Online Personals Watch

Recession Dating

33TV -- July 13 -- After a long marriage, Alexander Drake is once again dating and in this economy he chose the free site PlentyOfFish.com. "I had zero expectations, but it wasn't worth spending money if it was going to turn out to be something that didn't work for me." It seems the down economy is not hurting dating. Match January membership was up 16% over the same time last year. And from January to May eHarmony saw its registration grow 20% over the same time period last year. eHarmony did a national survey recently and found one if four unmarried men and women want a long term relationship more as a result of the current economic climate. FULL ARTICLE & VIDEO @ THE 33TV

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Downturn Dating

ASSOCIATED PRESS -- July 2 --  Some singles are now hunting for dates with the same fervour others are showing hunting for jobs. Membership on eHarmony is up 20% despite monthly fees of up to $60, and activity has soared 50% since September at OkCupid.com. “People are looking for something that’s genuine in a world that isn’t very secure,” said Bathsheba Birman, co-founder of the Chicago dating event Nerds at Heart. Attendance at the monthly gatherings, where mostly young professionals pay $25 for a drink and a chance to spend the evening clustered around trivia and board games — was more than double expectations in April and has stayed high since. FULL ARTICLE @ LETHBRIDGE TIMES

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Dating From The Dorm Room

BOSTON GLOBE -- June 24 -- In 2007, eHarmony lowered the minimum age for completing its membership questionnaire from 21 to 18. Mark Brooks, who runs a consulting firm for online dating sites, said interest in online dating among young people has increased over the past few years. “These youngsters started on social networks; they warmed up on Friendster, they drifted to MySpace, then Facebook,’’ he said. “They are used to having a world of choice under their fingertips, and they are more demanding of a good match. And so, according to Brooks, today’s 18-to-22-year-olds are far more likely to look for love online than previous generations were. Most dating sites like eHarmony, Match.com, and the Jewish dating site JDate accept members 18 and older. Others like Universityloveconnection.com and Campushook.com are restricted to people enrolled in school; Studentlove.com requires users to have a “.edu’’ e-mail address to sign up. FULL ARTICLE @ BOSTON GLOBE

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Giving eHarmony An A For Effort

EHARMONY BLOG -- June 23 -- It is time to acknowledge and recap how eHarmony is giving more value to the subscription dollars.

   1. A perceptible reduction in romance scammers.
   2. Refunds when the subscriber forgets to turn off autorenew.
   3. Empathic customer service representatives, as long as you contact them on the phone and not email.
   4. A discussion forum that is free to join, is looked after, and that keeps on adding new community features.
   5. At least six free communication weekends in a year.
   6. “$9.95 a month” pricing available almost anytime.
   7. Three to four Advice articles each week; many of which are entertaining and many of which surprisingly make sense.
   8. Match Settings interface change — Google Maps.
FULL ARTICLE @ EHARMONY BLOG

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Winners Of 2009 American Business Awards Announced

OPW NEWS -- June 23 -- eHarmony.com won “Customer Service Team of the Year” at The 7th Annual American Business Awards, which were presented last night at a gala ceremony in New York City. The American Business Awards are the only national, all-encompassing awards program honoring great performances in business.  For a complete list of the 2009 American Business Award honorees in all categories, visit: www.stevieawards.com/aba.

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Match.com And eHarmony Success Rates published

PARADIGM SHIFT -- June 21 -- Match.com has released their 2009 success rates http://www.iacadvertising.com/pdf/Match%20Overview%20One%20Sheet.pdf, or Here.

- 56m first emails sent per year
- 132m winks sent per year
- 12 couples got married or engaged today thanks to Match.com
- users go on 6m dates each year
- 1 in 1369 dates leads to marriage on Match.com
- Match.com makes $1m dollars a day from subscription revenues

eHarmony also has public stats

- 118 couples a day get married or engaged.
- 12-15K new users every day
- full audience turnover every 6.5 months
FULL ARTICLE @ PARADIGM SHIFT

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eHarmony Implements Accertify's Fraud-Fighting Technology

PR NEWSWIRE -- June 10 -- Accertify, a provider of leading-edge online fraud-fighting solutions to e-commerce merchants, today announced that its platform has been chosen by eHarmony. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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Finding Love In Later Life

GUARDIAN.CO.UK  -- June 10 -- According to eharmony.co.uk, 30% of men over 65 and a whopping 60% of women don't live as part of a couple. Match.com claims the baby boomer generation is its fastest-growing market. Many niche websites have popped up, specifically targeting an older demographic. The Senior Dating Agency and Senior Dating Group are both free to join and are targeted at over-50s. Singlesover60.co.uk and Online Senior Dates focus on a slightly higher age bracket, with the majority of its members over 60. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

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Cisco Spoof Of Mike & Juliet eHarmony Interview

OPW -- June 5 -- Cisco makes fun of eHarmony and features 'Rhonda DeLay' who complains about the speed of her internet. She mentions she was on eHarmony and was rejected three times, and then was accepted the fourth time, when she was on percoset. See this video for the original version that inspired this video. About half way through the video. Susan was a guest on the Mike & Juliet show and said "I was rejected three times, and the fourth time I was on percoset and passed."

