Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Interview With Frances Maier, Co-founder Of Match.com

OPW INTERVIEW - Feb 6 - We interviewed Gary Kremen last month.

  

You’re the co-founder and were the first GM of Match.com. How did you get involved with Match and what’s your side of the founding story?
Gary and I are good friends, and we were back then.  Gary was looking for somebody to run Match.com. We connected at our reunion and he told me he wanted somebody who really knew how to market women. He thought it was important to get women to Match.com so men would follow.

Gary’s idea was to charge per email or contact. I pushed forward the membership model and of course that’s the model in most online dating sites.

The other important thing was giving people advice on how to use the site better. A lot of people didn’t get that we were creating, not just personals online, but that we were really inventing something. This was back in 1995, before anyone knew about social networking.

What were the companies back them?  Webpersonals.com, matchmaker.com and Match.com?
There were a few but they weren’t sophisticated about the marketing and customer acquisitions.  They didn’t work with any partnerships and I don’t think they thought about targeting women.  We were doing really well at attracting women and keeping them.  

On that point you went on after Match.com to work as VP of Women.com.  What do women want from idating that many dating sites are missing?
Safety, anonymity and fun is really important . If you take care of this, you’re going to do well.  Any respectable dating site gives you enough control to control pics, messages, blocking and filtering etc.  I also think that people need more specialized advice.

You are involved with two Internet dating start-ups.  Could you tell us about those?
The first one is TheComplete.me and I think it’s very unique and very exciting because it really talks about your social graph on Facebook. The other start-up I’m involved in is “Three Day Rule”. It’s a completely different approach although it shares that social aspect.  It’s based in LA and focuses on high end events.

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Match.com President On The Formula For Love

FORBES - Feb 5 - Now, at least one in every six new marriages are between people who met on a dating site. This, of course, is fantastic news for Mandy Ginsberg, President of Match.com. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Ginsberg shares her own “algorithm” for success, why business school doesn’t have anything on single parenting, and why flirting at work may not be such a bad thing after all.

Q: What advice would you give other women who want to be innovative and “follow the rules” at the same time?
A: Being agile, innovative and decisive are critical.

Q: What’s the best thing you’ve ever done for your career?
A: Pushing myself to do things that were out of my comfort zone.

Q: What your advice is for someone who has a crush on a colleague?
A: I met my husband at my last company while we were working on a project together. Sometimes acting on those crushes at the office might not be a bad thing. Happily, it worked for me.

Q: Match.com is a company that has managed to grow amid a very significant recession. Aside from having a great product, to what do you attribute this success?
A: Even in a recession people want to fall in love. Still, I attribute success to a few things. One, build a brilliant team. Second, take calculated risks. Two years ago we had this unique idea of focusing our TV ads around those first dates. So we asked a few Match.com members if we could film them on a first date. Now over 100 TV ads later from 30 real dates across the country, we have created the most successful campaign in our history.

Q: If you could go back and give one piece of advice to your 20 -year-old self, what would it be?
A: Don’t be afraid of failure.

by Emily Bennington
See full article at Forbes

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A Lawyer Finds His Perfect Match

FT - Feb 5 - Greg Blatt is talking fast and loud. So loud that, after a while, your ears begin to hurt. But as the CEO of IAC – the company behind Match.com - enthuses about his business, his big voice ricochets around his glass-walled office with a view of the Statue of Liberty. “It’s been a great year,” he booms. Mr Blatt is excited because it has indeed been a good first year on the job. Full-year results, released last week, showed annual revenues up 26% to $2.1bn, with profits up 75% to $174m. He is unmarried – and has even cancelled his subscription to Match.com. “I’m a single guy,” he says. “I have a bunch of friends in the city. I date ladies from time to time.” Blatt helped Diller spin off the companies that didn’t fit, starting with Expedia in 2005, and continuing with Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster and others in 2008. “We disaggregated to a group of businesses that have far more commonality among them,” he says. After six years as general counsel, Mr Blatt was tapped to run Match.com, and in 2010 he took over as CEO. Likewise, he does not see Facebook as a direct competitor. Yet the skyrocketing valuations of internet start-ups, led by that company’s pending IPO, has made it harder for IAC to find acquisition targets to fuel its growth. “I went to law school because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” he says. “If someone had asked me if I would be working in the internet after law school I would have said: ‘What’s the internet?’”

by David Gelles
See full article at Financial Times

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Singles In America Study By Match.com

MATCH.COM BLOG - Feb 2 - "Singles in America", Match.com's second annual study on singles, dives deep into how singles are living and thinking in 2012. ~5,K singles participated in the survey. The Singles in America study was funded by Match.com in association with biological anthropologist, Dr. Helen Fisher; sex and relationship therapist, Dr. Laura Berman; evolutionary biologist with The Kinsey Institute at Indiana University, Dr. Justin R. Garcia; and the Institute for Evolutionary Studies (EvoS) at Binghamton University. Here are just a few of the study’s most groundbreaking results:

• Fidelity is regarded as a more important quality in the U.S. president than in a partner. 62% of men and 80% of women say that sexual fidelity in a relationship is a “must have.” But almost 9 out of 10 respondents believe there are “no acceptable excuses” for infidelity by a political candidate (87% of men and 91% of women).
• Men are more willing to make a commitment without being in love or feeling sexually attracted to their partner.
• Singles over 60 are most likely to insist on a partnership that includes sexual attraction and romance.

