OPW -- Apr 10 -- Spark Networks has acquired Engage.com. The deal had
been in process for several months. No details have been released as
yet. Engage is headed by Suneet Wadhwa (formerly the co-founder of Snapfish.com, Harvard MBA) and Trish McDermott
(formerly VP Romance at Match.com). The site allows users to become
virtual matchmakers and match members. It's great theory, but the site
has never really taken off. Traffic tanked from 300k monthly uniques
in May '08 when they ran out of money and switched off the ad buys. See Compete
graph. Now they are at 50k uniques a month, which isn't many more
uniques than this blog gets. Where will Spark take Engage? Its a
decent domain, but the site needs an overhaul. The concept was good,
but the viral effect that they were hoping for didn't kick in with
their implementations. Do people really want to be matchmakers? Yes,
but very very few people, and they tire quickly, especially if they are
not rewarded consistently. I'm fascinated by Engage. I hope Spark
gets a new launch right, and it doesn't end up locked in a boardroom
quagmire. The site has potential. - Mark Brooks
SMART MONEY -- Feb 9 --
1. Keep your hopes high and your expectations low.
2. We've yet to meet two people who aren't a potential match. "No one knows if (personality profiling datin services) actually work," says author Robert Epstein. If you really want individualized matchmaking then consider a personal matchmaker.
3. Everyone's lying about something. Some users lie about their age to show up in more search results but most lies in the online dating universe are pretty small, says Nicole Ellison, an assistant professor at Michigan State.
4. We don't have as many members as it seems. Experts say that at best, subscriber services convert ~ 10 and 15% of browsers into members. That means 90% or more of the profiles at a subscriber site could belong to unreachable browsers. On free sites like Plentyoffish.com or OKCupid.com every profile belongs to an active member.
5. Fall in love too quickly and you could end up with an empty wallet. "The romance scam is the most prevalent on dating sites, and the hardest to stop", says Brian Erickson, director of operations at Mate1.com.
6. Our guarantees are only guaranteed to keep you here. Match.com and Yahoo Personals offer "guarantees" and six-month "promises". If you don't find the one during your six-month subscription, you'll get more time to keep trying. Dating sites do this because it's an easy, low-cost way to keep traffic up—and a great marketing tool, says David Evans, an industry consultant.
7. Don't expect quick results. "You can't just throw up a profile and expect to go on a date," says Mark Brooks, an industry consultant for online dating services. The world of online dating has its own rhythms and rituals, which often take some time. Keep that first date light. "You're going to know by the second sip of your latte if there's something there," says Trish McDermott, VP Love at Engage.com.
8. Once you log in, you're pretty much on your own. Some people could simply use more help than others, says Mark Brooks, but good luck getting it from the dating service you're using. "Online dating sites' biggest flaw is they don't offer service of any kind," he says. Rather, most of them function more like a giant virtual bar or nightclub.
9. You might not need all these extras—but we do. "Besides the overall dampening of consumer spending, the Internet dating market has simply become saturated", says Brooks. That means online dating services have had to start getting creative.
10. Good luck trying to break up with us.
FULL ARTICLE @ SMART MONEY
See all posts on Plentyoffish See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on OKCupid See all posts on Yahoo Personals
See all posts on Mate1 See all posts on Engage
ENGAGE BLOG -- Aug 28 -- Engage.com, the introduction platform,
launched a new application on Facebook called AwesomeIntros. It's a fun
game that relies on
your intuition to introduce people to a person they've never met
before. You just vote on the person you think Engage should introduce
to the guy or girl in the poll. FULL ARTICLE @ ENGAGE BLOG
Mark
Brooks: Engage has also jazzed up the site with a new design and logo.
What do you think of the new design compared to the old one? Your
comments please...
See all posts on Engage
TECH CRUNCH -- Apr 10 -- Engage differentiates itself from traditional
dating sites by getting friends involved in the process
of finding that perfect match. These friends are there to help break
the ice and determine
who's worth the time. They can suggest people or write recommendations
and introductory notes. Engage raised $5M in Series A from Advanced
Tech Ventures in 2006.
The site will remain free until Q4 2008, at which point it will cost
around $20/mo. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
VENTURE
BEAT -- Apr 7 -- Engage (262,000 unique
visitors in March) is the first "second generation social dating site",
said Trish McDermott, the company's vice president. It provides a place
for mingling, mixing,
matching and flirting. To be a matchmaker on the site, users cast their
votes to suggest couples, or use the Play Matchmaker
feature, which lets them introduce their friends to dating candidates.
Users earn social points by being active. Engage took over
$5m from Advanced Technology Ventures, the Founders Fund, and
Revolution Ventures, with its second round closing two years ago. FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT
WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Feb 15 -- Among the 125 million people in the U.S. who visit online dating and social-networking sites are a growing number of dullards who steal personal profiles, life philosophies, even signature poems. Hugh Gallagher, a 36-year-old writer in New York, is one of the copied. Match.com has more than 50 profiles with parts of Mr. Gallagher's college entrance essay. In a recent Engage.com's survey of more than 400 online daters, 9% of respondents copied from another person's profile. A search on Match.com brought up more than 90 profiles with such lines as: "I want an opposite. A yin to my yang," or "You know that woman who is the first person on the dance floor at every party? That's me." They were cribbed from sample profiles posted at E-Cyrano.com by dating coach and profile writer Evan Marc Katz. JDate.com's recently released online dating tips include the advice: Look at what everyone else is saying and then SAY SOMETHING DIFFERENT". FULL ARTICLE @ WALL STREET JOURNAL
INFORMATION WEEK -- Feb 14 -- Engage.com
is two-years-old and has a pretty impressive lineup of executives,
including co-founder and CEO Suneet Wadhwa, who came from Snapfish, and
experts such as former Psychology Today Editor in Chief, Robert
Epstein, and former Match.com
maven Trish McDermott. Engage released a research entitled "The State
of The Date." Most singles (68%) are interested in falling in love and
getting married in the next five years. Only a few singles (12%) think
bad romantic news should first be delivered electronically. McDermott
said that Engage.com
is now looking at ways of incorporating more Web 2.0 elements. The
Series A funding from The Founders Fund, RevolutionVentures, First
Round Capital, and Advanced Technology Ventures is expected to help. FULL ARTICLE @ INFORMATION WEEK
CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- Feb 14 -- Digital-age dating brings new pitfalls,
like learning where your relationship stands by logging on. Facebook's
profile template lets members choose from six
relationship statuses. Trish McDermott, a founder of online dating
community Engage.com,
said she's heard many stories about people learning their relationships
had ended because their partners changed statuses back to "single". Facebook allows members to name
their partner and link to their profile, which requires verification
from the other person.