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Romantic Relationships Benefit Single Parents And Their Kids

BUSINESS WIRE -- June 4 -- A new survey by eHarmony, conducted by Opinion Research, finds that 51% single parents believe they and their kids are better off emotionally when the parent is in a committed relationship. The eHarmony survey asked single parents about their motivations for dating again:

- 87% said to have fun
- 80% said for companionship
- 61% said to have a mother or father figure in their child’s life
- 60% said to share parenting duties
- 37% said to appease their kids
FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: This very point is the top reason myself and Irena plan to devote our time and career to the internet dating industry for the next 20 to 30 years. Internet dating services and matchmakers help people make better matches.  Better matches means happier families and kids.  Happier and emotionally healthier kids may lead to a society that won't self destruct in future generations. We've ALL got our work cut out.  Its a good cause, and a great industry to be working in. Your comments please...  

 

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Interview: Gian Gonzaga Of eHarmony

WASHINGTON POST -- June 1 -- eHarmony operates on the theory that partners need to share certain key characteristics to better their chances of a successful long-term relationship. We caught up with Gonzaga to talk about that theory and what he has learned about love during his tenure at eHarmony.

Q: What are the core qualities partners should share if they want their love to last?
A: The big ones are personality traits. Things like how agreeable you are, how open you are to experience. 

Q: Why does it matter so much that couples share these traits?
A: If you are similar to someone, it’s a lot easier to understand what it is they’re thinking. 

Q: What about the adage “Opposites attract”?
A: Over the long haul if somebody’s really radically different, and they see the world in a different way, it’s going to be difficult to negotiate those things again and again and again.

Q: You just launched Compatible Partners. Do the same requirements for shared characteristics apply?
A: We think so. So right now we’re moving on the assumption that the same kinds of models are going to apply well, and then over time we’ll work on that model to tailor it as best as possible.

Q: Any surprises in your four years at the love lab?
A: In 2005 we found that there were 90 people a day who got married off of eHarmony. And two years later, it turns out 236 people a day got married or 44,000 couples a year.
FULL ARTICLE @ KANSASCITY.COM

 

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Cupid's Arrow Lands In War Zone

USA TODAY -- May 18 -- Dating services such as Match.com and eHarmony are reporting that numerous members are finding romance with someone in the U.S. while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. The % of military members joining eHarmony increased by 56% from 2006 to 2008, says Gian Gonzaga, an eHarmony research psychologist. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News - 4 Mins

Online Personals Watch Weekly News Summary, May 11th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.

Site launches, BharatMatrimony expansion into new markets and religions, Userplane demise, CrazyBlindDate to be integrated into OkCupid, prison dating, Wealthy Men on reality TV.

Compatible Partners Is Now Live

OPW -- May 6 -- In response to discrimination litigation, eHarmony agreed to launch the gay version of its heterosexual match-making service. Compatible Partners is live now and members can get 6 months free membership if they register today.

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eBay's Fight Over Counterfeit Jewelry And What It Means For Online Dating

OPW -- May 4 -- Tiffany & Co. is in the process of appealing a judge’s ruling that does not hold eBay responsible for the sale of counterfeit merchandise, and if they succeed, it could mean bad news for online dating. Buyers take risks everyday when purchasing items listed on eBay. ~6,000 fake items are for sale on the site at any given time, usually famous luxury products. In June 2004, Tiffany & Co. decided eBay should take responsibility for the counterfeit Tiffany jewelry being sold on the site, and sued. The argument was over whose job it was to police the site to help prevent counterfeit merchandise from being passed off as authentic. Four years later, on July 14, 2008, the ruling came down from U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan: “eBay cannot be forced to police its listings to identify counterfeit products. It is the trademark owner's burden to police its mark.” Tiffany was devastated by the ruling, which contradicted several international rulings from the previous year. The previous month, a French court awarded LVMH, the parent company of Louis Vuitton, nearly $61m in compensation for fraudulent items sold on eBay. eBay was also ordered to stop all sales of LVMH perfumes on its French site. In 2007, Germany’s highest court said eBay needed to better police online sales to help stop fake Rolex watches from being sold. If eBay is going to be responsible to police their site for counterfeit products, will online dating websites then become fully responsible for seeking out and eliminating scammers and spammers? Both eBay and online dating sites essentially deal with the publication of classified ads, and making the service provider responsible for policing one type of classified could easily be translated into the responsibility of all providers of that type. A lawsuit was recently filed against eHarmony.com claiming that the site does not actually have a scientific matching system in place, and one woman was matched with a scam artist. If a ruling is made in favor of Tiffany & Co., could dating sites then be sued for the simple fact that a scam artist was in their system to be matched with women looking for love? Only time will tell, but none of the implications are positive for the online dating industry.

