DEUTSCHESTARTUPS.DE - eDarling's 2011 revenue was 36 Million Euro and is on track to hit 50 Million Euro this year according to eDarling's CEO Christian Vollmann. "eDarling is an important part of our future strategy", said Jeremy Verba, CEO of eHarmony. eHarmony acquired 30% of eDarling at the end of 2009. eDarling claims 12M registered users according to its infographic.
by Alexander Hüsing
See full article at DeutscheStartups.de
UNCOMMON WISDOM - May 15 - Each year, millions of Chinese are moving from poorer, rural interior to the large, eastern cities in China in search of jobs. Beijing and Shanghai are filled with people who have moved away from their families and friends. That is why millions of Chinese are turning to online dating. Men 30+ without a wife and without children are called “bare branches” and the social stigma against these unmarried men is strong. Back in 1980, the Chinese government launched its one-child policy. This policy has prevented 400M births, but it has also created a large gender imbalance. There are 122 baby boys born each year for every 100 girls. China currently has 180M bachelors, and 50% of them are estimated to be looking for love online. The online dating market in China is projected by iResearch to grow from US$75M to US$292 M by 2015. That is a 31% compound annual growth rate.
by Tony Sagami
See full article at Uncommon Wisdom
NINETOFIVE - May 15 - According to RSVP.com.au’s Date of the Nation Report 2012, 64% of adult singles are looking for long-term relationships. Online dating is furthering its popularity with over half of Aussie women (52%) and less than half of men (45%) trying it out. However, Australians are not a mob of depressed singles, with 62% of adults content with their singledom. Generation Y is the most likely group to enjoy being single (72%), followed by Baby Boomers and older (68%), and then Generation X (59%).
by Matt Young
See full article at NineToFive
VANCOUVER OBSERVER - May 4 - Canadians have experienced a major increase in online dating popularity over the past few years. With Canadians spending 74 minutes online per day, and 81 minutes a day on mobile aps, it's no surprise that people would turn to the Internet as a dating tool. POF claims a 40%t increase in membership holders over the past two year and 33M registered users. "The fear of initial rejection isn't as great when you don't have to see someone face to face," Rebecca Liu said about her experience with Match.com. Liu explained that she gave online dating a try because of a lack of dating resources in the analog world. Many find workplace romances taboo. Approaching a cute guy or girl at the library is almost more likely to creep people out than get them interested. Dating online is refreshing because it gives you an avenue to meet people outside your daily routines.
by Jessica Kalbfleisch
See full article at Vancouver Observer
TORONTO SUN - Apr 29 - Between 2007 and 2012 the online dating industry more than doubled its revenue, going from $900M to $1.9 billion annually, and had a jump in visitors from 20M to 40M a year. But it's not just dating sites matching mates; it's social media too. A British survey found 72% of respondents used both dating sites and social networks to search for love, while 19% used social media sites alone.
MARKETWIRE - Apr 25 - 39% of Americans spend more time socializing online compared to face-to-face, more than in the U.K. (36%) and Germany (35%), according to a study by Badoo. Aside from feelings of loneliness, the survey revealed that people could embellish the truth when sharing online, perhaps to appear more interesting to others, or to "control" their online persona. 25% of American respondents admit they have exaggerated or lied about who they've met or what they've done on their social networks, with a staggering 39% having shared bad news, such as a death or divorce.
See full article at MarketWatch
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - Apr 18 -The poll of 1,899 people found that 72% of respondents used both online dating sites and social networks while 19% used social networks alone to find a partner. Just 9% said they solely used dating sites. People mainly preferred social networks because they believe them to be safer and enabled them to meet people through mutual friends. This trend has led to social networks based dating services such as Fancy My Friend in Australia and Zoosk in which others help to hook up those searching for romance. The poll was conducted by myvouchercodes.co.uk.
HUFFINTON POST - Mar 25 - Online University put together a crafty infographic which makes the case that "online gamers get girls." The raw numbers point to the fact that online gaming is simply a bigger pool of individuals: While eHarmony has ~1M members, the most populated multiplayer gaming site, World of Warcraft (WoW) has 12 M.
