Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Online Dating: The Secret Science Of Love At First Byte

MSNBC TODAY NEWS - Feb 8 - Punch cards and personal ads gave way to the first online dating sites, launched in the mid-90s. By 2001, industry revenues were just $40M. Today, they’re approaching $2 billion. eHarmony owns 15% of the market. The company says the goal is to help you find someone - like you. Similarity allows couples to understand each other better, said Gian Gonzaga, the company’s chief research scientist. “We like to say that opposites attract and then later on they attack.” Dan Ariely, a professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University, questions whether algorithms used by online dating sites actually work. He studied thousands of online interactions, examining market value — what makes us attractive online. In men, the research shows, height and salary are key. Education also counts - for some online daters. “More educated men are more desirable,” said Ariely. “For women, there's no value for education.”

by Amy Robach and Deborah Camiel
See full article at MSNBC Today News

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eHarmony Survey: What Singles Are Really Looking For This Valentine's Day

BUSINESS WIRE - Feb 7 - The survey's highlights include:

-- Valentine's Day remains a moneymaker with 60% of people saying they plan on spending the same amount of money that they did last year.
-- 82% of people saying they would like an "experience" for Valentine's Day rather than a gift.
-- 40% of men and 41% of women view it as an opportunity to do something romantic 
-- ~70% of people wouldn't mind going on a blind or first date

Methodology: This study was conducted online within the US by uSamp on January 25, 2012 among 730 respondents aged 25-55 who are single or divorced.

See full article at Market Watch

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Psychologists Highlight Pitfalls Of Online Dating

HEALTH.COM - Feb 7 - "Online dating is great. It allows people access to potential partners they otherwise would not have," says Eli J. Finkel, Ph.D., the lead author of the new review, which was commissioned by the Association for Psychological Science. One of the weaknesses of online dating is an over reliance on "profiles". Although most dating websites feature photos and detailed, searchable profiles covering everything from personality traits to likes and dislikes, this information isn't necessarily useful in identifying a partner, Finkel and his coauthors write. That's partly because daters don't always know what they want in a mate. The abundance of profiles online also may make daters too picky and judgmental. "Online dating creates a shopping mentality, and that is probably not a particularly good way to go about choosing a mate," says Harry Reis, Ph.D. eHarmony and PerfectMatch.com, claim to minimize the guesswork involved in online dating by using mathematical algorithms to match couples according to various traits -- including, in one case, the ratio of index- to ring-finger length. The authors of the review are skeptical of these claims. They weren't able to find a single rigorous study showing the effectiveness of the algorithms, and other research suggests it's extremely difficult to predict the likelihood that a relationship will succeed before two people meet. None of this, however, means that online dating isn't a good way to meet people. Finkel advises online daters to identify promising partners and move the conversation off-line as quickly as possible.

by Amanda Gardner
See full article at CNN

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Religious People Better Adjusted Psychologically

STOPTHEACLU - Jan 23 - Psychological research has found that religious people feel great about themselves, with a tendency toward higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment than non-believers. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is only true in countries that put a high value on religion. The researchers got their data from eDarling, a European dating site that is affiliated with eHarmony. Like eHarmony, eDarling uses a long questionnaire to match clients with potential dates. It includes a question about how important your personal religious beliefs are and questions that get at social self-esteem and how psychologically well-adjusted people are.

See full article at StopTheAclu

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Check Criminal Records Of Online Daters, Experts Say

CBC NEWS - Jan 16 - Online dating companies should be taking advantage of the RCMP criminal records system to keep convicted criminals off their sites, say experts in the identity verification business. "There is no perfect instant criminal record system on the planet," David Dinesen told CBC News. "But Canada is the best in the world. No question." Criminal backgrounds of Canadian daters could be checked without breaking privacy laws, because the daters could authorize or volunteer to provide their criminal conviction record check to the dating sites, he said. Online dating companies such as PlentyofFish, Match.com, eHarmony and others should offer options to their Canadian clients. PlentyofFish, founded by Markus Frind, makes ~$30M annually from advertising on its website. The company espouses a "buyer beware" philosophy and posts warnings and safety tips for clients on its free site. eHarmony sent CBC News an email statement emphasizing that "eHarmony's efforts are focused on empowering people to use good judgment and to be responsible for their safety on eHarmony, as they would anywhere else. Since there is not a comprehensive database of criminal convictions and many crimes go unreported by the victims, eHarmony does not want to give its members a false sense of security. We make it very clear in several places throughout the site that eHarmony does not conduct criminal background checks on our members. In an email, Match.com told CBC News: "Match is always reviewing new ways to keep the community safe and is aware of RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records. Unlike the National Sex Offender Registry, against which Match.com screens against in the United States, the RCMP repository is not public information. Therefore, utilizing this information is not currently possible."

