Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

be2 Merges with c-date

OPW - Sep 13 - Exclusive at OPW. We just heard be2 has merged with c-date.com.  A most unusual unison. c-date (circa 2008) does not allow photographs, and is focused on the casual and cheaters market. The company was started by a former FriendScout Director and a multitude of FriendScout employees followed. be2 was founded in April 2005 by sociologist Dr Robert Wuttke, and quickly expanded to over 30 countries. The site is focused on longer term relationships. be2 traffic slipped back in recent times. Probably in part due to a fall in reorders from people who were a tad unhappy at having to send a fax to cancel their membership.

Important Correction and Update: Dr Wuttke corrected me..."Since the beginning of this year, I am not only founder/CEO of be2, but also CEO of C-Date.  be2 and C-Date continue to be two separate companies, however now managed by one team.  That be2’s traffic slipped back is also not correct.  be2 grows at a rate of more than 30% year on year.  Also our customers do not have to send a fax to cancel their membership, but are free to cancel with a convenient prefilled PDF document sent through Email, fax or letter."

See all posts on be2
See all posts on c-date

be2 Reveals How Its Members Communicate

PR.COM - Oct 28 - In a recent survey of users, be2 found nearly a quarter of respondents were happy to give out their phone number after exchanging only one or two messages online and well over half after about two or three messages. Men proved more likely to want to exchange phone numbers early in an online relationship. In the survey 67.5% of male respondents said they gave out their number after about two or three messages or less. This contrasts with women, the majority of whom said they would wait considerably longer. FULL ARTICLE @ PR.COM

See all posts on be2

Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Oct 29th, 2009 - 6 mins

This is the news for the week of October 23rd through October 29th, 2009. We hope you enjoy the new weekly news format. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered for this week:

• Match.com 3Q Quarter Earnings
• EasyDate makes Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 list in the U.K.
• FriendFinder may look to sell some of its sites
• Latest European online dating rankings from comScore and Nielsen

be2 Conquers Asian Dating Market

BE2 BLOG -- July 21 -- be2 Singapore was launched in 2008 and has grown to 42k members. Due to the continued success of be2 in Singapore, be2 has launched its service in Hong Kong and Taiwan. FULL ARTICLE @ BE2 BLOG

See all posts on be2

be2 Conquers Indian Dating Market

BE2 BLOG -- Apr 2 -- be2 India is live!  The look and language of the site was adjusted to Indian preferences. Over 80% of marriages in India are arranged by the parents, but that number is halved for Internet dating in India. be2 speaks to Indian singles who want to take the choice for the love of their lives into their own hands. FULL ARTICLE @ BE2 BLOG

See all posts on be2

Europe's Online Dating Services

EASY JET -- Feb 11 -- Match.com is now the world's largest dating website, boasting 15m subscribers. In 2007, match.com had a global turnover of €240m with an operating income of €54m. Over in Germany, a rival website, be2.com, was launched in 2004 by Robert Wuttke, who has a PhD in sociology. Within three months of launching in Germany, be2.com launched in Spain and Italy; it now operates in 35 countries worldwide, spread across all six continents. Meetic.com was an instant success in France. It is now Europe's largest, and the world's second largest online dating service. Meetic makes €130m a year and has more paying customers than any other in Europe. 60,000 babies have been born as a result of couples meeting on Meetic. The online dating industry seems to be resistant to the current economic downturn, with all the companies reporting steady growth. FULL ARTICLE @ EASY JET

See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on be2
See all posts on Meetic

Robert Wuttke, Be2 CEO And Founder Interview

OPW INTERVIEW -- Dec 20 -- You’ll be hearing more about be2. They are a rising star in Europe and are launching in the USA. The company is founded and run by Robert Wuttke, PhD. He’s a regular attendee at the internet dating conferences in the USA and Europe. - Mark Brooks

What is your background and the founding story of be2?
I have a PhD in sociology and history. I did my studies in Germany and Italy and then spent a year at MIT in Boston. I focused on sociology and have my first business experience in the media industry with Bertelsmann AG and Lycos Europe. At that time I became aware of the first internet dating products, which fascinated me because online dating can bring together people who would otherwise have had no chance to meet each other offline.

Congratulations on the round of funding you just received. What will you do with the 15 million Euro?
We are going to focus on improving our service, which has always been our priority. Then we’ll further expand our product into other countries. But in particular we want to start penetrating the markets we’re in now, serve those markets better and increasing our respective market share.

Why do you think personality profiling works well for dating sites?
There are different people with different needs on dating sites. One of the needs is to find somebody for a long term relationship. Typically people 25+ have put this focus much more up front. So for somebody, who is looking for a long term relationship, it makes more sense to find the compatible matches immediately instead of browsing through a database and finding out later whether the person is a match or not.

In general, how do you think personality profiling on dating sites can be improved?
They will get better not just by becoming more reliable in terms of psychology but also through other things like the expression of attitudes, preferences and interests with sophisticated algorithms, rather than just simple questionnaires. There are a lot of things that will be done over the next couple of years and I think we’re just seeing the beginning of what is going to happen. What makes the be2 test very strong is that the number of questions is very elegantly reduced. We don’t ask irrelevant questions and I think this is something that users appreciate. We are going to improve the test even more now.

I understand be2 has very aggressively opened up in a number of countries, over 30 countries at this stage. What are your lead countries at this stage?
We like the Spanish speaking countries, but also are intrigued in what’s going on in Europe overall and central Europe where we are less present at the moment. But this is something that will also change over the next year or so because we’re now going to use the funding to start penetrating markets better. Right now you can say be2 does not have a single location it would depend on in terms of revenues.

Are there any particular people that you would like to reach out to people in the next year or so?
I’m looking forward to continuing our dialogue with academics.

See all posts on be2

be2 Raises €15 Million

PRESS RELEASE -- Nov 12 -- be2, a  global matchmaking site with more than 12m members in 34 countries, received an investment of €15m from the Index Ventures growth fund. be2 will use the capital to further international expansion and increase its user base in existing markets.

Mark Brooks: Keep your eyes on this company.  One to watch.  ;-)

See all posts on be2

Be2 Uses Online Push For UK launch

NMA.CO.UK -- Apr 23 -- Be2, the global online matchmaking company, has launched an online advertising campaign to promote its UK launch. The campaign, which was created by Blowfish Digital, includes online advertising, virals, social marketing across Facebook, Bebo and search. Be2 claims to be the world's largest matchmaking company with more than 7.5m members across 24 countries. In the UK it intends to compete with dating sites such as Match.com and Dating Direct. FULL ARTICLE @ NMA.CO.UK