Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Ignighter Fires Up $1.8M

CITY BIZ - Jan 6 - Group dating site Ignighter has raised $1.8M of a targeted $2.4M from six investors. Previously, the company raised $2.7M of a $3.1M offering from 25 investors. Ignighter launched in NYC in August of 2008 and has users in 28 countries.

by Richard Rabicoff
See full article at City Biz

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Ignighter: Making An Impact On India's Dating

INDIA KNOWLEDGE WHARTON - Dec 1 - India wasn't even on Adam Sachs' radar when he and two friends founded Ignighter, a dating site that allows users to organize group dates. But the site quickly attracted the most traffic from India and other Asian countries.

Q: You recently made your first trip to India. What were your impressions?
Adam Sachs: It was unbelievable. I’ve done a lot of traveling in my life, but nothing really compared to the entirely different world that India is.

Q: You traveled to India to establish a physical presence for Ignighter. Can you tell us a little bit about the site?
A: Ignighter is a group dating site. Which means that you and your friends create a profile together. You find another group and you all go out on a group date. The idea is that it’s a safer, less awkward, more fun approach to online dating.

Q: How did Ignighter take off in India?
A: Over 2009 and into 2010, while we were focusing on markets like New York City, Philadelphia and Boston, we would go into our analytics and see that places like India and Malaysia and Singapore and Indonesia were just growing like crazy. At first we thought, that’s interesting, but it’s not our focus. So we ignored it. The growth continued and it started to get to the point where we decided we were going to optimize our site for these markets.

Q: What do you think you were doing right in India?
A: I think the group dating model is right fro India. 

Q: Can you also give us some of your impressions about the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India?
A: I think it’s just starting to take off. 

Q: Is there now a lot of support around entrepreneurs who do take the plunge?
A: Absolutely. I met with a lot of great VCs.

Q: What’s your future plan in India for Ignighter?
A: Our future plan is to continue to understand what we’re doing right and what we’re doing wrong. We’re in the process of opening an office in Mumbai and hiring people. 

Q: Who is Ignighter's target customer in India?
A: Our average age on the site is between 23 and 24

Q: From a management perspective, what do you see as your main challenge in India going forward?
A: I think operating a company on two sides of the world is going to be a challenge. India is by far our biggest market and our primary concern. But it’s also not our only market. We have had success and we’re having a lot of early successes in other markets.

See full article at India Knowledge Wharton

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Online Dating Matures: 5 New Sites That Will Get You Lucky

FOX NEWS - Oct 16 - For decades, the online dating scene was limited to a handful of trusty incumbents: think Match.com, LavaLife, eHarmony. But a bevy of new sites are looking to offer the granularity users are now craving.

Here are five sites offering a fresh approach to finding “the one” online.

1. Best Concept: HowAboutWe (400K dates posted. $28 per month)
- One of the fastest growing sites in the scene. Proposing a date gives singles an immediate topic of conversation for emails and way to connect.
2. Best Elite Site: Sparkology (Service has not opened to general public yet)
- The community is invite-only and men must be verified grads of top universities.
3. Best Mainstream Site: OKCupid (7M members)
4. Best Alternative: Ignighter (2M members)
- Allows groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile. 
5. Most Buzzed About: Meexo 
- Meexo isn’t out yet. Meexo is attempting to bridge the gap between location-based gaming and romance.

by Alex Liu
See full article at Fox News

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Ignighter Developing Mobile App, Targeting South-East Asia

TECH CIRCLE - May 16 - Group dating site Ignighter is developing a mobile application in India, adding a revenue stream. Currently, Ignighter monetizes through annual subscription fees and virtual goods. India has 811 million internet users, though only 11.87 million are broadband subscribers. Ignighter currently has 2 million registered users in the country.

by Preethi J
See full article at Tech Circle

(Full disclosure: Ignighter is a former client of Courtland Brooks)

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Adam Sachs: The Accidental Indophile

LIVEMINT - Apr 3 - Ignighter’s been in the news recently for its almost accidental India business plan. Three New Yorkers - Adam Sachs, Kevin Owocki and Daniel Osit, set up a group dating site in 2008 to help their fellow men skip those awkward one-on-one Friday night blind dates. Unsurprisingly, it didn't find too many fans in the US. But they noticed a dramatic spike in the number of users from India. By August, Ignighter.com had crossed a million Indian users (the number has since doubled). In February, after raising $3M Sachs was ready to go to India. Earlier this week the websitedropped its average monthly $40 charge per group and decided it was time to indefinitely be a free site. “We don’t anticipate an increase in traffic but we’ve already seen dramatic increases in engagement,” says Sachs.

by Priya Ramani
See full article at LiveMint

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Can India Be Persuaded To Date Online?

