Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Daters Without Borders

NY POST - Nov 29 - More and more New Yorkers are searching for love on European dating sites. Lillian, a 42-year-old Manhattan copy editor signed up for Meetic.com. She Skypes with a Parisian man from the site for an hour each day. Susan, a 22-year-old grad student, also struggled with dating locally, so she widened her eHarmony parameters. Even “Real Housewives of New York City” reality star Alex McCord and Simon van Kempen met through Matchmaker.com while living on different continents. Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, says international romance is a growing trend, due to singles’ increasing pickiness about potential life partners. “The longer the shopping list, the further afield you should cast your net,” he advises. A single New Yorker four years ago, he flew to Prague for a European online dating conference where he met and fell for a Czech woman. They married last April and now live in Malta with two daughters.

Here are some of the most popular dating sites from around the world:
Europeans: Meetic.com
Brits and Canadians: PlentyOfFish.com
Asians: AsiaFriendFinder.com
Australians: RSVP.com.au
Indians: Shaadi.com
Russians: Mamba.ru

FULL ARTICLE @ NY POST

See all posts on Meetic                   See all posts on FriendFinder
See all posts on eHarmony             See all posts on RSVP
See all posts on Matchmaker.com   See all posts on Shaadi
See all posts on PlentyofFish          See all posts on Mamba.ru

Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Oct 23rd, 2009 - 3.5 mins

This is the news for October 18th through October 23rd, 2009. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here are some of the topics we covered for this week:

• People Media ranked on Deloitte’s prestigious Technology Fast 500 list
• Zoosk’s member base surpasses 40 million users
• Newly-launched eLove.com fuses online dating and traditional matchmaking
• AARP partners with Perfectmach relationship expert Dr. Pepper Schwartz
• Australia’s Cupid Media rejecting 3,000 profiles a day due to fraud suspicions

 

Mail.ru Buys Into Mamba.ru

RBC -- Aug 29 -- Mail.ru, the Russian email service provider and Internet portal, has acquired a 30% stake in the Russian dating site Mamba.ru from the Finam Investment Company. Market participants estimate the value of the deal at $15m. According to experts' opinion, however, Mamba.ru is running the risk of losing its other major partner Rambler, which provides the dating service with 25 to 30% of its users. The client base of Mamba.ru currently amounts to 9.8m people, according to the company's site, and its revenue topped RUB 300m (approx. USD 12.22m). FULL ARTICLE @ RBC

See all posts on Mamba.ru

Hackers Steal Russian Dating Site Database

I just came across this news piece from January....

MOSNEWS.COM -- Jan 25 -- A database containing on-line correspondence of at least two million users of Russia's biggest dating service Mamba.ru was been stolen by hackers and is on sale, local media reported. Spam message advertising states that politicians, businessmen, pop stars and famous sportsmen can be found among its users. The sellers claim all the site's intimate letters can be found on the DVD they offer. FULL ARTICLE @ MOSNEWS.COM