Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Psychologists Highlight Pitfalls Of Online Dating

HEALTH.COM - Feb 7 - "Online dating is great. It allows people access to potential partners they otherwise would not have," says Eli J. Finkel, Ph.D., the lead author of the new review, which was commissioned by the Association for Psychological Science. One of the weaknesses of online dating is an over reliance on "profiles". Although most dating websites feature photos and detailed, searchable profiles covering everything from personality traits to likes and dislikes, this information isn't necessarily useful in identifying a partner, Finkel and his coauthors write. That's partly because daters don't always know what they want in a mate. The abundance of profiles online also may make daters too picky and judgmental. "Online dating creates a shopping mentality, and that is probably not a particularly good way to go about choosing a mate," says Harry Reis, Ph.D. eHarmony and PerfectMatch.com, claim to minimize the guesswork involved in online dating by using mathematical algorithms to match couples according to various traits -- including, in one case, the ratio of index- to ring-finger length. The authors of the review are skeptical of these claims. They weren't able to find a single rigorous study showing the effectiveness of the algorithms, and other research suggests it's extremely difficult to predict the likelihood that a relationship will succeed before two people meet. None of this, however, means that online dating isn't a good way to meet people. Finkel advises online daters to identify promising partners and move the conversation off-line as quickly as possible.

by Amanda Gardner
See full article at CNN

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FriendFinder Acquired PerfectMatch.com

PR NEWSWIRE - July 18 - Adding to FriendFinder Networks' vast portfolio of social networks, PerfectMatch.com is a welcome addition to the platform of FFN's general audience sites. Unique to PerfectMatch.com is the Duet Total Compatibility System, which analyzes the "whole person" to find friends, taking into account each member's personality, values and ideals, life and love-style preferences to identify and find the person right for them. PerfectMatch.com founder Duane Dahl will join FriendFinder Networks as GM of the Company's general audience dating websites group, including Amigos.com, AsiaFriendFinder.com, BigChurch.com and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Internet Dating Conference, PerfectMatch And Endemol

OPW - May 22 - PerfectMatch has been featured in reality TV shows and mentioned in the movies 'Must Love Dogs', 'Failure to Launch', 'Superman Returns', and 'The Break-Up.' How does PerfectMatch do it? Duane Dahl, the CEO of PerfectMatch is speaking at iDate about Product Placements.

Endemol has created shows such as Dating in The Dark, Big Brother and Extreme Makeover. How can your dating site work with Endemol. You'll get an insight on how you can work with Endemol if you attend Jerry Kowal's session at iDate on Friday 18th June. Jerry is the head of Digital Media at Endemol.

The conference agenda includes speakers from Match.com's, Club Med, Cinemark, Harvard, Gelato, Quantcast and Zoosk to name a few. See the full agenda line-up here.

The Science Of Online Dating

TIMES ONLINE - Apr 11 - Relationship science is an increasingly respectable field of academic study. Dr Gian Gonzaga and his team at the eHarmony Labs promises to match its customers using its patented 29 dimensions of compatibility, including sexual passion, anger management, appearance, intellect, obstreperousness, spirituality and emotional health. Other dating sites also employ complex algorithms based on psychometric testing, such as PerfectMatch, Chemistry, Plentyoffish, True, Parship and Matchaffinity. They all like to dismiss each other’s compatibility models. Plentyoffish, for example, thinks people should be matched on their differences. The exception is OKCupid, which is strongly against psychometric testing because, according to Sam Yagan, one of the Harvard mathematicians who founded it, “eHarmony’s patronising belief is that they know what’s best and you need help. We believe you know what you’re looking for and put the power in the user’s hands”. The industry analyst Mark Brooks sees psychological testing as an important part of their increasing credibility and market growth. “Internet dating services will get amazing,” he says. “The science will develop.” Brooks believes personality profiling is the future of matchmaking, and agrees with the eHarmony line: “People don’t know what they want. They need help.” FULL ARTICLE @ TIMES ONLINE

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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

 

Dr. Pepper Schwartz Joins AARP

PR NEWSWIRE - Oct 20 - AARP, the world's largest organization for people 50+, has announced that one of the industry's leading relationship experts, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, will be the organization's new Love & Relationshipsexpert. In her new role, Dr. Schwartz will guide AARP's members through the emotional, physical and practical sides of love, dating and sexuality as you age.  Schwartz is the author of 16 books and over 50 academic articles. She is presently also the relationship expert for Perfectmatch.com. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

Mark Brooks: Its about time AARP teamed up with a personality profiling dating site. I wonder when the AARP PerfectMatch cobrand will be launched?

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News 27 Sep 2009 - 3 mins

This is the news for the week of September 21st through September 27th, 2009. We hope you enjoy the new weekly news format. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered for this week:

• The 2009 European Internet Dating Conference, comScore numbers, Jackie Elton's observations

• Tanya Fathers CEO of DatingFactory

• Perfectmatch signs Neverblue, as exclusive agency for Perfectmatch UK

• TRUE settles class action lawsuit for $1.5 million.

