Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Marketing Affairs: How To Advertise Paramours

MARKETPLACE - Aug 19 - Noel Biderman is the president a company called Avid Life Media, which runs a bunch of niche dating sites. There's CougarLife.com for older women and younger men, HotorNot.com and AshleyMadison, a dating site for married people for which Noel has gotten a lot of attention. Noel buys traditional ads where he can. But of course, a lot of big media companies won't take ads from Ashley Madison. His response? Fine. He goes to plan B -- decrying them in the press for being unreasonable. Avid Life pulled down $30M in revenue last year.  Introducing cheaters to each other online has afforded Noel a pretty comfortable life. Noel does tend to defend his business with various theories and arguments about the future of matrimony and where we're headed as a society. But in the end, he says it really is all about the money. There's no way he'd be doing this otherwise. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETPLACE

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CougarLife.com Accuses Google Of Sexism

NATIONAL POST - May 13 - Claudia Opdenkelder, founder of cougarlife.com, says she was informed that Google is classifying ads promoting the concept of “cougar dating” as unsafe for family audiences. At the same time, ads for “sugar daddy” websites, such as arrangementseekers.com, a forum for older men and younger women to meet and which sports the slogan, “Get the arrangement you want…without the commitment,” continue to be labeled “family safe” by Google, according to Cougar Life’s parent company Avid Life Media. CougarLife, which has signed up more than half a million members since its launch last year, bills itself as “the premier online dating service that pairs women in their prime with younger men and ends the double standard.” FULL ARTICLE @ NATIONAL POST

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From Cougars To Dog Lovers, You Can Find A Match

NBC - Feb 12 - Ronnie Ann Ryan, known to her followers as "The Dating Coach," and author of "MANifest Mr. Right," says 12% of today's marriages start in cyberspace. Ryan often sends her clients to sites like match.com and plentyoffish.com.com. Web sites now cater to lifestyle choices, such as those that target vegans, religious groups -- like jdate.com and catholiccupid.com, dog lovers, and even political affiliation. Web sites are also catering to tastes, such as cougarlife.com, which connects older women with younger men. There are also websites that may spell out a new reality in the online dating world. Ashleymadison.com claims to be the largest dating resource for married people who are looking for affection outside of their vows. FULL ARTICLE @ NBC

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Feb 9th, 2010

This is the news for January 20th through February 1st, 2010. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered:

• Real Simple Magazing ranks top dating sites
• Avid Life Media pushing for an IPO
• Match.com launches MatchAffinity
• iovation shows strong sucess in 2009
• 2010 iDate Awards results

Avid Life Media Pushes For IPO

THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Jan 25 - Avid Life Media, the parent company of dating sites such as CougarLife.com, EstablishedMen.com and AshleyMadison.com, a site for people seeking extramarital relationships, is raising $60M and is pushing for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Avid Life posted $30M of sales and $8M of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (or EBITDA) in 2009. Avid Life will use part of the money in a private placement to acquire privately held Moxy Media, an online advertising sales company that runs more than 300 websites. FULL ARTICLE @ GLOBE AND MAIL

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Nov 19th, 2009 - 4 mins

This is the news for the week of November 13th through November 19th, 2009. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered for this week:

• Earnings reports from SNAP Interactive
• October European Online Dating Rankings from Nielsen
• Cougar craze in full swing in Europe and North America
• eHarmony's marriage claims under scrutiny

At ABC, Cougars Are O.K., But Not Always

NY TIMES - Oct 15 - No one was more eager to advertise on the new ABC comedy “Cougar Town” than CougarLife.com. But ABC rejected the commercial. The site is urging visitors to sign an online petition to get the network to change its mind. The commercial has appeared during the broadcast on about 15 stations in cities like Miami, Denver and Pittsburgh. But Noel Biderman, president of Avid Life Media in Toronto, which owns six dating sites including CougarLife.com, said those were “not major metropolitan centers, which is not how you build dating sites. You really need to be in L.A. and New York and Chicago.” Cougar Town drew 11.4M viewers to its premiere on Sept. 23, and 9M and 7.8M for its second and third episodes, respectively, according to Nielsen. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News 2 Oct 2009 - 3 mins

This is the news for the week of September 26th through October 2nd, 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:

 - comScore numbers from iDate London as the first bullet point

 - CourgarLife versus ABC’s “Cougar Town”

 - Men’s Health and Cosmopolitan magazines teaming up to launch dating sites

 - Online Buddies acquires DList.com

 - Interview with Michael Norton of Harvard Business School

CougarLife.com's Banned Commercial

COUGARLIFE - Sep 30 - CougarLife.com worked with ABC to produce a commercial that all parties agreed would fit best with the new show Cougar Town.  However, after the commercial was produced and presented to ABC for broadcast, Claudia Openkelder, founder of CougarLife, was told that the Network Managers now had a problem with the site itself. Cougarlife.com is a dating site specifically for mature women who are interested in dating younger men. Ms. Openkelder has asked all women to boycott ABC’s new television series, Cougar Town, for what she calls sexist discrimination. Check out the ABC rejected commercial:

Mark Brooks: This niche will experience a major boom with the introduction of Cougar Town. Courtland Brooks just started working with Dateacougar.com.