by Jeannie Stiglio
See full article at CBC News

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Online Dating Made Easy With Mobile App

FOX4NEWS - Jan 8 - More and more marriages are starting out with an online connection. FOX 4′s Rich Demuro shows how the matchmaking app makes meeting people easy. “Over 20% of the people have met their spouses in some way online,” eHarmony Senior Research Scientist Gian Gonzaga said. "542 people a day on average get married after meeting on eHarmony, which is pretty extraordinary,” Gonzaga said. eHarmony recently launched a new iPad app.

by Sarah Clark
See full article at Fox4News

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eHarmony Launches First Ever UK-produced Campaign

MARKETING WEEK - Dec 22 - eHarmony is launching its first ever marketing campaign produced in the UK as it steps up efforts to take on its rivals. The £1M campaign, which launches on Boxing Day, is aimed at UK singles who are looking for life partners. TV creative will feature a single girl going about her day-to-day activities. At the end she is pictured with her eHarmony partner, while a voiceover says: “Being single can be amazing, so if you’re going to give it up, it has to be for someone who makes being a couple the best thing in the world”.

by Lara O'Reilly
See full article at Marketing Week

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eHarmony Launches eHarmony Premier

EHARMONY BLOG - Dec 15 - Below are the features in detail:

• Ultimate Guarantee: If  members is not satisfied with eHarmony experience during their initial 12 month subscription eHarmony will extend them membership for up to 12 months. 
• Pause Account: Members may pause the service once for up to 3 months. 
• 3 Free Memberships to Share: eHarmony will supply new members with 3, one-month basic memberships in the welcome email.
• Relationship Starter Package: Great tips and expert advice about online dating.
• Hand-Selected Matches: eHarmony relationship specialist team will select 10 additional matches.
• Assisted Match Communications: Identify up to 10 matches and we’ll start the introduction for them by sending an initial message. 
• Profile Advisor.
• Premium Personality Profile.

See the full article at eHarmony blog

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Police Target Lonely Hearts Fraudsters

SUNDAY TIMES - Nov 28 - Romance scammers are to be targeted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). According to Soca ~200K people have already been tricked by overseas conmen. Online dating scams have become one of the most lucrative methods. This is because online dating has itself become so successful, with 1,400 dating sites operating in Britain, including Plentyoffish, eHarmony and match.com. Mark Brooks, who runs Courtland Brooks, a consultancy specialising in the online dating industry, said: “Every site has significant problems in dealing with scammers. It is the bane of the industry.” Karl Gregory, head of match.com’s UK division, said cases of fraud were still rare. “Our advice”, he said, “is to stay within the site to build up relationships over time rather than giving out personal details, and never to give money to anyone for any reason.”

by Jonathan Leake
See full article at Sunday Times

Mark Brooks: Actually, this is far more a problem in the USA than the UK.  Most sites are fighting and winning the battle against scammers, I think.  But the isolated cases of date scamming are still very newsworthy and bad for the dating industry. 

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eHarmony Won't Settle Down With Just One Business Intelligence Tool

COMPUTERWORLD - Nov 8 - The system that powers eHarmony's matchmaking operation relies on four products: Oracle Corp.'s database, the open-source MySQL database, an open-source data-crunching app called Hadoop, and Netezza Corp. data warehousing appliances. Joseph Essas is VP of engineering and operations at eHarmony. 236 of its 20M members get married every day, the site claims. That's just one of "hundreds of metrics" that we "deeply care about," Essas said. eHarmony uses Oracle's database software to do much of the initial matching. But for hard-core data processing, the company relies on a speedy 50-node Hadoop cluster. Speed is important, because eHarmony updates the scores of its relationship matches whenever new members sign up, as well as when existing members update their profiles.

by Eric Lai
See full article at Computerworld

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eHarmony to Make Marketing More UK-focused

MARKETING WEEK - Oct 18 - UK country manager Ottokar Rosenberger says eHarmony will focus on what makes UK singles “really tick” and communicate the brand in a “truly local way”. eHarmony has switched creative agencies in the UK from US-based Donat/Wald + Haque to Karmarama, Marketing Week Engage Awards’ agency of the year winner, to develop UK-specific campaigns.

by Lara O'Reilly
See full article at Marketing Week

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eHarmony Ad: ‘As My daughters Say, Get on It’

MUMBREALLA - Sep 29 - The Hallway has launched a TV campaign for eHarmony  – the first Australia-made ad. Rather than focus on finding love, the ads look at the experiences to be gained from online dating.