See full article at Match.com Blog

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Singles Spend More Than £3 Billion Annually Looking For Love

DAILYMAIL – Jan 27 – A recent poll of 2,000 singles in Britain’s major cities has found that Brits collectively go on 37M dates a year, spending an average of £47 each time, spending a national average of £1.3 billion on food and drink alone. The dating industry has made a major impact on the UK economy, the study found, revealing that £421M goes towards transportation and another £324M in grooming as people get their hair cut to look their best. The study was commissioned by Match.com and produced by the Centre of Economic Business Research.

by Sadie Whitelocks
See full article at DailyMail

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iDate Demonstrates Shift In Dating Technology

FAST COMPANY – Jan 26 – Author Dan Slater, who is writing a book about the online dating industry, attended the iDate Conference in Miami and took a look at the way technology is influencing the way we date online. Things are changing now that one third of America’s 90M singles date online, and it’s no longer the “unspeakable underworld” it once was. Seventeen years ago, when Gary Kremen founded Match.com, anonymity was key to success, protecting people’s privacy and allowing them to reveal their “true identity” on their own terms. In 2007, Zoosk was formed on the basis that the younger generation grew up on technology and the conventional online dating platform was of no interest to them. Zoosk “is for a social life – with dating in mind” where privacy concerns are not as rampant. New sites continue to pop up in the ever-changing industry challenge our notions of privacy and what we should expect going forward. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is right – morality may be divine, but it’s also fickle and shifts in technology make new things possible.

by Dan Slater
See full article at Fast Company

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Check Criminal Records Of Online Daters, Experts Say

CBC NEWS - Jan 16 - Online dating companies should be taking advantage of the RCMP criminal records system to keep convicted criminals off their sites, say experts in the identity verification business. "There is no perfect instant criminal record system on the planet," David Dinesen told CBC News. "But Canada is the best in the world. No question." Criminal backgrounds of Canadian daters could be checked without breaking privacy laws, because the daters could authorize or volunteer to provide their criminal conviction record check to the dating sites, he said. Online dating companies such as PlentyofFish, Match.com, eHarmony and others should offer options to their Canadian clients. PlentyofFish, founded by Markus Frind, makes ~$30M annually from advertising on its website. The company espouses a "buyer beware" philosophy and posts warnings and safety tips for clients on its free site. eHarmony sent CBC News an email statement emphasizing that "eHarmony's efforts are focused on empowering people to use good judgment and to be responsible for their safety on eHarmony, as they would anywhere else. Since there is not a comprehensive database of criminal convictions and many crimes go unreported by the victims, eHarmony does not want to give its members a false sense of security. We make it very clear in several places throughout the site that eHarmony does not conduct criminal background checks on our members. In an email, Match.com told CBC News: "Match is always reviewing new ways to keep the community safe and is aware of RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records. Unlike the National Sex Offender Registry, against which Match.com screens against in the United States, the RCMP repository is not public information. Therefore, utilizing this information is not currently possible."

by Jeannie Stiglio
See full article at CBC News

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Online LDS Dating Sites Grow In Popularity

UNIVERSE - Jan 10 - More and more Latter-day Saint members have found success with online dating, through numerous sites including LDSSingles.com, Match.com and Plentyoffish.com. Arielle Schechtman, director of Spark Networks, the company that owns sites such as LDSSingles and ChristianMingle, said members of the LDS Church would likely be surprised at the number of people who have met their spouse online.

by Chelsey Saatkamp
See full article at Universe

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Gary Kremen, Founder Of Match.com And Founder & CEO Of Sociogramics

OPW INTERVIEW - Jan 3 - Gary Kremen, started it all. He’s the original CEO and the founder of Match.com. Here’s his story. - Mark Brooks

You founded Match.com in 1993. What was your original vision?
Our original vision was a dating service based on email. My genesis and idea was to find the right woman for myself.  I had the idea that if I put all the women in the world in a database and sorted it on my criteria I’d find the right woman to marry.

How do you think the site has improved over the years?
Clearly the web and mobile interface has reached consumers and what they are doing today. Deeper databases, different ways of reaching...it has been improvement.

