Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

College Students Using 'Sugar Daddies' to Pay Off Loan Debt

HUFFINGTON POST - July 29 - Saddled with piles of student debt and a job-scarce, lackluster economy, current college students and recent graduates are selling themselves to pursue a diploma or pay down their loans. "Over the past few years, the number of college students using our site has exploded," says Brandon Wade, founder of Seeking Arrangement. Of the site's ~800K members, Wade estimates that 35% are students. Wade rewards students who use a .edu email address to register on Seeking Arrangement by automatically upgrading their free, basic membership to a premium membership, allowing them to send unlimited free messages and granting them exclusive access to the site's cadre of VIP sugar daddies. Married men account for ~40% of the site's sugar daddies. Sugar babies outnumber sugar daddies by a ratio of nearly 10 to 1. Noel Biderman, founder and CEO of Avid Life Media, runs a number of arrangement-seeking sites. On one such site, EstablishedMen.com, Biderman estimates that 47% of its 1.3M members are women currently enrolled in college. And on ArrangementSeekers.com, he says 31% of its 387,000 members are female college students.

by Amanda M. Fairbanks
See full article at Huffington Post

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Is 'Sugar Daddying' Prostitution, or Just Extreme Gifting?

FOX NEWS - June 23 - Sugardaddy.com is a dating site that connects “sugar daddies” with “sugar babies” or “sugar mommas.” The site has a disclaimer that prohibits members from offering money in exchange for sex, saying any such violations will result in the cancellation of membership and banning from the site. “Prostitution is about sex for money … and women who rely on these interactions to support themselves – this is their profession,” says Noel Biderman, CEO of Avid Life Media who runs a similar Sugar Daddy dating site called EstablishedMen.com. “Sugar daddy relationships are real women who are interested in being with men who are willing to spend their disposable income on the lifestyle."

by Hollie McKay
See full article at Fox News

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Success Of Ashley Madison

IT BUSINESS - Feb 9 - Ashley Madison is the fastest growing site in North America. CEO Noel Biderman says he's just offering a niche service others are ignoring. Since launching eight years ago, Ashley Madison has 5.2M members in four different countries. The secret of the site's success has a lot to do with the smart use of social media. There have also been several spin-off sites. EstablishedMen promises to connect rich businessmen with young, beautiful women for “mentoring.” Other sites connect older women with young men, or cater to the swingers lifestyle. FULL ARTICLE @ IT BUSINESS

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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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Sugar Baby Meets Sugar Daddy

WINNIPEG SUN -- June 4 -- The women whose dating profiles appear on establishedmen.com are all looking for the same kind of man: He has deep pockets and isn't afraid to generously dip into them for a special lady. The website launched in 2008 and operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. The site is free for women to join, whereas male customers pay $49 monthly, plus additional fees for extra frills such as sending virtual gifts. FULL ARTICLE @ WINNIPEG SUN

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News - 6 Mins

Online Personals Watch Weekly News Summary #7, May 18th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.

Basisnote scent matching, Speedate on Android, Craigslist to moderate Adult ads, Kaplan launches Flirt140 Twitter dating service, Spark revenue 20% down, Indian matrimonials to hit $63m in 2011, sugar daddy blackmailing, and Air News Zealands matchmaking flight.

Sugar Daddy Sites Attract Sexual Blackmailers

ABC NEWS -- May 15 -- Stephen Dent was perceived, above all, to be a family man. But behind closed doors, the multimillionaire was a "sugar daddy" and "slave master". Dent was the "nameless victim" in at least three sexual blackmail plots, paying out more than $200,000 to keep his online sex life secret. Greenwich police arrested Dawn and Christopher Jessop, a young couple with three children, in a hotel where Dent was making the final $50,000 in a $100,000 pay-off, according to police reports. Dating sites like Wealthymen.com, Sugardaddy.com, Establishedmen.com and others can be fertile ground for con artists who take advantage of men with deep pockets, like Dent. EstablishedMen.com does not allow the "money for sex element" that typifies many of the other sites, according to CEO Simone Dadoun-Cohen, banning girls from asking for an "allowance."However, he told ABCNews.com that "with any relationship service there is an inherent risk of deception between users which we cannot 100% control." FULL ARTICLE @ ABC NEWS

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