Online Personals Watch

South African Market Is Growing

WLD BLOG -- June 5 -- Many of our (White Label Dating) partners have realized the great untouched potential in South Africa. In three months the number of members in South Africa has gone up 83.43%. Revenue growth has gone up 456.16% in five months. FULL ARTICLE @ WLD BLOG

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Bad Dating Behaviour

PRESS RELEASE -- May 29 -- 8m singles in the UK are looking for love, and they’ll go on 18m first dates this year – but at least 6m of those will end in disaster, and even fewer will lead to something special.  Of the 1,300 singles polled by PARSHIP.co.uk 40% admitted to turning up late for a first date – or not showing at all; 28% talked about their ex and past sexual experiences, 14% confessed to over-indulging in alcohol, and 6% said they’d been chaperoned by a friend, their mother -- or even a pet. 14% of women surveyed admitted to drinking so much on a first date that they felt out of control.

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Online Dating Takes An Upward Turn As The Recession Bites

NEW MEDIA AGE -- Apr 23 -- Since the onset of the recession in September 2008, online dating sites have been attracting new users like they were going out of style. In the UK, traffic to online dating sites grew 13% between September 2008 and February 2009, to attract just shy of 5m visitors and a reach of 13% of the total UK online population. The appetite for love apparently has been re-ignited from the ashes of consumer-capitalism, and continued site growth is expected into 2009. The most popular online dating property is currently Meetic, which attracted an unduplicated 1.4m visitors in February in combination with newly acquired Match.com. FULL ARTICLE @ NEW MEDIA AGE

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Online Matchmaking A Paying Proposition

REDNET.CN -- Apr 8 -- According to a recent poll taken by the Matchmaking Committee of the China Association of Social Workers, almost one third of 154k respondents said they met their current mates online. "Introduced by a friend" was a distant second at 13%. The number of people using online dating services has more than doubled in three years - from 46m in 2005 to 100m last year - and is expected to reach 185m in 2010, according to the iResearch. Revenue in 2008 was $95.6m, and is expected to reach $176m next year. FULL ARTICLE @ REDNET.CN

Kids And Internet Usage

FAMILY EDUCATION -- Mar 15 -- According to the Center for Media Research, most parents in the U.S. estimate that their children spend about two hours a month on the Internet. In reality, kids and teens are spending upwards of 20 hours a month surfing the Web. ~41%  of U.S. teens claim their parents have no idea what they are looking at online. The most popular online activities are online dating (23%), social networking (50%), and playing games (72%). FULL ARTICLE @ THE EPOCH TIMES

Mark Brooks: Probably on Hotornot and Zoosk.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch and at the iDate Forums.

Hitwise U.S.A. Internet Dating Rankings Update

OPW -- Mar 5 -- The February Hitwise U.S. dating rankings are out. PlentyofFish beats Singlesnet and is now #1. Yahoo!Personals moves ahead of Match.com to take the #3 position. Date Hookup maintains it's 5th position. eHarmony dropped from #6 to #7 moving Adam4Adam up to #6. Manhunt.net, BlackPeopleMeet and TRUE.com remained at #8, #9, #10 respectively.

Can A Recession Seriously Boost Online Dating?

MARKET WATCH -- Feb 19 -- Zoosk targets 20 and 30 somethings, a demographic that spends a lot of time on social networking sites. Zoosk's founders say their site is among the first to incorporate social networking into online dating. Zoosk has received $4.5 million in funding and has 16.5m users. Not all dating sites are growing like Zoosk. Spark Networks saw sales drop to $14m vs. $15.8m a year ago, while Match.com's revenue grew 5% to $93.5m. While jobless people may be also lonely, many will find paying $25 to $35 a month for a dating service a luxury when they have no income and will use Zoosk or free sites like PlentyofFish. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKET WATCH

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eHarmony Spends $93.3 Million In Advertising In 9 Months

EHARMONY BLOG -- Feb 11 --

Rank     Site                     Jan 07 to Sep 07     Jan 08 to Sep 08
1          eHarmony                79,019.631             93,255.171
2          Match.com               51,170.580             47,607.049
3          Chemistry.com         12,125.655             28,282.073
4          Cupid.com                  1,067.142                 847.231
5          Nocheatersdate.com         0.000                 822.042
6          Blacksingles.com           272.964                 510.251
7          AdultFriendFinder.com      0.000                 243.553
8          AshleyMadison.com         59.977                 243.420
9          Ciaorossano.com               0.000                 212.750
10        ChristianMingle.com           0.000                 201.213
Source: The Nielsen Company (2009)
FULL ARTICLE @ EHARMONY BLOG

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Divorce Numbers Fall Off, Dating On The Rise

UNION TRIBUNE -- Feb 14 -- Struggling couples are are staying together for love and money while singles are looking for romance and half the rent. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 37% of its members said they see a decrease divorce cases during national economic downturns. At eHarmony, registrations from Sep '08 to Jan '09 have increased 20% from the same period a year ago. Perfectmatch's revenue increased 42% from the previous quarter. FULL ARTICLE @ UNION TRIBUNE

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Online Dating: It's Bigger Than Porn

COMPUTERWORLD -- Feb 13 -- Online dating is the third largest revenue producer out of all paid content sites, behind digital music and online gaming, according to Forrester Research. Revenues for the industry are expected to grow by 10% through 2013. That's the third fastest category, behind only filmed entertainment and digital music.