Back in 1996 you had a disagreement with the VC’s that were funding Match.com regarding serving alternative markets.  What were the alternative markets?  
I saw an opportunity. Match.com was about long-term relationships that were not considered casual dating. The long term relationships definitely could give online dating present value but I thought that short term relationships, gay/lesbian dating, different ethnic group targeting was the way to go. They were embarrassed by the whole thing.

Are you surprised by the level of innovations that has occurred since you started Match.com, one way or the other?
Match.com was not the first into mobile, not the first in using new technology/new platforms like Facebook. I would say that the innovation is at the rest of the market, not ahead of the market.

Internet dating really seems to be be moving onto the mobile phone. What do you think is going to be the next big move?
I think using GPS/location data to date more people around you and maybe social graph data.

If you were betting on a particular dating site which horse would you put your money on? Say we’re going to invest a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
I’ve been looking at Skout who have an interest in mobile product and more short term dating than long term but I don’t want disparage with any public bets. It’s a tougher business today because customer acquisitions costs are so high.

Skout sounds like a great horse. Tell us more about it.
They believed early on in using mobile location based data and using applications where the urban consumer would want to use it. I’ve been helping them out from time to time

So you do have an interest in getting back into the Internet dating arena?
I wouldn’t say that. I think there’s a time for everything and I think the time is gone for being the first mover. There’s other businesses out there that excite me, other technologies, other things that add different types of value to society.

So let’s move onto Sociogramics because that sounds very timely and another great cause. How does Sociogramics help the underbanked and those with little credit?
There’s a lot of borrowers out there, let’s call them fallen angels, underbanked that deserve credit that aren’t being given chances by traditional lending institutions. So we are trying to help traditional lending institutions by bringing back the importance of character to lending so people who want to pay back can. One of the things that we learned in this financial crisis is that there are a lot of people that didn’t. Can we go find people that really do want to pay back that aren’t given the chance? Character and community is the bottom line.

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6 Million Brits Set To Seek Love Online During Holidays

METRO.CO.UK - Dec 26 - ~6M British people are set to take to the internet to find love during the festive season in the biggest week of the year for online dating. According to Match.com one in ten Brits is likely to browse a dating site between now and 2012. Meanwhile US-based dating sites also expect a boost in traffic over the next week as hopefuls look to find someone to share New Year's Eve with, as well as forthcoming events such as Valentine's Day.

See full article at Metro.co.uk

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Dating Sites Report 15%-20% Increase In Traffic As Big Night Approaches

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS - Dec 25 - “From Dec. 26 to Feb. 14 is our busiest season,” says Whitney Casey, Match.com’s relationship expert. “New Year’s Eve is such a big deal because it’s a new beginning,” she explains. “If you’ve had a bad time dating last year, there’s just so much optimism in the air for the new one.” Plentyoffish.com reports a 15% jump in signups for its free dating site this time of year, coupled with a 20% spike in activity from current users, “many of whom are looking for a date for New Year’s Eve,” says rep Shannon Smith.

by Nicole Lyn Pesce
See full article at New York Daily News

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How Match.com's Founder Created The World's Biggest Dating Site And Walked Away With Just $50,000

BUSINESS INDISDER - Dec 16 - In 1994, when only 5% of Americans had Internet access, Kremen took a $2,500 advance on his credit card to buy the domain name Match.com. Today, Match is the undisputed leader of online dating. Incredibly, however, Kremen has no ties to the Match brand today. Kremen walked away with $50K when he departed Match, a site that is on track to earn $450M in revenue in 2011. Late in 1994, Kremen secured $1.5M in funding from angel investors and a few venture-capital firms. Match went live in April 1995. Kremen was spending every waking hour working on the site, but a rift began to form in the board room. The first point of contention was the business model. The board also disliked the personals category. And the V.C.’s had serious doubts about Kremen’s management skills.

After butting heads once too often, the V.C.’s removed Kremen from the CEO post in mid-1995, although he remained on the ECI board. The board’s next step was to find a new CEO. Richard Neustadt, the first candidate, was “a great, salt-of- the-earth guy,” according to Kremen. On the weekend before Neustadt’s first day at ECI, he died in a rafting accident. Then the board made a billion-dollar mistake. Frustrated with the difficulty of finding the right CEO, and eager to pursue the newspaper-partnership business model for ECI, the V.C.’s spun off Match in 1997, selling it for $7M to Cendant. In June 1999, Cendant sold Match to Ticketmaster Citysearch Services for $50M. Kremen received only $50K cash from the Match sale.

by Jeff Kauflin
See full article at Business Insider

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Dating Stocks To Go Steady With