BETAKIT - Mar 13 - According to Juniper Research, the mobile dating market is expected to grow to $1.4 billion by 2013, and startups are poised to take advantage of that growth. A recent study by Skout noted that 69% of people were comfortable meeting up with someone they met on their iPhone, and 40% were using a mobile dating service while out at bars, clubs and restaurants. The U.S.-based app also lets romance-seekers view “hotspots” on Google Maps as a fiery glow, representing what locations are currently trending. Grindr uses geolocation to enable users to find other men within close proximity. This is accomplished through a user interface that displays a grid of user pictures, arranged from nearest to farthest away. Tapping on a picture will display a brief profile for that user, as well as the option to chat, send pictures, and share one’s location. Sharing location-based data brings up the question of safety. Ian Bell is the founder of Tingle, a dating app for iPhone. He said the idea of using location in a dating app can make users wary. Tingle tracks a user’s location and shares their proximity, as opposed to a specific location, when users pass near one another.
by Asif Khan
See full article at BetaKit
See all posts on Skout
See all posts on Tingle
See all posts on Grindr
NATIONAL POST - Mar 11 - The growing spread of sexually transmitted disease in Canada may be at least partly the result of the Internet dating boom. The phenomenon seems particularly relevant to middle-aged and older people. According to a Leger Marketing survey last year, a quarter of Canadians have taken part in Internet dating, and 16% had sex with someone they met online. Middle aged and older people can be even less likely to use condoms, as the women are often beyond worrying about pregnancy, and the men are more prone to impotence and fear hampering their performance. Officials with the Ontario and Alberta health departments, however, said they have not uncovered hard evidence of a link between the popularity of online dating and the rise in STDs. As long ago as 2004, however, a research team at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta reported that 43% of the women they surveyed had had sex with someone they met first online, and tended to have a high rate of sexually transmitted infections.
OPW - Feb 16 - The Plentyoffish.com team have been busy with their Portugese. Here's the top ten dating site rankings in Brazil. POF is in the top spot now.
| Unique Visitors | |||
| 1. | POF Sites | 1,078 | |
| 2. | C-Date | 785 | |
| 3. | MSN Dating & Personals | 755 | |
| 4. | Meetic-Match | 607 | |
| 5. | be2 GmbH | 558 | |
| 6. | Chifrevirtual.com.br | 488 | |
| 7. | Twoo.com | 484 | |
| 8. | Baixocidade.com.br | 396 | |
| 9. | 1001 Cartas de Amor | 242 | |
| 10. | eHarmony.com.br | 147 |
(Source: Comscore)
OREGON LIVE - Feb 12 - More 20-somethings are on online dating sites than ever, and their numbers are growing. Only 8% of users on Match.com are under 30. Free sites like OkCupid and PlentyofFish report much stronger numbers among 20-somethings. In fact, the majority of OkCupid's 8M members are under 30, with the most common age being 24. In the past year, countless more sites have sprung up promising to be the next big thing in online dating for the young adult. They tend to be more tech-savvy, carefree and interactive. There's MeetMoi, a mobile-based site that tracks your location through your phone, allowing you to invite nearby users on a spontaneous date. There's Clique, a site that lets New York City singles meet friends of friends by linking their profile to social networks like Facebook. There's Assisted Serendipity, which uses Foursquare check-in data to monitor a user's favorite hangout spots and notify them when the male-to-female ratio tips in their favor. There's even Spoondate, which lets users plan dates based on a mutual craving for, say, udon noodles.
by Kelly House
See full article at The Oregonian
See all posts on Match.com See all posts on MeetMoi
See all posts on OkCupid See all posts on Clique
See all posts on POF.com
THE NEXT WEB - Feb 11 - New data suggests that there has been a 57% increase in online dating revenues in the past year. Digital marketing and billing manager Vindicia has been tracking the global activity for its online dating clients. Social networking, and in particular Facebook, is contributing to the growth. Vindicia’s online dating clients attracted £3.4 million (US$5.4 million) in revenues in January alone this year, compared to the £2.2M (US$3.5M) spent in January 2011. Sales have increased steadily over the weekends leading up to Valentine’s Day too – with dating companies seeing individual spikes of up to 40%, and a combined global spike of 23% last weekend (February 3rd) against the previous weekend’s spend (January 27th). These figures are global, and are taken from across all of Vindicia’s online dating clients, which include SNAPInteractive, SpeedDate.com, Online Buddies and AvidLife. Online dating spend grows by 60% on last year, and the industry can only get bigger
PR NEWSWIRE - Feb 7 - Plentyoffish.com (POF.com), the world’s largest dating site with more than 39.5M registered users, surpassed 300M monthly visits to their free IPhone and Android apps in January 2012. The apps’ success is a testament to the growing popularity of mobile-based services and changing habits of daters, with mobile traffic on POF increasing at a rate of 3% a week. “40% of sign-ups in the U.S. are now via mobile device”, says Markus Frind, founder and CEO of POF.