USA TODAY -- Feb 12 -- Matchmakers seem to be popping up all over the country, many targeting their personalized services to eligible businessmen. Matchmaking has become such a buzzword that some dating websites use it in their marketing. In December, Match.com unveiled Match My Friends, which allows friends and family to play matchmaker. Engage.com came up with that premise when it launched in 2005. Matchmaking as a field also has grown since the 2003 opening of the Manhattan-based Matchmaking Institute, which sells a home study kit for $1,500. LaRosa's research suggests there are about 1,600 matchmakers in the USA, and about 100 are added each year. It is a very difficult business because matchmakers are dealing with emotional currency and extreme expectations. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
MERCURY NEWS -- Apr 9 -- Engage.com (free, 200k members) is founded on the premise that online dating needs to be more like offline dating. Members are encouraged to seek out matchmakers who have volunteered to act as yentas…and invite friends to join and to vouch for them. The site's old-fashioned approach to courtship is one answer to the disappointment reported by online daters. A 2005 JupiterResearch survey found one in three online daters as "somewhat satisfied." Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com and an Internet dating consultant, said Engage addresses one weakness of the most popular dating sites, the ability to involve one's friends in a budding romance. Brooks said the chance of hooking up with a friend of a friend is one of the keys to the success of social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. People can avoid the awkwardness of actually declaring they are single, but don't want to be. "I love what they are doing, but it's going to take them awhile to be successful," Brooks said. Some of Engage's features are specifically designed to turn off would-be "players" who populate other sites. For example, Engage encourages its members to rate one another on "responsiveness," "politeness" and whether a person is "true" to his or her profile. Mike Murrow has been chronicling his online dating misadventures and said Engage's matchmaker process sounded good but required friends who were extremely committed. "My friends have their own lives; they are not going to scan through the profiles." FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS
Mark Brooks: I think the industry is doing a better job of setting expectations these days. Online dating takes time. The matchmaking industry is doing well because many people don't want to spend time. They just want dates, and they'll pay for them. There's an opportunity in there somewhere. ;) The clever people at Match are working to meld the yenta and online dating worlds together, but I think it will be a little tougher than they think. I think Match will need to offer a money back guarantee to safeguard their brand, and encourage word-of-mouth, and compete with $3000+ services like Great Expectations, Together Dating/The Right One, and Table For Six.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.com (SNW1.com for short)
PRESS RELEASE -- Mar 28 -- A look at more than 1.4 million singles on Oodle.com showed that 60% of singles do not reveal whether they have or want children and 55% do not specify if they smoke. For fear that they will appear less desirable! However, data from a recent survey on Engage.com proves this theory wrong. In fact, 88% of those surveyed said they were open to the idea of dating people with children and 63% would consider dating smokers. Mom was right…"honesty is the best policy." Oodle also found Chicago, Boston, and Miami are the best bets for Catholic singles while Miami, New York and L.A. are best for finding Jewish mates. If you don't drink or smoke, the best place to find a mate is Salt Lake City. More than half the over 40 online dating population has been married before.
Mark Brooks: Oodle aggregates profiles from the likes of Engage.com, PlentyofFish and others. Sites can pay to have their profiles featured in order to get more click throughs. Lycos tried something similar a couple of years back but the program failed because it required sites to send a flat file, and pay on a cost per reg basis...and Lycos just didn't send enough leads to be that worthwhile in the end.
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW -- Jan 22 -- Engage.com allows members' friends and family to log on and act as matchmakers. Trish McDermott (formerly VP Romance at Match.com) calls it "intervention dating." Cupid.com, founded in 2001, acquired Predating, the nation's largest speed-dating company, in 2004. They triangulate their online dating service with radio promotions in more than 100 local markets and coordinate speed-dating events. "Our view is that dating is very much a local business," says Eric Strauss, CEO. "eHarmony is great for matching somebody up with you, but if you're in Pittsburgh and they're in L.A., what good is that?" FULL ARTICLE @ PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW
Mark Brooks: Cupid.com/PreDating will attempt the world record for the largest simultaneous speed-dating on Feb 8th
ABC NEWS -- July 14 -- Technology is here to help you distinguish potential soulmates from future cellmates. Nearly one out of every two unmarried people have tried Internet dating in recent years, turning it into a $1 billion business. True.com performs criminal background checks and warns that "married people will be prosecuted." eLove.com, requires new members undergo face-to-face screenings at which officials verify pictures. Cheaters are more than welcome at AshleyMadison.com. MyPrivateLine.com provides an untraceable, toll-free phone number that you can set up in minutes for 15 cents a minute. Engage.com is carving out a role for friends and family. FULL ARTICLE @ ABC NEWS
Mark Brooks: True's 'married people will be prosecuted' insignia is brilliant. I wonder how many Marrieds the background checks catch?
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