to gain users. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Discuss this at the iDate Forums

Flirtomatic Notches Up A Million Users

PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 23 -- Flirtomatic, the UK mobile and online flirting service, has now over one million registered users, mostly based in the UK and of which more than 50% are mobile users. Since August 2007, their revenue has increased by 475%. FULL ARTICLE @ PRESS OFFICE

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Thanks To OPW's Sponsors

OPW -- Sep 23 -- Thanks to Online Personals Watch sponsors for their ongoing support. - Mark Brooks

    * EasyDate
    * Fling.com
    * iovation
    * OmniDate
    * PlentyofFish
    * The Right One
    * Together Dating
    * WealthyMen.com
    * WhiteLabelDating.com

Iovation Is Exhibiting At iDate In London

BUSINESS WIRE -- Sep 22 -- iovation, the Device Reputation Authority for the Internet, is exhibiting to top level Internet dating executives at this week's Internet Dating and Social Networking Conference, Stand #5, at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel Kensington and Conference Center in London. Iovation performs over a billion fraud checks per year for its customers, 30% of which come from Internet dating and social networking sites. During the first half of 2008, the highest concentration of computers trying to abuse online communities that use iovation came from Belgium (9%), Ghana (8%) and the Philippines (6%). FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

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Research And Markets Released A New Analysis Of Mobile UGC

BUSINESS WIRE -- Sep 22 -- Research and Markets has released "Mobile User Generated Content: Dating, Social Networking and Personal Content Delivery 2008 - 2013" report. This study includes extensive one on one interviews with senior executives within the mobile user generated content space, profiles 33 key companies and organisations, discusses all the developments across mobile social networking, dating and personal content delivery over the past 12 months and presents current market data as well as six year forecasts. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKET WATCH

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Japanese Girl Sensation: Virtual Boyfriends

TECH CRUNCH -- Sep 20 -- Webkare ('Web Boyfriend' in Japanese) is a mix between a social network and dating simulation site and the newest web sensation in Japan. Girls choose between one of four different male cartoon characters they want to hook up with upon registration. They can then "communicate" with their digital crush in cartoon-like sequences to try to win over his heart in a virtual high school. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

WhiteLabelDating.com By The Numbers

WHITELABELDATING BLOG -- Sep 19 -- Partner revenues increased 348% since the beginning of 2007.

Since Internet World 2008 in May:
- 482 sites have been launched
- Our database of members has increased by 175%
- Revenue has grown by 58% month on month

- 243,136 credits have been spent online, additional to member subscription fees.

WLD took on 24 different dating websites from competitors. Including: Dateline.co.uk, FootlooseDating.co.uk, TabooPersonals.co.uk.
FULL ARTICLE @ WLD BLOG

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"Single" Documentary On Fox TV

OPW -- Sep 21 -- Jane Scandurra, co-producer/co-director of "Single", a documentary film, was featured in a fun interview on Fox TV "The morning show with Mike and Juliet".