Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Bang With Friends CEO Interview

OPW INTERVIEW - Apr 30 - This is a very unusual interview.  The CEO wanted to be anonymous. Bang With Friends is growing fast. Here’s their story... - Mark Brooks

Listen to the interview

When will Facebook be buying Bang With Friends?
I'm not sure they can afford us.

How much is it?
The rumors may or may not be true, but you'll have to ask them for more comments.

Well there was a post I saw and the price was $30 million.
Let's just say we’re in private talks.

Why anonymous?
We're anonymous because we started as a side project. It was a little joke and it's taken off on its own. We were working on other startups at the time and we didn't want to compromise those.

How many are on the founding team?
Three.

Who came up with the idea initially?
It was a team effort between all three of us. We started asking why is online dating so dishonest and so frustrating? Especially for Generation Y. We wanted to make something simple that allows you to straightforwardly say what you were into and what your intentions were. The most obvious case is finding friends with benefits.

So it sounds like you weren’t a fan of internet dating. What sites would you say are your least and most favorite? Are there any which have inspired you? Or inspired you to improve on?
The big guys don't really fit well with what we're doing as a younger generation. Even the new upstarts that we've seen haven't really gotten straight to the point like we have, and taken such an unabashed and simple approach.

How well has Bang With Friends been received by Facebook corporate?
We have a good relationship with Facebook. Of course they are careful with their brand, and we're working with them to make sure that everybody is happy.

You've got 820,000 users and 200,000 couples matched, which seems very high. How do you get so many couples?
A lot of it comes from the safety we provide. Since everybody that you're seeing is a friend of yours, you're much more likely to be interested in them and meet up with them. Also everybody has at least a few friends that they've always had an eye on.

Can you tell us your latest numbers?
We are definitely north of that 200,000 matches. I believe we are at around 880,000 signups now.

How successful is your app? And take that as you will.
We're happy just enabling more people to bang.

You have to have a sense of humor to use the app.
You need a sense of humor and it definitely plays toward the younger generation and the recognition of how important sex is.

How do you make money?
We don't. We're not worried about making money right now. We're all about the customer.

But you have some aspirations to make money, surely?
I'm sure we'll have some stuff coming out that helps us keep things going, but for the most part our goals here are staying focused on creating success for our users. We know that will drive our business forward.

Where will you be in 12 month's time with Bang With Friends?
You will see us move beyond just banging and beyond your friend group.

So Hang With Friends to go with Bang With Friends?
I can say it will be more generalized. More ways to meet up rather than strictly hook-ups.

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Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman Talks Marriage With His Wife

HUFFINGTON POST - Apr 3 - Creator Noel Biderman has been happily married for 10 years. His wife Amanda was featured on the company's new billboard campaign.

Q: Amanda, how did you react when Noel first told you about his plan to create an infidelity dating site?

Amanda: Originally, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t an emotional or personal issue.

Noel: She saw the passion in which I wanted to pursue this and she wanted to match that passion. I knew I had a true partner.

Q: Has running a site like AshleyMadison informed how you behave in your own marriage in any way?

Noel: Ironically, I talk about infidelity more than any man on the planet.

Amanda: This business has just made us stronger and more communicative.

by Kelsey Borresen
See full article at Huffington Post

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Foreign Businesses In Cyprus Grind To A Standstill

INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE - Mar 25 - Avid Life Media, the Canadian-owned operator of AshleyMadison.com, set up an office in Cyprus as a base for its international operations. Sure, the Avid Life Media executives were aware that a banking crisis was brewing, but they were assured in part by a promise from President Nicos Anastasiades when he was elected in February that he would soon arrange an equitable bailout with the international organizations that have guided the euro zone through four previous bailouts while keeping bank depositors whole. “We went from paradise to hell in a minute,” said Keith Lalonde, Avid Life Media’s top executive.The Cypriot government had just declared it would seize ~10% of the $2.6M, the company had on deposit in Cyprus.

by Alexandros Demetriades
See full article at Gnom News

Mark Brooks: Looks like that could be as much as 40% now.

