Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

ChristianMingle Hits Milestone

PRESS RELEASE -- June 30 -- Spark Networks announced today ChristianMingle, a Christian dating site that launched in 2001, has crossed the 2 million member mark. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTH TIMES

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Kris Covino Wins Scammer Email Competition

OPW -- June 29 -- After receiving an email on this post from a scammer, we launched a scammer email competition to see who could come up with a better scammer email. Kris Covino of Date.com wins the competition and we've donated $200 to his favorite charity, the Sick Kids Foundation.

Internet Dating Unplugged

GUARDIAN.CO.UK -- June 27 -- 15m people in the UK are single, and almost 5m are shopping for love online. According to Markus Frind, the CEO of Plentyoffish, 1/3 of POF users form a relationship, 1/3 do not and 1/3 give up. One in five married people between the ages of 19 and 25 met their partner online, in a YouGov poll of more than 2,000. 15% of couples met online. Research at Bath University found that internet relationships lasted, on average, seven months. Clyde Baldo, a psychologist who works with disillusioned internet daters, said "Many people are addicted to online dating. The problems lie in the fact that it is not a real relationship, but one in cyberspace. When you meet people conventionally, friends or colleagues introduce you. These factors create boundaries, so you tend to behave better. This doesn't exist on the internet.  Dr Paige Padgett of the University of Texas has conducted a survey of the personal and sexual safety of women who internet date. 30% of women who meet men on the internet have sex on the first date. Of those, 77% do not use condoms. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

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New Mobile Apps Make Adultery Easier

TIME -- June 29 -- AshleyMadison.com, a personals site designed to facilitate extra-marital affairs, has released an iPhone and Blackberry app. AshleyMadison's membership has doubled over the past year to 4m. Over the past month alone, 679,000 men and women have used the service to contact a cheating partner. FULL ARTICLE @ TIME

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Startups Smell Userplane Blood

TECH CRUNCH -- June 29 -- There has been no shortage of talk about the apparent demise of Userplane, the text, voice and video chat software provider that was acquired by AOL in August 2006 for around $40m. Darin Ohlandt, General Manager of Userplane, responded to the rumors saying they are definitely not shutting down. A recent thread on OnlinePersonalsWatch suggested that the site would be deadpooled by its owner soon. A developer commented on the thread claiming he had tried to contact Userplane for weeks through e-mails, voice calls and social networks and received no response.  Many startups with competing solutions are taking advantage of the rumors about Userplane's impending shut-down. Toksta is the most outspoken one, having set up a special page for Userplane clients who are looking to switch to an alternative provider. Other competitors include Meebo and ekkoTV. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

Mark Brooks: I had two high trust sources that I've known for several years confirm that Userplane was to be retired. Not sold, just quietly retired. Userplane is having life breathed back into it.  Good.  It would be a shame to lose the company to the deadpool.   

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As Seniors Live Longer They Find 'Love Expectancy' Also Grows

MC CLATCHY NEWSPAPERS -- June 26 -- Seniors are the fastest-growing users of Internet dating services and the fastest growing group of cohabiters. Longer healthy life expectancy is part of the explanation. According to Mark Brooks, a consultant and newsletter writer who tracks the Internet-dating industry, the number of seniors joining online dating services has risen at double-digit rates annually since 2003, the most of any age group. According to Susan Brown, a demographer at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, cohabiting among older people increased 50% from 2000 to 2006. The older they get, the more senior men favor younger women, according to researchers. Good men are hard to find. Unmarried women aged 65 to 74 outnumber men of that age by more than two to one. Mark Brooks said seniors' personal ads often were deceptive about sex and commitment: "Women lie about wanting casual relationships. Men lie about wanting long-term ones." FULL ARTICLE @ THE STATE

People Media Launches New Niche Online Dating Sites

PRWEB -- June 25 -- People Media, a provider of niche online dating communities, launched six new targeted dating sites for AOL Personals and re-launched all of its existing sites. The new People Media-powered AOL Personals communities are designed expressly for niche audiences, such as BlackPeopleMeet.com for black singles. Additional sites are for singles seeking Jews, Catholics, Christians, single parents and seniors. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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Attivio Partners With FriendScout24

PR NEWSWIRE -- June 25 -- Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) has been selected to power Deutsche Telekom's FriendScout24. Using Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine, FriendScout24 was able to create a more user-friendly site with real-time field updates that lets visitors know which members best match their dating criteria and are actually present online at that moment. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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World-class Rapper Partners With PlentyofFish.com

PRWEB -- June 25 -- PlentyOfFish.com, the largest online dating site in the USA, and world-class rapper, Flo Rida, are teaming up to unveil his latest video, ‘Available’. The music video can be found at http://www.plentyoffish.com/florida.aspx. While dating sites have often been featured in movies and TV shows, ‘Available’ marks the first time that the online dating industry and the world of hip-hop have partnered up to spread their messages across both platforms. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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A Matchmaking Jukebox

FSB MAGAZINE -- June 24 -- When Christian Wiklund lauched Skout in 2008, he had no idea he was getting into the dating business. Skout developed a free social network that allowed anyone with a GPS-ready cell phone to view photos uploaded by nearby Skout members, along with their geographic distance. Skout became a dating database that more than 2,000 people browse every day (out of a total of 500,000 members). Skout OUT is a new service that will be in 10,000 bars across the U.S. later this year. Those bars have already installed 42-inch plasma touch-screen computers. The touchscreens will show pictures of Skout users within a mile radius who have agreed to be listed on Skout OUT. Users can send messages to prospective hookups, send a virtual "drink" or the name of the song the jukebox is about to play -- dedicated to the object of their affection. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN MONEY

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Dating From The Dorm Room

BOSTON GLOBE -- June 24 -- In 2007, eHarmony lowered the minimum age for completing its membership questionnaire from 21 to 18. Mark Brooks, who runs a consulting firm for online dating sites, said interest in online dating among young people has increased over the past few years. “These youngsters started on social networks; they warmed up on Friendster, they drifted to MySpace, then Facebook,’’ he said. “They are used to having a world of choice under their fingertips, and they are more demanding of a good match. And so, according to Brooks, today’s 18-to-22-year-olds are far more likely to look for love online than previous generations were. Most dating sites like eHarmony, Match.com, and the Jewish dating site JDate accept members 18 and older. Others like Universityloveconnection.com and Campushook.com are restricted to people enrolled in school; Studentlove.com requires users to have a “.edu’’ e-mail address to sign up. FULL ARTICLE @ BOSTON GLOBE

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Former CEO Of World Dating Partners Joins WhiteLabelDating.com

WHITE LABEL DATING BLOG -- June 23 -- Frank Dethridge, former CEO of World Dating Partners, has joined WhiteLabelDating.com as Affiliate Manager. Dethridge will be launching an affiliate system and working closely with WLD partners to help them make the most from the affiliate channel. FULL ARTICLE @ WLD BLOG

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Wisconsin Justice Department Sues Great Expectations

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- June 23 -- The Milwaukee-area office of Great Expectations has violated Wisconsin's no-call law, exaggerated the number of participants' marriages and misrepresented its prices, according to a lawsuit filed by the state Justice Department. FULL ARTICLE @ CHICAGO TRIBUNE

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Virtual Greats Partners With Viximo

PR WEB -- June 23 -- Virtual Greats, a virtual goods and sales distribution system, and Viximo, which provides content, analytics, and virtual currency solutions to publishers (social networks, dating sites, gaming sites, etc) and content creators (brands, media, digital artists), today announced a partnership deal providing publishers with turnkey virtual goods solutions, including an unrivalled library of branded entertainment, sports and fashion content. FULL ARTICLE @ EMEDIA WIRE

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Giving eHarmony An A For Effort

EHARMONY BLOG -- June 23 -- It is time to acknowledge and recap how eHarmony is giving more value to the subscription dollars.

   1. A perceptible reduction in romance scammers.
   2. Refunds when the subscriber forgets to turn off autorenew.
   3. Empathic customer service representatives, as long as you contact them on the phone and not email.
   4. A discussion forum that is free to join, is looked after, and that keeps on adding new community features.
   5. At least six free communication weekends in a year.
   6. “$9.95 a month” pricing available almost anytime.
   7. Three to four Advice articles each week; many of which are entertaining and many of which surprisingly make sense.
   8. Match Settings interface change — Google Maps.
FULL ARTICLE @ EHARMONY BLOG

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Vindicia A Perfect Match For Online Buddies

PRESS RELEASE -- June 23 -- Online Buddies, an online dating service for the gay community, has implemented Vindicia on-demand CashBox billing system for improved subscription management. Both companies will be at the Internet Dating Conference (iDate) in Los Angeles from June 24-26. Critical to Online Buddies' business strategy is Vindicia's support for global payment methods -- from credit cards to Boleto Bancario, a specific payment method in Brazil. Vindicia offers an integrated, on-demand billing and fraud management solution for online merchants. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTH TIMES

Five Reason Why People Send Virtual Gifts

VIRTUAL GOODS INSIDER -- June 23 -- Last year, Viximo, released its first product in partnership with BigDates Solutions, makers of the Birthday Calendar, one of small number of Verified Applications on Facebook. Viximo’s first product is a drop-in virtual gifting system that allows developers of social networks, apps, and other community based websites to add a virtual gifting based revenue stream to their businesses. When Facebook launched its Gifts program in Feb '07, many predicted that the program would be a dismal failure. During its first year, Facebook Gifts generated an estimated $15m revenue. People are willing to pay for virtual gifts. Women are responsible for 80% of virtual giftings while men are responsible for 20% of virtual giftings. Why are people giving virtual gifts?

- Virtual Gifts as Greeting Cards

- Virtual Gifts as Signals

- Virtual Gifts as Accolades - Virtual gifts can be used in the place of ratings as the basis for a reputation system.

- Virtual Gifts as Social Play

- Virtual Gifts as Reciprocation - People give gifts, in part, because they want to elicit a positive response from the recipient, and recipients tend to feel indebted to the giver until they have reciprocated in kind.
FULL ARTICLE @ VIRTUAL GOODS INSIDER

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Winners Of 2009 American Business Awards Announced

OPW NEWS -- June 23 -- eHarmony.com won “Customer Service Team of the Year” at The 7th Annual American Business Awards, which were presented last night at a gala ceremony in New York City. The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.  For a complete list of the 2009 American Business Award honorees in all categories, visit: www.stevieawards.com/aba.

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The Right One Opened A New Office In Chicago

PRESS RELEASE -- June 23 -- The new Chicago office is The Right One’s fifth office operating in Illinois, with other locations in Downers Grove, Rockford, Normal and Schaumburg. In the fourth quarter of 2008, The Right One and Together Dating showed an 18% increase in new memberships over 2007. Concurrently, the company has opened five new locations and has plans to open four more locations in the near future and the hiring will continue. FULL ARTICLE @ PR-INSIDE

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