DISCOVERY NEWS - Feb 7 - A new study shows that how you catch a potential date's eye might depend on your gender. Researchers used eye tracking technology to follow people's eye movements as they perused online profiles. The results show that men spend 65% more time looking at photos than women. Women, on the other hand, spent 50% more time than men actually reading the profiles. AnswerLab, a consumer research company, ran the study in one day at a coffee shop in San Francisco. The researchers collected data using the Tobii X1 Light Eye Tracker, a new, portable model of eye tracker.
by Kate Prengaman
See full article at Discovery News
MARKETWIRE - Feb 3 - Market Research has released a new report "The U.S. Dating Services Market". The U.S. dating services market is a now a $2.1 billion business. Dating website revenues are expected to grow only 7.5% this year as the U.S.
PC MAG - Feb 2 - Facebook's mobile apps are frequently among the most popular downloads in the Android Market and Apple App Store. Facebook's Wednesday IPO filing revealed that the company had ~425M monthly active users during December 2011, or about half of its worldwide user base. But while that 425M number might be impressive, it's not making Facebook any money at this point. "We currently do not show ads or directly generate any meaningful revenue from users accessing Facebook through our mobile products", Facebook said.
by Chloe Albanesius
See full article at PC Mag
Mark Brooks: Same story with iDating companies. Jumptap.com may be able to help. There are a few mobile ad opportunities now. I'l be reviewing options at iDate Beverly Hills in June in my 3 hour presentation on mobile dating.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
DAILYMAIL – Jan 27 – A recent poll of 2,000 singles in Britain’s major cities has found that Brits collectively go on 37M dates a year, spending an average of £47 each time, spending a national average of £1.3 billion on food and drink alone. The dating industry has made a major impact on the UK economy, the study found, revealing that £421M goes towards transportation and another £324M in grooming as people get their hair cut to look their best. The study was commissioned by Match.com and produced by the Centre of Economic Business Research.
by Sadie Whitelocks
See full article at DailyMail
REALWIRE - Jan 9 - Just eight months after launching, Twoo.com is the world's No.6 most popular dating site according to the latest comScore data.
| Dating Website | Total Unique Visitors (000) |
| Jiayuan.com | 8,610 |
| Plentyoffish.com | 6,851 |
| Match.com | 6,835 |
| MeetIC Match | 4,882 |
| Mail.Ru Love | 4,500 |
| Twoo.com | 3,832 |
| MSN Dating & Personals | 3,301 |
| Zoosk | 2,924 |
| Speeddate | 2,763 |
Twoo.com had 2.88M monthly active users in December and grew by ~1000% between June and November 2011. Twoo doesn't match users based on complex personality analysis, as it takes a more real-world approach. It leaves it up to individuals to make a connection just as they would in a bar, at the workplace or any other social setting.
KOREA HERALD - Jan 3 - A revision to the Law on the Management of Marriage Agencies was among the scores of bills that passed the National Assembly on the last few days of 2011. The revised law contained provisions to punish marriage brokers introducing women under the age of 18 and introducing two or more women to an applicant at the same time with up to three years in jail and a maximum fine of 20M won. The law requires notarization of documents providing the personal data of Korean men seeking foreign brides and raised the punishment for running an unregistered marriage brokerage business to a maximum five years’ imprisonment and 50M won in fines from three years and 20M won. As of the end of 2010, 1,253 agencies were registered with the authorities for local and overseas business. Over 30,000 international marriages are reported each year.
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