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Move To Block Sugar Daddy Dating Website

SCOTSMAN - Mar 19 - Members of the University and College Union (UCU) will this week use their annual congress to call for a joint campaign to end what they call sexual exploitation by websites which connect female students with “benefactors”. SeekingArrangement claimed to be growing in popularity in Scotland, adding Edinburgh University to its “top 20 fastest growing sugar baby schools” in the UK. The website said there had been a 222% increase in female student sign-ups from the university since April 2012. “According to the site, the average female university student using the site receives £5K per month from their ‘benefactors’.

by Chris Marshall
See full article at Scotsman

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College 'Sugar Babies' Date For Cash

CNN - Feb 26 - SeekingArrangement.com reports that female college students made up 44% of the site's total users in 2012. With tuition on the rise, that number will likely continue to climb. Men who engage in such relationships, many of whom are older and married, enjoy taking care of young women and assuming a mentor role in their lives, said Steven Pasternack, who launched Sugardaddie.com in 2002. The average monthly "allowance" sugar daddies on the site said they shell out is $3K, according to SeekingArrangement.com. Surprisingly, sex isn't a given. It's obviously on the table but there are other motivations - to go out to eat or to have someone to talk to. SeekingArrangement.com's Wade said the men who subscribe to his site are discouraged from offering money on a per-date basis to avoid operating like an escort service.

by Stephanie Goldberg
See full article at CNN

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App Helps Facebook Friends Get Benefits

SF GATE - Feb 13 - Bang With Friends is a controversial app that, is supposed to be no-nonsense way to learn which of your friends is interested in having sex. The app lists Facebook friends, allowing a choice of males, females or both. Clicking a "Down to Bang" button below each profile picture sends a message. Both sides are notified only if the prospective banger responds, and then it's game on.

by Benny Evangelista
See full article at SF Gate

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10 Things Dating Sites Won’t Tell You

MARKETWATCH - Feb 8 -

1. Finding a soul mate is expensive
The industry is now worth about $1.2 billion, up 4% from a year ago. eHarmony, launched in 2000 and marketed toward people seeking long-term relationships, blazed a trail with its prices, charging some of the highest in the industry, says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch.

2. Everyone is single sooner or later
The fastest-growing segment is baby boomers.16% of online daters are 50+. In January, the advocacy group AARP launched its own dating service, AARP Dating, powered by HowAboutWe.com. The number of HowAboutWe users 50+ grew 173% in the past year. It’s a good fit, says Brooks, especially given that 25% of AARP’s 37M members are single.

3. Cupid’s arrow often misses
Dating sites pride themselves on the wizardry of their algorithms. “It’s very early in the online dating industry,” says Dan Slater, author of “Love in the Time of Algorithms”. "Sites have gotten better at cross-referencing what people say and do, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” he says.

4. So many liars, so little time
Over half of U.S. online daters lie on their profiles. On the plus side, people who lie online tend be people-pleasers and very self-aware, says Jeffrey A. Hall, assistant professor of communications at the University of Kansas.

5. And you thought Facebook was nosy
The more people learn about each other before the first date, the better, author Slater says. “But nothing is free,” he says, “you’re giving them a ton of data.”

6. This place is a hotbed of adulterers
While most sites don’t promote infidelity, some make it easy. AshleyMadison now has 18M members worldwide. Some experts say, the marriage and divorce rate has been unaffected by the Internet.

7. Don’t judge a person by their photo
“Men like it when a woman is looking into the camera, as a man wants to believe that a woman is focused on them exclusively,” says Slater, the author. Men who stare into the lens, on the other hand, should take care not to appear intimidating, he says.

8. Keep a close eye on your wallet
Consumers lost $50M to romance scams in 2011. On newer, smaller sites, as many as one in 10 profiles could be fake, according to Brooks. “Scammers come in droves, and they’re very aggressive.” He advises talking to someone on the phone before meeting.

9. Objectification: It’s what’s for dinner
On-the-go dating seems to be a hit. Mobile dating revenue is expected to nearly double over the next five years, from an estimated $251.2M in 2013, according to IBISWorld. Crazy Blind Date app, which pixelates user photos, was downloaded ~100K times in the first 24 hours of its launch last month.

