OPW INTERVIEW – February 20, 2013 – AnastasiaDate is
a premium international dating portal with four separate sites that serve members
from throughout the world. I interviewed Lawrence Cervantes, Anastasia’s Chief
Communications Officer, to understand more about Anastasia and what they’re
about.
Who
are the founders of Anastasia, and what's their story?
Anastasia was founded in 1993 by a Russian woman who
immigrated to the U.S. and married an American. They named the company after
Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia who was reportedly quite a young
lady and a role model for young Russian women. The company actually began as a
specialized tour operator once the Wall collapsed. The owners originally took
groups of American men to Moscow and St. Petersburg on organized excursions to
meet single Russian women. The company soon became a success and expanded
operations to include more and more cities throughout Russia and Ukraine. Then
in 2003 Anastasia went online and has achieved amazing growth year on year. Since
then we’ve gone worldwide with 4 main sites: AnastasiaDate.com, AmoLatina.com, AsianBeauties.com,
and AfricaBeauties.com.
What
business is AnastasiaDate in?
Anastasia is in the business of international dating.
We mix the concepts of international romance and modern love, and I’m happy to
say that we have the lion’s share of the market. More and more it’s not just
about domestic dating. As the net and travel break down barriers to business
and society, more people are aware of the possibilities and ease of finding
romance throughout the world. We enable that.
How
many members does AnastasiaDate have now?
Our family of sites connects over 4,000,000 members in
over 110 countries, and we have regularly organized social activities throughout
the year on 3 continents.
Where is AnastasiaDate based?
We have principle offices in New York and Moscow, with
regional offices in Odessa, Ukraine, in Chongqing and Foshan, China, in Cebu
the Philippines, and in Medellin, Colombia.
Do
you have a mobile app?
Any day now…we’ll have more on a mobile application for
Apple and Android within a few weeks and we’re very excited about that.
How is AnastasiaDate different from other Internet dating
services?
I like to say that we’re the next
generation of dating. While the vast majority of dating sites have forever focused
on domestic connections primarily with sometimes a smattering of foreign
members, we concern ourselves with international relationships almost
exclusively. As expanding facets of travel and tech enables the average person
to discover and learn more about the world outside their own country, they
discover new cultures, people, and realize the possibility for romance on
another level. We help them connect. This concept is growing in scope and
awareness, and is the reason we exist. It’s night and day a different direction
and focus than most dating sites.
How do you make money?
Like everyone we’re always looking for ways
to create new revenue streams through technology, new services, improving what
we have, better customer service which we’re very proud of by the way. I think
like anyone will tell you, bringing home bacon is a cumulative effect, so we
need to keep our finger on a lot of pulses. Whereas Chat hasn’t gone as far as
we think it can in the U.S., internationally it’s done very well by us.
Who are the users typically?
Our demo is the 30 to 60 age group who are
interested in romance and finding a mate from a number of countries. The U.S. contains
the usual suspects, followed by UK, Germany, France and Italy. We’re big in
Latin America especially Colombia, and China.
What is AnastasiaDate focused on for 2013-2014?
Mobile is a big directional push as it’s growing on all internet
user fronts. We’ve recently added considerable muscle to our senior management
team, so there should be strong acceleration in growth. We’re looking afresh at
acquisitions and ventures, and we’re growing more charity participation. I’m
publishing a book, so stay tuned.