SMART MONEY - Dec 12 - Of singles over 18 years old, 43% have browsed online dating sites, equating to 40M active U.S. accounts and ~600M visits per month, according to Mashable. Several publicly traded companies compete for online daters. But just like dates themselves, not all are worth your time or investment dollars. The strongest stock also happens to be the biggest. IAC/InterActiveCorp dominates the category with a 20% market share, according to Online Personals Watch. Significantly smaller but potentially more lucrative than IAC is Spark Networks. Last month, Spark Networks reported a 28% boost in YOY revenue and a 30% increase in paying subscribers. While the U.S. has over 40M active online dating accounts, China has more than three times that amount. Jiayuan.com, China's largest dating site, listed on the NASDAQ in May. Despite doubling the number of active paying accounts since 2010, the stock has cratered in the past month.

by Jonathan Hoenig
See full article at Smart Money

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Apple Axes Match.com's iOS App Over Billing Squabble

FIERCEMOBILE CONTENT - Dec 2 - Apple has removed Match.com's iOS application from its App Store after the dating site failed to adhere to the storefront's subscription billing policies. It enabled users to pay for Match subscriptions with a credit card using an external link, bypassing the App Store's billing mechanisms and denying Apple its 30% cut of subscriptions and content sold via iOS apps. Apple and Match.com are currently in talks on how to revamp the app to meet the App Store's guidelines.

by Jason Ankeny
See full article at Fiercemobile Content

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Boomer Talk: Dating And Mating

NEWBURY PORT NEWS - Dec 2 - Close to 29% of adults ages 50 to 65 are now single. Dating can be challenging at any age. But for boomers, this is even more true when you consider that social skills may be a bit rusty. While some boomers may be skeptical or embarrassed to try online dating, people over age 50 make up Match.com's fastest-growing segment of users, with a 300% increase since 2000. When it comes to relationships, 84% of boomers rank physical intimacy as being "important" or "very important."

by Angelena Craig
See full article at Newbury Port News

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Match.com Expands In China

BEST OF RENCONTRE - Nov 30 - Match.com and Zhenai.com are collaborating in order to expand in a country, where a site like Jiayuan.com, founded in 2003, totals more than 50 millions members. Match.com now owns 20% of Zhenai's shares, website that amounts to 30 millions users. It will however be necessary to adapt advertising campaigns, fees and functionalities in order to accommodate their future members.

by Rébecca Lazzerini
See the full article at Best of Rencontre (in French)

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A Young Woman Scored $1,200/Month In Dinners Using Match.com

BUSINESS INSIDER - Nov 30 - McGonagall started eating out five nights a week using a rotation of different guys she met through Match.com. McGonagall went from easily spending $500 a month on dinners alone to having someone else dole out an average of $60-plus per night.

By Madeleine Scinto
See full article at Business Insider

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Police Target Lonely Hearts Fraudsters

SUNDAY TIMES - Nov 28 - Romance scammers are to be targeted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca). According to Soca ~200K people have already been tricked by overseas conmen. Online dating scams have become one of the most lucrative methods. This is because online dating has itself become so successful, with 1,400 dating sites operating in Britain, including Plentyoffish, eHarmony and match.com. Mark Brooks, who runs Courtland Brooks, a consultancy specialising in the online dating industry, said: “Every site has significant problems in dealing with scammers. It is the bane of the industry.” Karl Gregory, head of match.com’s UK division, said cases of fraud were still rare. “Our advice”, he said, “is to stay within the site to build up relationships over time rather than giving out personal details, and never to give money to anyone for any reason.”

by Jonathan Leake
See full article at Sunday Times

Mark Brooks: Actually, this is far more a problem in the USA than the UK.  Most sites are fighting and winning the battle against scammers, I think.  But the isolated cases of date scamming are still very newsworthy and bad for the dating industry. 

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Match.com Reports Q3 Results

PR NEWSWIRE - Nov 4 - Core revenue increased 15% to $102.5M driven by increases in subscribers. Developing revenue increased 8% to $18.7M primarily due to revenue from OkCupid. Core and Developing revenue collectively increased by 14% to $121.2M. Meetic had revenue of $11.1M which was negatively impacted by the write-off of $9.6M of deferred revenue in connection with its acquisition.

Match Core consists of Match.com in the US, Chemistry.com and People Media.
Match Developing consists of OkCupid, Singlesnet, mobile-only products and non-Meetic international operations.

See full article at Marketwatch

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Match.com Launches Free Facebook Dating App

MARKETING WEEK - Oct 31 - The app, dubbed Matchlist, allows Facebook members to register with the site for free and find potential partners in their area. Users can also make a shortlist of potential dates and ask selected Facebook friends for feedback via a private message.

by Lara O'Reilly
See full article at Marketing Week

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