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JDate Declares Itself Obvious Leader in Jewish Weddings

JEZEBEL - Sep 29 - According to JDate survey, 52% of Jewish married couples who met online met on JDate (compared to 17% on Match and 10% on eHarmony). 63% percent of the online dates the users went on were set up through JDate. And 76% of Jewish online daters used JDate at some point, even if they didn't find a spouse on it.

by Anna North
See full article at Jezebel

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eHarmony's Mobile Apps: Real, Warm and Elegant

EHARMONY - Sep 20 - eHarmony apps on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android launched in late Q3 2010 and since then ~1M members have downloaded the apps to date. Currently ~500k eHarmony profiles are viewed on mobile applications each day. Keeping it Real, Warm and Elegant is eHarmony’s Newest Design Challenge. When they thought about “warm” experiences outside of software, one experience jumped to mind – Starbucks. Starbucks has created an incredibly warm and inviting environment. The idea of being real or authentic is at the core of all eHarmony's creative and brand imagery. (Real success couples). With their final design goal, they set about making this application feel like a very personalized, simple experience versus a run-of-the-mill-dating search and browse experience. (parchment paper, bamboo, handwritten notes and script fonts).

See full article at eHarmony Advice

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ChristianCafe.com on Focus on the Family

OPW - Sep 19 - eHarmony no longer associates with Focus on The Family, but it was the springboard for their start. ChristianCafe.com, meanwhile, loves Focus on the Family. Husband and wife team Sam and Polly Moorcroft are the co-founder (Sam) and CEO (Polly) of ChristianCafe.com and were featured on Focus on The Family's single ministry show, Boundless, to discuss the history of internet dating and Christian dating. Listen here.

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Excused TV Dating Show Features Jazzed.com

AD AGE - Sep 9 - CBS's syndicated late-night dating show, "Excused," will use Jazzed.com, a new site from eHarmony that will allow viewers to virtually meet and maybe even physically date contestants on the show. During each 30-minute episode of "Excused," references will be made to the contestants' Jazzed.com profile pages, where viewers can learn more about individuals' likes, dislikes, background and more.

by Brian Steinberg
See full article at Ad Age

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The New Digital Singles Scene

FAST COMPANY - Aug 19 - Online dating startups are using quirky concepts, and emerging technology--from facial recognition to geolocation. Online dating is a $1.5 billion per year industry in the U.S. Match.com generates ~$400M; eHarmony ~$150 million; and Adult Friend Finder earn ~$250M in annual revenue. On most sites, users take the time-honored route of writing up anecdotes about their lives. OK Cupid broke that model by combining traditional "about me" profiles with a personality test a la 20-questions. Dutch startup Soul2Match is using facial recognition software to pair people with similar bone structure. HowAboutWe requires users to suggest unique date ideas to one another. Spoondate asks its members to disclose what they want to eat and where, to match them based on cravings. Luv@FirstTweet tracks its users’ Twitter history to get a sense of their interests and personality.

by Sean Captain
See full article at Fast Company

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Match.com Recent Trends Study & eHarmony Marriage Study

INTERNET DATING SCIENCE - Aug 31 - These two reports, one each from eHarmony and Match.com, cover findings from their surveys.

eHarmony estimates that 4.77% of all new marriages in the US between 1/1/2008 and 6/30/2009 resulted from people who met on eHarmony. 542 eHarmony members marry every day, on average. These figures have doubled since 2007.

17% of couples marrying in the last three years met on an Internet dating site according to Match.com study.  More than twice as many couples met on a dating site than those who met in bars, clubs or other social events.  (Friends or family: 27%; Work/school: 38%; Church: 4%). 

These two studies only present findings that enhance their own product. For marketing purposes, this is an excellent strategy: collect data that presents your service in the best possible light.

Read the full summary at Internet Dating Science

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Jazzed Officially Launches as a Social Dating Site

BUSINESSWIRE - Aug 25 - Jazzed, a social dating site from eHarmony where individuals share, meet and connect with interesting and like-minded people, has officially launched. Launched in beta last October, Jazzed now has 500K and its mobile app have been downloaded ~250,000 times. Everyone on the site must have at least three photos on their profile in order to have a full site experience.

See full article at Sun Herald

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Redemption Clock for eHarmony Is Ticking

REUTERS - Aug 23 - Two of eHarmony's main backers stand to gain extra leverage over the company when redemption rights from its last financing round kick in -- an unusual development in the venture capital business. The rights come into play after November 5 for Technology Crossover Ventures and Sequoia Capital, which invested when eHarmony raised $110M in 2004. The firms will have the right to require eHarmony to buy back their preferred shares in four quarterly installments.

by Alistair Barr
See full article at Reuters

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