Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

TangoWire Partners With Messmo

PR WEB - Mar 10 - TangoWire, a community of online dating sites, has mobile-enabled its entire member base, to use sms with other members while never revealing the users actual mobile number. Using Messmo's patent pending iFollowText messaging system, new messages and alerts are sent as a regular SMS to members, while allowing members to reply as if they were normal texts from a friend. Members are assigned an anonymous mobile number to communicate with other members.

See full article at PR Web

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FreeDating.co.uk Partners With Messmo For Mobile Messaging

PR WEB - Jan 19 – FreeDating.co.uk, one of the UK's largest free online dating sites, has integrated messmo's AnyPhone messaging system. AnyPhone mobile-enables every member of the site, regardless of the member's handset. messmo's patent pending system allows users to send and receive messages safely and seamlessly from FreeDating.co.uk's messaging system or another user's handset. Dan Winchester, CEO of FreeDating.co.uk, said, “ With messmo’s AnyPhone messaging system, we are able to let members receive and reply via text from mobile as they follow their favourite or hotlisted members.” Brendan O'Kane, CEO of messmo, said, " messmo’s patent pending AnyPhone messaging system, by assigning unique cell numbers, lets members harness the power of SMS, while hiding user’s real mobile numbers.” FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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Mobile Dating Whitepaper

OPW - July 1 - Courtland Brooks has prepared a White Paper on mobile dating to better understand all of the factors in developing a mobile dating service. What should dating sites consider before implementing a mobile dating feature? Developing the solution “in-house” can be costly and marketing timing sensitive. Not to mention complexity; there is a vast assortment of networks, cell phones models and operating platforms to choose from. Other considerations include security, member experience and the proper business model.  If outsourcing is an option then mobile dating solution providers such as messmo, Trilibis and Jumbuck are worth reviewing. A more extensive review of Mobile Dating can be found at Courtland Brooks blog.

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messmo Launches Support For Android And Blackberry

PRESS RELEASE - May 1 - messmo has announced immediate availability of Android and BlackBerry support for the messmo Mobile Community Solution. messmo’s Mobile Community Solution lets dating and social networks interact with the members on mobile. It provides a fully site branded mobile web app which is available across both Smartphone and legacy handsets, as well as native app solutions for iPhone, Blackberry and Android platforms. FULL ARTICLE @ OPW

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The Future Of Dating Is Mobile

AMERICAN OBSERVER - Mar 27 - This past year saw the growth of location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to check in via GPS-enabled Smartphones and share their location with friends. In a 10-day span this year, Foursquare claimed it added 100,000 users. Foursquare is partnering with various establishments, like Starbucks, to offer special deals and customer rewards via the service. Clifford Lerner, co-founder of AreYouInterested.com, runs an online dating empire that integrates a traditional site with Facebook’s most popular dating app. By February, 100,000 iPhone-wielding flirts had downloaded the app. Developers are counting on online dating’s faithful to make the switch to mobile apps. Brendan O’Kane is CEO of messmo, a company that fills technical needs for dating sites. O’Kane says immediate gratification is what mobile dating is all about.“As mobile gets better and better we are going to see a large portion of the population connected and available. It’s going to be immediate. That’s going to be a game changer,” O’Kane said. FULL ARTICLE @ AMERICAN OBSERVER

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Dating Sites Need To Pay Attention To The Surge In Mobile Internet Use

PRWEB - Mar 20 - The Mobile Internet is growing rapidly and will be bigger than desktop Internet use due to social adoption trends, social networking, 3G networks and new mobile device technology. Internet dating sites need to capitalize now. Google's CEO Eric Schmidt in his recent keynote speech at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona said the company had shifted its focus from desktops to mobile. Brendan O'Kane, CEO of messmo, a leading developer of mobile solutions for the Internet dating industry stated: "Extending dating sites to mobile by simple mobile relevant experiences such as messaging, notifications and mobile payments is the key." FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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BoonEx Partners With Messmo

PRESS RELEASE - Jan 26 - BoonEx, a supplier of downloadable open source software for social networks, dating sites and online communities partners with messmo, a mobile messaging company for dating and personals websites. The messmo Extension is planned to be available for Dolphin 7 in March 2010. Thanks to messmo sites can easily extend the reach of their existing member-to-member communications, such as email or IM, to now reach members when not at their PC by delivering rich messages. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Brendan O'Kane, CEO Of messmo Q And A Interview

OPW INTERVIEW - Nov 11 - Mobile is starting to gain more attention from dating site owners as a method to enhnace the member experience and generate additional revenues. Recently, Courtland Brooks conducted an interview with Brendan O'Kane, CEO of messmo on the status of mobile applications and online dating. - Mike Baldock

Define “Mobile” in the context online dating (what is it, what should it do)?
The average member spends less than 10% of their day at a PC. Mobile is about reaching members the other 90% of the time and letting them stay up to date with what is happening to them personally. Mobiles are a really personal device and the member experience should reflect this.