• White Label Dating reveals annualized partner revenues.

Neverblue Partners With Perfectmatch

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 22 - Neverblue, a global lead generation network, has signed an agreement with Perfectmatch. The agreement names Neverblue the exclusive agency for Perfectmatch in the UK.  FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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OMG -- My Mom Is Online Dating

CNN -- Sep 2 -- As the baby boom generation ages and once-married boomers become single again, they increasingly are turning to the Web in search of dates. The number of eHarmony users age 45+ and divorced has more than doubled in the past eight years, says Gian Gonzaga, senior researcher for eHarmony. Registered users ages 45-64 jumped 9% from 2007-2008. For many grown children, having a parent suddenly jump into the dating pool is a shock, especially if the parent begins dating numerous people, and perhaps having sex with new partners. PerfectMatch.com CEO Duane Dahl, age 46, helped his own mother, who is in her late 60s, enroll in his service. "This is a great opportunity for us to help our parents and educate them", says Dahl. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN

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Room For Maturity In Modern Dating Age

WASHINGTON POST -- July 19 -- By 2007, the over-50 set had become the fastest-growing group of subscribers for online dating companies, and double-digit growth has continued since, according to industry watchers. Pepper Schwartz, an adviser to Perfectmatch.com, cheers the trend. If a person in their 60s or 70s lost a spouse 20 years ago, "the chances of pairing again were small, because the avenues to meet new people were limited mostly to churches, senior centers and friends of friends. Today single seniors can go online and be opened up to thousands of options." FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

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Love And Money

SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY -- Apr 20 -- During this time of economic hardship, people are finding that online dating is a relatively inexpensive way to meet people. Where one night out at the bar can cost the better part of £25, membership to a dating site is only about £20 a month. It also allows matches to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time and get things in the open before they meet, instead of waiting until the third or fourth date to find out she never wants kids, or he wants them within a year. PerfectMatch.com has seen a membership increase of 51% compared to the same quarter last year, and Match.com, billed as the world’s largest online agency, has reported its strongest fourth quarter in the last seven years. Plentyoffish.com visits have increased 77% from December 2007 to December 2008, and 32% over the last three months. FULL ARTICLE @ SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

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Balancing Love & Money

PR NEWSWIRE -- Apr 7 -- Perfectmatch.com has released its Love & Money Assessment. The seven-question assessment is designed to evaluate financial compatibility and determines the ideal economic profile of a future mate by providing an accurate diagnostic about financial habits and values. Perfectmatch integrated the Love & Money Assessment into its Duet Compatibility System. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

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Divorce Numbers Fall Off, Dating On The Rise

UNION TRIBUNE -- Feb 14 -- Struggling couples are are staying together for love and money while singles are looking for romance and half the rent. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 37% of its members said they see a decrease divorce cases during national economic downturns. At eHarmony, registrations from Sep '08 to Jan '09 have increased 20% from the same period a year ago. Perfectmatch's revenue increased 42% from the previous quarter. FULL ARTICLE @ UNION TRIBUNE

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The Mature Dating Game

HARVARD MAGAZINE -- Feb '09 -- Increasingly, those 45-55 are meeting online through sites like Match, eHarmony and Y! Personals. Those 45+ comprise the fastest growing segment on PerfectMatch.com, and at PlentyofFish.com, where they tend to log on and stay on more often then younger users says CEO Markus Frind. "They are more committed to the dating process." Internet dating creates 'a bit of the kid in the candy store mentality.' But the anonymity can prompt some socially undesirable behavior such as misleading photos, married people posing as singles, and outright scams. Database matching relies on input from candidates who list their preferences. But Dawn Touchings, president of The Right Stuff, an 'introduction network' that caters to ivy leaguers, says "Many of th people who meet on our site tell me the person they are compatible with did not fit any of the categories they set." FULL ARTICLE @ HARVARD MAGAZINE

Mark Brooks: As a student I worked at the Simi Valley Ford dealership selling cars one summer. Seasoned salespeople liked to remind me that 'buyers are liars.' I refuted this but it seems strangely relevant in the dating space. Our buyers are liars, only insofar as they really don't know what they are looking for. Beyond the basic showstopper questions, don't we go a bit far by asking so many questions and offering up so many search filters?

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Online Dating: The Technology Behind The Attraction

COMPUTERWORLD -- Feb 13 -- We peek under the covers at online dating sites. To succeed, a site needs to do the following:

1. Offer excellent response times. Try to give users at least some matches as soon as they've created an account.

Online personals services are glorified search engines. eHarmony, PerfectMatch and Chemistry.com ask a few dozen to several hundred questions and assemble a personality profile and a list of matches. Plentyoffish.com's keeps it simple and uses a short questionnaire. CEO Markus Frind says he doesn't promote it and he's disdainful of the complex matching algorithms offered by  competitors.

2. Convert at least 10% of visitors who register into paying customers -- preferably more.

eHarmony pulls information from its Oracle database into high-performance Netezza data warehouse appliances that slice and dice users into behavioral and demographic "buckets." "Because we know more about them, we can target them much better," says Joseph Essas, VP of Technology.