10. Endless love — or endless chat?
The endless supply of fresh faces, and the modern worker’s lack of leisure time make it difficult for people to ever actually go out on a date, says Hall, of the University of Kansas. Match says it’s responsible for 12% of all dates in the U.S., while eHarmony is saying its service accounts for 5% of all weddings in the U.S. Users, meanwhile, typically stick to a site for three months before moving on, says Brooks. But then roughly one-fifth of members on the big sites return within 18 months, he says.

by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at MarketWatch

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Noel Biderman: Cheating Saves Marriages

THESUN.CO.UK - Jan 31 - Cheating is helping to save marriages, claims Noel Biderman, founder and CEO of AshleyMadison.com. The stats, from the Office of National Statistics, show that while the number of divorces caused by adultery has halved over the last 30 years, the number of unhappily married couples joining married dating sites has rocketed. The number of divorces in the UK decreased by 1.9% in 2011. AshleyMadison.com has 17M members worldwide and 730K members in the UK since launching in February 2002.

by Ellie Ross
See full article at TheSun.co.uk

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More Students Turning To 'Sugar Daddies'

CTV NEWS - Jan 24 - A growing number of Canadian university students confronted by rising tuition costs are turning to "Sugar Daddies". According to Brandon Wade, founder and CEO of SeekingArrangement.com, the ratio of female "Babies" vying for each man's attention is roughly 12:1. There are Sugar Mommies, too. Wade says his site has seen the number members who are university students grow from 30% in 2006 to ~50% last year.

See full article at CTV News

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Sugar Daddy Site: It’s Better Than Sex Work

SALON - Jan 9 - According to SeekingArrangement.com lates press release, their sugar babies make more money than prostitutes. Seeking Arrangement makes the following calculations: “The average Sugar Baby dates 1-3 men annually, receiving an average yearly allowance of ~$36K. If a prostitute makes on average $250 per transaction, she would have to have sex with presumably 100 men, performing over 144 sexual transactions.”

by Tracy Clark-Flory
See full article at Salon

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Online Dating Traffic Surges Between Boxing Day And New Year's Eve

HUFFINGTON POST - Dec 26 - Mark Brooks, a dating analyst and consultant to the Internet dating industry, said it was the endless stream of awkward questions from family members that prompted many to search for love online this time of year. “The effect becomes more pronounced over the Xmas vacations and party season," he said. “Questions such as 'have you been dating anyone recently' and 'do you think you’ll ever marry’ become 'On your own, are you?'." Kate Taylor, a relationship expert at Match.com, said people look back at their achievements over the past twelve months, and think about their New Year's resolutions. On Match.com ~4M unique connections are expected to be made; with 3M email messages written; 2.5M 'winks' sent; and 500K IM conversations taking place. Brett Harding, managing director for Lovestruck, said registrations increase by 48% during this period. For eHarmony, the number of registrations was 3.5 times higher than the week immediately before Christmas. Cupid.com's Sean Wood also suggested that the pressure on couples in the Christmas period could also lead to more break ups – resulting in more singles on the scene by Boxing Day. AshleyMadison.com biggest spike came immediately after New Year's Eve. The first working day after New Year's there was a 413% increase in member sign-ups with a total of 9,857 new members. What's really interesting is that for many sites, the traffic then falls again drastically in the spring. “Internet daters tend to stick around for about three months," said analyst Brooks. "Then they bail, then they come back, or go to another site, or multiple internet dating sites."

by Charlie Thomas
See full article at Huffington Post

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One Million Brazilians Join AshleyMadison

AFP - Dec 16 - Since it arrived in Brazil 15 months ago, AshleyMadison has attracted 1M Brazilians, turning this South American country of 194M people into one of the biggest markets. The country has 80M Internet users and is among world leaders in the use of social networks. With 17M subscribers worldwide, the website will gross $120M this year.

See full article at The New Age

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Adultery Is No Longer Just A Man’s Game

NATIONAL POST - Nov 18 - Researchers widely agree that the rate of female infidelity is rising. “Women in our society have been held up as the moral paragons, so the increase in female infidelity causes us to consider whether infidelity is as immoral as we believe,” said David Ley, a New Mexico psychologist and author of Insatiable Wives: Women Who Stray and the Men Who Love Them, a recently released book that documents female infidelity. Since the 1990s, the number of women who reported ever having an affair has risen to 19% from 12%, compared with a stable 23% among men, according to a recent study by researchers at the Kinsey Institute. “Is this a good thing? It sure is. Women are claiming their right to feel fulfilled in relationships and sex, regardless of what society might expect of them.” With a job comes financial independence, and research shows that the more money people make, the more likely they are to cheat. In the Kinsey Institute study, 16% of impoverished or lower-income people said they had been unfaithful, compared with 24% among higher earners. As women’s economic independence rises, so does her propensity to take risks and seek out “the other man.”