Historically, Mobile solutions have failed to deliver a rich end user experience...why is this and do you see this changing? 
A mobile experience is not trying to take 100% of a site's functionality and cram onto a small screen. So the best experience has to be timely, personal and  directly relevant to them - and it has to be easy to use! A mobile user will not stand for stepping through 5 layers of menus, and while they will buy things on mobile, they do not like having to pay to receive information on mobile.

Applications are a critical component in Mobile technology...compare the differences between web based mobile applications and native applications?   
Good question. Mobile is in a state of change - wonderful native Apps like those on the iPhone, and yet virtually no site can afford to develop a native App for every platform. Hence Web Apps are attractive as they deliver an instant user experience without the download barrier and at a fraction of the cost. Over time mobile Web Apps will become richer and richer.

What should dating site owners consider when contemplating (when developing in-house or outsourcing) a mobile strategy for their site? 
The critical issue is there is no single unifying platform like Windows. Hence on mobile look for strategies that are low cost and cross platform, plus offer monetisation options.  A "hero App" like an iPhone App can be good for the brand, but recognise why you are doing it, and adopt low cost, easy to deliver solutions across the rest of the mobile universe. Handsets and data speeds are changing so fast, that the wrong big investment spend today, will require big maintenance and re-investment spend tomorrow.

You mentioned monetisation?
Yes, mobile is one of the greatest billing platforms ever invented. Carriers are realising that and so they are increasing their payouts and revenue shares. Plenty of third parties are now offering terrific payment solutions and this will only get better. Apple has announced in App billing. If you look at the success of mobile as a payment device in Korea, you see where what an enormous opportunity this is. So I don't think you can build a mobile strategy without thinking about payment solutions.

The “online” experience is shifting very quickly to the “mobile” experience, how do you see the two augmenting each other over the next 5 years? 
They will complement each other very well - because we are on mobile so much, it will be the primary communications tool, so sites need to run with that and deliver targeted personal communications experiences. The PC will still be the home of extensive searching, browsing and profile updates as well as communications when the user is at their desk. The statistics though are that the average person with a phone is 90% more likely to be reached on mobile than a PC.

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Brendan O’Kane, CEO Of Messmo.com

OPW INTERVIEW -- Mar 21 -- Messmo does mobile and now serves the personals industry by extending dating sites onto all mobile phones.

What is your background?
20+ years at large UK and US software companies in senior roles, particularly in sales and marketing. For 7 years I've been an active Angel investor, based out of Australia, in both the mobile and social networking space: Blue Sky Frog, Australia's first multi-million user mobile property, and KidSpot.com.au, Australia's #1 parenting and social networking site.

Tell us more about Messmo
A couple of colleagues and I made an investment in some interesting technology for mobile.  The easiest way to think of it is SMS Version 2; if you have mobile Internet, SMS should be free.

Messmo did an 8 month beta test, in the consumer market and picked up over half a million users. We also started a dialogue with one very large global personals player based out of Australia,  and we realized there were some significant opportunities in the personals space. We created Messmo Media to help personals sites extend their experience to mobile in a very simple, elegant way.

What functionalities have you built into Messmo so far?
It's very much like SMS. It's highly interactive; messages can contain pictures and all things you would expect if you were using an Internet backbone.

Messmo has built a very closed environment. Using Messmo with personals, members can't see each other except when they come through the personals site. It's a no-spam environment, no external advertising.

How can you help Internet dating companies make more money?
In three ways. Firstly Messmo has patented technology that can trigger a mobile transaction which means the user gets billed on their mobile bill. This opens the door to tempt all those non paying members, when they receive a new message,  to make a quick impulse transaction, such as a day pass,  via a single click. Secondly increased interaction - most members spend 20 or more hours away from a PC each day, but usually their mobile is with them night and day. Delivering messages and replies at zero cost, increases interaction and the likelihood of the member quickly returning to the site. Thirdly Messmo has very sophisticated viral and recommendation technologies (all you friends are in your contact list on your mobile)  that were proven in the test period. These have enormous potential to help drive down the cost of new member acquisition for sites.

Who would you say in reality are the end users in mobile dating in your experience?
Mobile dating can mean two different things. To a mobile operator, any on-deck solution that makes them money is mobile dating. But to an existing site owner, with their own membership, mobile dating should simply mean extending their existing communication to their member's mobiles, when the member is not at a PC. We think the second definition is what mobile dating is about.

What countries do you serve?
Messmo is global; in any country that supports mobile data you could reach a Messmo user. This is significant because let's imagine that there was a personals site we'll call "Cupid Make Friends". If they were visible on Messmo, a user anywhere in the world could, when running Messmo, see Cupid Make Friends straightaway. Their interaction with the site would be identical, whether they were in the UK, Italy, Thailand or Australia.

How would you differentiate the Messmo offerings from a company like Trilibis?
The most popular experience in the world on mobile is of course SMS. We replicate that experience and add extras like much richer messages, but the interface and integration is very very simple. think days, not weeks or months compared to alternative approaches.