3. Deliver an acceptable range of probable matches and offer a variety of ways to pursue those prospects.

Video chat is perhaps the most controversial communication method offered, if only because video sessions often take a "sexual tilt," especially with men, and that drives away the women, says Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch. The most innovative communication method is virtual dates in a 3-D world. OmniDate, offers an avatar-based virtual dating system.

 

4.Weeding out cheats, scammers and married guys. 

"10% of sign-ups a day are people trying to scam someone -- or rude, obnoxious people, or spammers," Frind says. He removes ~2,000 suspicious users from the system daily. eHarmony has contracted with Iovation, which offers ReputationManager, a service that gathers information on individuals' illicit activity from online dating and other sites and makes it available to subscribers.
FULL ARTICLE @ COMPUTER WORLD

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The Recession. Isn't It Romantic?

NY TIMES -- Feb 12 -- Online dating has had a following ever since dating sites popped up around '94, said Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch. The industry then started leveling off in Feb '05. "Now at a time when money is scarce or uncertain, they don't want to go through it alone," said Dr. Pepper Schwartz of Perfectmatch.com, which had a 51% increase in new members in the Q4 of '08 compared with '07. Speeddate.com's traffic is up 60%. "During recessions people stay at home more, they don't want to pay and go to bars. They're going online to meet each other," said Markus Frind, the CEO of Plentyoffish, a free site, where visits have increased 77% from Dec '07 to Dec '08, and 32% over the last three months. While "marriage" and "children" were always popular key words, Mr. Frind said, during this period last year Plentyoffish.com users mentioned the word "job" in their profiles 5.5% of the time. This year, that number has risen to 7.7%. On BlackPeopleMeet, the percentage of people listing "job" as a criterion when asked 'What are you looking for in a partner?' increased 18% from Jan '08 to Jan '09. Offline romance specialists say they are also seeing a spike in business. From Oct through Dec'08, new membership at The Right One/Together Dating, a dating service with 60 locations across the country, increased ~18% compared with the same period the previous year. The price of membership starts at $1,000. "People are putting down deposits rather than paying in full, which is fine," said CEO, Paul Falzone. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

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Social Networks Change The Breakup Game

HARTFORD COURANT -- Feb 6 -- With Facebook, it definitely makes it harder to get over someone. "If it's over, it's not quite over on Facebook," said Dr. Pepper Schwartz, of Perfectmatch.com. Updates like "Barry is in a new relationship" or "Sarah went dancing all night last night" or photos of your ex with a new woman are sure to rankle. FULL ARTICLE @ HARTFORD COURANT

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www.cheapdate.com

GLOBE & MAIL -- Jan 29 -- Lavalife, PlentyofFish, Match and PerfectMatch have seen their memberships soar after the stock-market plunge. Lavalife registrations are up 11% from last month, PlentyofFish enjoyed 77% growth in visits from Dec '07 through Dec '08. "Unlike the real world, dating sites offer the lovelorn a "completely refined, focused community", says Mark Brooks. Dating sites take care of the formalities. "If somebody wants to wander around and meet somebody, that's not a good idea on two counts: No. 1, it'll take them a long while and No. 2, they've got to get all the difficult questions out of the way." A survey by Florida-based Avalanche LLC - which operates international sites date.com, matchmaker.com and amor.com - found that 48 per cent of respondents were spending more time online or on the phone with a potential date before spending cash on a face-to-face meeting. Joe Tracy, publisher of Online Dating Magazine, agrees that bad economic times force people to "reprioritize their goals in life." Paul A. Falzone, CEO of LoveAccess.com agrees. "People, when they're confronted with any type of dilemma in their lives, tend to want to migrate back to what's comfortable to them. They go back to eating their comfort foods, they crank up the heat by the fire instead of going out all night, and they want someone to be able to share things with." FULL ARTICLE @ GLOBE & MAIL

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Falling Stock Markets Spur Searches For Love Online

REUTERS -- Dec 8 -- As stock markets across the globe have plummeted, more people have opted to try their luck looking for love online as a distraction from financial woes -- and to save themselves money, according to dating Web sites. Match.com had experienced its largest membership growth over the last seven years in November. Perfectmatch.com reported a 47% jump in the number of members in the three months to November compared to the previous quarter. A poll conducted on behalf of eHarmony, found that 57% of Americans said the credit crunch made them worry about their love lives with married men the most stressed group with 63% of them concerned. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

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In These Tight Times, Lovelorn Go Online

MEDIA LIFE MAGAZINE -- Dec 1 - A number of online dating services are reporting that their subscriber numbers have soared since September's stock market turmoil hit. Christian Connection, a London-based online dating service, reports that its revenues in last three months were up about 40% YOY. Perfectmatch.com also said in November that the number of members is up 47% compared to last quarter. And Avalanche.com, which owns Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor.com, reports a similar trend, with revenue up 17% YOY and membership up 26%. FULL ARTICLE @ MEDIA LIFE MAGAZINE

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