by Kathryn Blaze Carlson
See full article at National Post

AshleyMadison.com Runs TV Ad in South Africa

CHANNEL24.CO.ZA - TopTV has sold advertising space to AshleyMadison.com. It is the only South African broadcaster airing an advertisement for the company, according to the dating site. The controversial advertisement, titled AM Bedroom Frolic, sees a couple engaging in foreplay while the captions on screen read: "This couple is married. But not to each other." Ashley Madison has seen an 18% increase in sign-ups since the advertisement was first aired on TopTV in mid-October. "Our membership growth in South Africa continues with ~120K members since June," said Biderman.

See full article at Channel24.co.za

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Queen Sofia Of Spain Sues Ashley Madison

NY DAILY NEWS - Oct 29 – Queen Sofia of Spain is suing Ashley Madison for using an unauthorized photoshopped picture of her draped around a semi-naked young man in an advertisement. The ad, which was originally published in February, has resurfaced in a newspaper published by Ashley Madison. The advertising regulatory board, Autocontrol, has ordered the ad to be removed.

by Lee Moran
See full article at NY Daily News

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French Leaders Featured In AshleyMadison Billboard Campaign

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - Oct 23 - France's last four presidents, including its current leader, François Hollande, Nicolas Sarkozy, Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand, have become unwitting poster boys for AshleyMadison. The poster depicts photos of presidents with lipstick marks on their faces and the caption: "What do they all have in common?" None of the three living leaders have reacted to the poster, but Mr Sarkozy has previously taken legal action. Budget airline Ryanair was forced to pay out 50K pounds for a press advertisement before he married Carla Bruni in 2008 with a picture of the couple captioned: "With Ryanair, my whole family can come to my wedding."

by Henry Samuel
See full article at Telegraph.co.uk

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'Cougars' Are Becoming More Common

SMH.COM.AU - Sep 18 - There is a social stigma for men dating younger women. But, an older woman with a younger man is perceived as still being hot stuff - alluring rather than predatory. Wealthy, but unattractive, older men can attract cute young females in a mutually beneficial arrangement but older woman who is unattractive would not attract a younger man. It's generally more attractive older women, who are confident and knowledgeable sexually, who are dating younger men. One study that examined the age preferences in 22,400 singles ads on dating websites across 14 countries including Australia, found few men actively seek older women for a relationship. But the proportion of relationships where women were at least 10 years older than their partners rose 23% between 1996 and 2006.

by Sarah Berry
See full article at Sydney Morning Herald

F-Buddy: UK's Fastest Growing Dating Site

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 17 - F-Buddy.co.uk, a dating site for people looking for ‘no strings attached’ sex is now  the fastest growing dating site in the UK, according to Experian Hitwise. The number of visitors to F-Buddy increased by 480% between April and August.

AshleyMadison.com Claims 500K Members In Australia

HERALD SUN - Sep 14 - Since Ashley Madison launched in Australia in 2010, it has grown to 500K Australian members, 40% of them female. ~70% of Ashley Madison members in Australia are under 40. Launched in Canada in 2001, Ashley Madison's success builds on a seemingly insatiable demand for extramarital liaisons. Sexual Health Australia estimates 60% of men and 45% of women report an affair at some point in their marriage and ~70% of marriages experience an affair. In 2010, there were 121K marriages in Australia - the most recorded in a single year. But if infidelity stats are correct more than 84K of those marriages will involve an unfaithful partner.

by Sarah Marinos
See full article at Herald Sun

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Brandon Wade Can Proceed With Lawsuit Against PayPal

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY - Sep 11 - Brandon Wade has won a round in court against Paypal, which he said wrongly refused to process payments to his sites. PayPal permanently stopped processing payments to WhatsYourPrice.com and other sites last year. PayPal allegedly told Wade that it had banned his sites because they violated the acceptable use policy, which prohibits the sale of "certain sexually oriented materials or services." WhatsYourPrice.com allows people to purchase dates with other users. "Just name a price, and if your offer is right, you'll get a YES and you're off on a first date," the site says Wade claims that WhatsYourPrice and his other dating sites don't allow nudity, obscenity or prostitution ads.

by Wendy Davis
See full article at Media Post

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