Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Blackbox Republic Founders No Longer With The Company

THE OREGONIAN - Apr 8 - Founders Sam Lawrence and April Donato announced their plans last summer and Blackbox went live in December. Their ambitious goal: Create an online meeting place for an adult crowd to chat about topics they didn't want to air on Facebook or Twitter. While focusing on social media, BBR also cast itself as an alternative to traditional online dating sites and sought to charge members between $9 and $25 a month. Sam and April left BBR in February after a dispute with his unnamed investors over the direction of the company. FULL ARTICLE @ THE OREGONIAN

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Dec 17th, 2009 - 3 mins

This is the news for the week of December 11th through December 17th, 2009. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered for this week:

• Mobile Dating Growing Like Gangbusters
• Ashley Madison Sues AshleyMadison
• Spark Networks Launches Spark.com Dating Site
• Blackbox Republic Partners with Entertainment Venues and Promoters

Blackbox Republic Partners With Venues

PR NEWSWIRE - Dec 15 - Blackbox Republic, the private network for people of all orientations, relationship combinations and lifestyles, has added regional nightlife venues to add entertainment options for members. Partners include Vibe Entertainment, 1015 Folsom, 103 Harriet, 111 Minna Gallery, and Paradise Lounge in San Francisco; Concept Entertainment in Portland; Subspace in Toronto; and Skin in New York. Blackbox Republic provides entertainment partners a single platform to "create once, promote everywhere." Events are automatically posted within Blackbox Republic and across the social web with a single click. This value greatly reduces the need for dedicated staff or the investment of time to post and repost event details on several locations all over the web. FULL ARTICLE @ AOL MONEY & FINANCE

Mark Brooks: Nightclub promoters can use Blackbox Republic as a promotions hub now.  (Full Disclosure: Blackbox Republic is a client of Courtland Brooks)

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Blackbox Republic Partners With Track Entertainment

PR NEWSWIRE - Dec 10 - Blackbox Republic, the private network for people of all orientations, relationship combinations and lifestyles to meet online and in person, partners with Track Entertainment a leader in online event promotion whose sites include: clubplanet.com, wantickets.com, newyears.com, Halloweenparties.com, cooljunkie.com, and nochelatina.com. "Now our members will have access to thousands of local events that they can socialize, see who's going, post content about and plan their personal lives around," said Sam Lawrence, Blackbox Republic CEO. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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Blackbox Republic Unveils A ‘Label-Free’ Dating Site

VENTURE BEAT - Dec 9 - After announcing its concept for a social network aimed at the sex positive community a few months ago, Blackbox Republic is now ready to show off its site and welcome new members. Anyone can sign up, but at first they can only see the site’s public stream of updates, not other users’ personal profiles or any updates they’ve marked as private. Members don’t really get involved until another member invites them in, so there’s a level of exclusivity to the membership. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Dec 10th, 2009 - 3 mins

This is the news for the week of December 4th through December 10th, 2009. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered for this week:

• BlackBox Republic is Open for Business
• Zoosk Secured Additional $30M in Funding
• AshleyMadison Aims for Tiger Woods Deal
• Match.com Launches New Mobile App

Blackbox Republic Now Open For Business

PR NEWSWIRE – Dec 9 - Blackbox Republic is launching a new private network for people of all orientations, relationship combinations and lifestyles. The website blends the best features of social networks with the personal elements of a dating site. "If Facebook and Match.com had a hot love child it would be Blackbox Republic.” said Sam Lawrence, CEO and co-founder. Blackbox Republic is a totally private, invitation only network. Anyone can join, but new members must be vouched for by an existing member to gain wider access to the community. Blackbox Republic connects people online as well as offline, and is an easy place to create, organize and promote offline events. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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Online Dating Looks For Love On Social Media

SF CHRONICLE - Oct 27 - Some argue that social media such as Facebook or Twitter, which provide a more accurate snapshot of users' lives, can lead to better connections. Gelato, a new dating site, lets users create their profiles based on information from Twitter, Facebook, Hulu, Netflix and Last.fm. Thread, a site that opened in September, takes a jab at the awkwardness of navigating the Internet to meet strangers by helping Facebook users connect with the friends of their friends. Zoosk claims to be  a combination of social networks and online dating. Co-founder Shayan Zadeh said that the site's platform is the digital equivalent of going out to a bar with friends and meeting new people. Blackbox Republic, another newcomer for sex-positive people, describes itself as a social dating site. It provides an environment where people can create networks they can retain even after finding new love interests. In a way, its goal is to challenge the shop-and-go spirit of the classifieds system, Blackbox Republic CEO Sam Lawrence said. OnlineDatingPost.com editor Dave Evans said "You're always going to have these dominant players, but the interesting stuff is with the edge cases. These guys have created a sexier proposition." FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

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