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Love Is In the Air

NEW MEDIA AGE -- Apr 30 -- The UK dating services industry is worth an estimated £600 million a year and, according to Hitwise, there are more than 1,300 dating sites in operation. Meanwhile, Jupiter Research predicts the number of paying members of dating sites will reach 6 million in the next three years, rising from 2.6 million in 2006. In the midst of such vast anticipated growth, two of the biggest players — Meetic, which owns Dating Direct, and IAC, owner of Match.com — have agreed to a deal. 

Industry reaction to the owners of Match.com and Dating Direct getting into bed together seems to be one of general puzzlement. IAC plans to sell its European operations of Match.com to Meetic in return for €5 million (£4.5 million) and a 27% interest in Meetic. So why would the world's largest dating site suddenly decide to sell its profitable European operation? Ross Williams, co-founder of WhiteLabelDating, which powers dating sites for publishers, sees the strategy behind the decision. "There was a clause in the announcement that didn't make many of the headlines, but I think will tell you the direction IAC is going in: Match has the option to buy Meetic in its entirety in about three years. So this is kind of phase one of setting the limits of both businesses."

There's a general feeling in the industry that the Meetic/IAC deal will be just the first of a number of unions in a sector that has hundreds of competitors. Markus Frind, founder and CEO of free dating site Plenty of Fish, believes we'll see more forced marriages in the UK market. "A lot of dating sites have been losing traffic over the last two years and some aren't even profitable; that can't go on forever," he says. But it seems the economic squeeze isn't impacting the bigger players in this sector. eHarmony launched in the UK last October saw an almost 2% increase in the number of pages people viewed on days when the Dow Jones was down 100 points or more. Match.com has also seen a 35% increase in sign-ups since the beginning of the year.

With so many players in the market, differentiating each dating service arguably comes down to how effectively sites match individuals. While approaches differ slightly, no one player seems to be doing anything radically different. Online dating service Parship claims to have been the first in Europe to offer a scientific approach to matchmaking, with its psychometric compatibility test, taken by more than 9 million people to date. eHarmony uses an in-depth 250-question questionnaire based on 35 years of clinical psychology research. Tapping into this trend, Match.com launched its work-in-progress personality test in December 2008.

Another growth opportunity for the buoyant dating market is the 'second' generation of single people, who are gradually putting their trust online. WhiteLabelDating, which runs Fun at Fifty, has seen a "massive increase" in the popularity of its over-50s dating site. Launched in October 2008, user numbers have risen each month, with March 2009 showing visits up by 47% on the previous month.

FULL ARTICLE @ NEW MEDIA AGE 

See all posts on Meetic                     See all posts on PlentyofFish
See all posts on Dating Direct            See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on Match.com               See all posts on Parship
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Shared Qualities For A Successful Relationship

WASHINGTON POST -- Apr 24 -- The Washington Post recently conducted an interview with psychologist Gian Gonzaga, lead researcher inside eHarmony Labs, the online dating service’s think tank. Gonzaga stated that the core qualities partners should share if they want their love to last are primarily personality traits, such as temperament, openness to experience, how introverted or extroverted each person is, etc. He also stated that the literature does not support the adage "Opposites attract", and claims that after running the numbers, eHarmony is responsible for 236 people getting married each day, or 44,000 couples a year. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

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Love In The Time Of Recession

YAHOO! NEWS -- April 20 -- The $60 billion-a-year wedding industry is hurting as much as the rest of the economy, according to a recent Bloomberg article. And with couples spending an average of 24% less on tying the knot than in '07, they are scaling back on everything from the number of guests to meal selections to flowers. According to a recent article in Yahoo! Finance, 37% of matrimonial lawyers report seeing a decrease in divorcing couples during economic downturns. The reason, the article posits, is because getting a divorce is the "worst thing you can do financially." So maybe the frugal thing to do these days is just stay single? Not so fast. The Economist and CNN are both reporting that matchmakers and online dating websites like eHarmony.com and OKCupid.com are prospering during the recession. eHarmony reports a 20% increase in monthly registrations from September 2008 to January 2009, and even Harlequin Enterprises, the world's leading publisher of romance fiction, reported that fourth-quarter earnings were up 32% over the same period the year before. Love is in the air, in one form or another. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO! NEWS

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News - 5 Mins, Venice

Online Personals Watch News Summary #3, April 19th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.

Spark Networks acquires Engage.com. Sugar Daddy sites criticized. New Facebook apps from GenePartner and DateRaters.com. eHarmony lawsuit and Compatible Partners criticism. Matchmakers doing ok according to CNN. Virtual singles marry online, and Courtland Brooks blog launches. 

This weeks news from Venice, Italy. 

Lindsay Lohan eHarmony Ad

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