Top Online Paid Content Sites in 2008 by Category ($ in millions)
Digital music $1,732
Video games $1,866
Dating $957
FULL ARTICLE @ COMPUTERWORLD

Capitalizing On Love Pays Dividends

CHINA DAILY -- Feb 13 -- According to a report from Shanghai-based iResearch, the annual revenue in 2008 of the online dating market in China was estimated at 653m yuan ($95.6m). However, not all of the companies made profits from the red-hot market, says Xu Bin, an analyst at iResearch. Most Chinese Internet users prefer free Internet services. FULL ARTICLE @ CHINA DAILY

Find Your Perfect Partner

MAIL ONLINE -- Feb 13 -- Finding love over the internet is a good way of meeting a marriage partner, research from consumer group Which? has showed. 1,504 people questioned had been on a date with someone they met in cyberspace. 62% agreed that it was easier to meet someone on a dating site than in other ways, such as in a pub or club, or through friends. FULL ARTICLE @ MAIL ONLINE

Seismic Shift In Internet Age Mass

RESEARCH BRIEF -- Feb 12 -- According to surveys through 2008 by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, larger percentages of older generations are online now than in the past. While just 26% of 70-75 year olds were online in 2005, 45% of that age group is currently online, and doing more activities online. Email remains the most popular online activity. Generation X (ages 33-44) continues to lead in online shopping. Generation Y (age 18-32) are more likely than their older counterparts to seek entertainment through online videos, online games, virtual worlds and they are also more likely to download music. FULL ARTICLE @ CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

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Why Pay When Dating's Free Sites Beckon?

BUSINESS WEEK -- Feb 6 -- In December, free sites accounted for ~25% of all traffic to the top 10 U.S. dating sites, up from 15% a year ago, according to Hitwise. During the second half of 2008, PlentyofFish was the most-trafficked dating site in the U.S., according to Hitwise. "We are going to double our staff this year," said Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyofFish.com. "The economic downturn doesn't affect me." OkCupid.com says growth picked up in Sep, as the economic decline accelerated. Some paid sites are getting hurt more than others. Traffic to Yahoo Personals fell 15% in Dec from a year earlier, according to Hitwise. In the same period, eHarmony's traffic dropped 61% and True.com's tumbled 68%. At the same time, traffic to Match.com jumped 31% while Singlesnet.com's traffic rose 16%. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

See all posts on Plentyoffish               See all posts on True.com
See all posts on YahooPersonals          See all posts on Singlesnet
See all posts on eHarmony                  See all posts on Match.com
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2009 Matchmakers Survey

MATCHMAKING INSTITUTE -- Jan 28 -- The Matchmaking Institute has conducted its first annual matchmakers survey. 25% of matchmakers work with less than 10 clients at a time, but more than 35% work with more than 100 clients at a time. Most matchmakers tend to have more female than male clients with over 25% of respondents having a ratio of 40% Male / 60% Female. 55% have between 1 and 9 new clients a month; 21% from 10 to 24 new clients; 12% between 25 and 99; and close to 9% have over 100 new clients each month. Over 22% do not feel the economic downturn has impacted their business in a negative way ; over 52% just a little ; and 14% quite a bit. FULL ARTICLE @ MATCHMAKING INSTITUTE

1,600 Dating Sites Registered In Japan

JAPAN TODAY -- Jan 22 -- More than 1,600 dating sites were registered with local public security boards during a period of about one month after a stricter law regulating such websites was introduced, the National Police Agency. The NPA said a total of 432 applications were filed between Dec 1, 2008 and Jan. 5, 2009 to register a total of 1,627 online dating sites. FULL ARTICLE @ JAPAN TODAY

Britain's Singles Now Prefer Slow Dating

PR NEWSWIRE -- Jan 16 -- In 2008, Britain's 8m active singles went on 18m first dates. 68% of these resulted from initial contact via the Internet. Introductions through friends accounted for 13% of all first dates, first dates resulting from chance encounters in bars 5%, while first dates with work colleagues represented just 4%. Each first date now lasts an average of 4 hours and 18 minutes, but the build-up to each date occupies over 12 hours of each person's time. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Credit Crunch Can Mean A Downturn In Love

BIRMINGHAM POST -- Jan 13 -- All hope is not lost for love in a time of recession. Online dating and speed dating, have seen an increase in business at a time when many other sectors are seeing growth slip away. Dating group Easy Date had seen rapid growth since the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year brought the credit crisis to the consciousness of the general public. Nielsen Online indicating a 15% rise in unique users visiting online dating sites in November compared with the same month in 2007. FULL ARTICLE @ BIRMINGHAM POST

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Sex, Lies And Internet Dates

PRESS RELEASE -- Jan 13 -- According to a report released by Logitech, 58% of Europeans who have dated online have been lied to when seeking a potential match. Italians lead the way, with 72% of respondents experiencing dating dishonesty. In turn, 58% of German, 56% of French and 55% of British respondents admitted to suffering the same fate. As the world's leading manufacturer of webcams, Logitech commissioned the study to establish how much difference a video call with a prospective date would make. FULL ARTICLE @ RESPONSE SOURCE

Pre-Shop Customer Reviews Important To Online Customers

CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH -- Jan 8 -- Nielsen Online found that customer reviews are an important research tool for online consumers, with 71% agreeing that consumer reviews make them more comfortable that they are buying the right product. 81% of online shoppers have read product or retailer reviews by other customers. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA POST

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