CNN - Mar 29 - Looking for love is a big business in India. Gaurav Mishra, director of digital and social media at MSL Group Asia, a communications company, estimated that ~10% of India's internet users have used a matrimonial website. India's online matrimonial industry is expected to bring in $63M a year, according to a 2008 report by the market research firm Em Power. Internet penetration is currently only  5% but the arrival of 3G services means that many of the country's 600M mobile phone users will soon be online -- entrepreneurs are seeking new ways to tap the online matchmaking market. One start-up, Ignighter, is hoping to persuade India that the future of online matchmaking is in group dating. Ignighter now has ~2M registered users in India and 40% of them are women.

by Catriona Davies
See full article at CNN

Mark Brooks: Bharat Matrimony and Shaadi own this market.  I'm itching to go to India to learn more about their fascinating businesses.

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A Dating Site Thrives In Delhi

INC - Feb 14 - Along with partners Dan Osit and Kevin Owocki, Adam Sachs started a dating website called Ignighter.com in 2008. The premise was simple: Online dating was weird, but less weird if you did it as a group. The company was becoming incredibly popular in India. About 90% of our their users are overseas, and of that the majority are in India. The market there is huge: ~65% of India's 1.1 billion people are under the age of 35. In March, Sachs will be setting up Ignighter’s official Indian outpost. FULL ARTICLE @ INC

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Group Dating Startup Ignighter Raises $3 Million

TECH CRUNCH - Feb 11 - Ignighter, the group dating site, has raised $3M from a number of well-known investors. This brings the company’s total funding to $4.2M.Ignighter allows groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile, where they can include photos and specify their interests. The site then presents a list of possible matches with other groups and helps them arrage get-togethers in the real world. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Group Dating With Ignighter

DEUTSCHLAND RUNDFUNK - Sep 29 - Ignighter, a group online dating site, started as a Facebook app. Adam Sachs and his two friends created Ignighter app for Facebook after their negative experiences with traditional online dating. Ignighter got over 1M funding in 2008 and became the leading group dating site. Unlike other dating sites, Ignighter's members can only communicate within groups. Adam Sachs now has to figure out how to generate revenue since most of Ignighter's members came from Facebook and are used to the free service. Parship.de, a personality profiling dating site, doesn't have to worry about generating revenue. This company has been around and charging for their services for over 10 years now. Members have to fill out 200-question questionnaire before they receive their first match. The site claims that over 10K people sign up a day. FULL ARTICLE @ DEUTSCHLAND RUNDFUNK (in German)

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Ignighter: Group Dating

THE INQUIRER -- Dec 3 -- Blind dates can be scary, matchmakers are costly, and speed dating requires nerves of steel. On Dating sites people often misrepresent themselves in their personal profiles. Yet group dating, participants say, demands that you be yourself. "Your friends keep you honest," said Adam Sachs, CEO of Ignighter.com, a Web site that promotes group-to-group dating. On this site, a group of friends create one profile - and from there, groups are matched with other groups. Other Web sites that promote group dates include Teamdating.com and Iamfreetonight.com. FULL ARTICLE @ THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

Mark Brooks: Great concept, but do groups of friends really want to date together?

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TechStars Startup Ignighter Raises $1.2 Million

TECH CRUNCH -- Oct 15 -- Ignighter, the group dating site that is part of the TechStars class of 2008, has closed a $1.2m angel funding round. CEO Adam Sachs says that the money will be used to expand its development staff, and will also be used for a marketing push to increase awareness. Ignighter allows small groups of friends to collaborate on a group profile, where they can include photos and specify their interests. The site then presents a list of possible matches with other groups and helps them arrange get-togethers in the real world. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

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Group Dating

8AT8 -- Sep 16 -- On Ignighter.com, groups are formed through an ambassador -- a kind of social director -- who invites his or her friends to join. Groups go out with other groups. Group-dating came on the scene in 1998 with 8at8, a service that sets up dinner dates with four men and four women and now has 25,000 members in six major metropolitan areas. Then came the Internet and, with it, sites like TeamDating.com, which has a concept similar to Ignighter's. IamFreeTonight.com allows its  users to post double-date and group-date listings. Meet New People, a Facebook dating application, has more than 3m users who post when they are free to "hang out" and RSVP to group gatherings. FULL ARTICLE @ 8AT8

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6 Online Resources For Group Dating

MASHABLE -- Aug 20 -- Group dating has become a cultural phenomenon, gaining popularity in the UK and now the US. Here are some popular online services that cater to the group dating/compa concept:
- Ignighter - a new group dating service from the TechStars camp. You can use their free service on their site or via their facebook app.
- Team Dating - is from www.Match.com which focuses on group dating
- Date-My-Mates - started in the UK in 2006
- Let's Meet Out - serves only the New York City area at this time
- PlanJam - they aren't actually a group dating site but they can facilitate such an event
- I Am Free Tonight - is owned by eTwine and offers two Facebook apps called Meet New people and Are You Interested?
FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE