IT BUSINESS - Feb 14 - Plentyoffish has released a white paper indicating that its social media dating formula may be more effective at hooking you up than the matchmaking algorithms employed by other dating sites. “Traditional online dating sites provide a very linear and singular experience,” said Mark Brooks, principal analyst of Courtland Brooks, a media relations and marketing company that does work with POF. Brooks released a whitepaper titled What is Social Dating? Courtland Brooks released a graph showing that feature-for-feature it outguns both Match.com and eHarmony. Brooks said the process of making users browse through numerous profiles based on specific criteria with the intent of finding a potential date or partner is too time consuming and requires “significant commitment.” With most online dating systems, he said, users have to create profiles to “sell” themselves to others. “This leads to misleading information or a frustrating experience.” On the other hand the social networking focus such as that employed by POF offers a “more relaxed environment,” Brooks said.” Social networking is very much centered around activities and interest, which give excellent representation of who a person really is.” Brooks also pointed to as study authored by Dr. Eli Finkel, associate professor of social psychology at Northwestern University, in New York, who pointed to several “pitfalls” of online dating. “To date, there is no compelling evidence that any online dating matching algorithm actually works,” Finkel said in statement. “Our report concludes that that it is unlikely that algorithms can work, even in principle, given the limitations of matching procedures that these sites use.”
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318 posts categorized "POF"
POF.com: Dating Is A Numbers Game
STANDARD FREEHOLDER - Feb 14 - Is there such a thing as love at first “site?”. Sarah Gooding, a dating coach with PlentyOfFish (POF.com) said people the world over are going online by the millions to find out. “We have 40M users worldwide, we’re the number one online dating site in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Brazil,” she said. "POF sees its most traffic between the time right after Christmas up until Valentine’s Day itself,” she added. “We see a 15% increase in traffic in that time period.” The site’s other biggest spike in traffic is the period right before summer and the most popular day of the week for the site is Sunday, according to pof.com public relations consultant Shannon Smith. For Gooding, who met her own boyfriend by logging on to pof.com, dating is a numbers game. “The more people you meet, the more likely you are to meet that special someone,” she said. Since pof.com has gone mobile, it has seen a staggering 3% increase in site traffic per day.
POF.com - The Business Of Finding Love
SIMPATICO.CA - Feb 14 - Business News Networks(BNN) has interviewed Markus Frind, CEO and founder of POF.com. Watch the interview.
Money Can't Buy Me Love - Or Can It?
IRISH TIMES - Feb 14 - A European Singles survey found that Irish men are likely to spend €106 on a date, compared to British men, who were likely to spend €60. According to a study conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute last year, one in 16 Irish people surveyed started their relationship online. Services range from the free, such as PlentyofFish.com to subscription-based sites like Match.com. While there are never any guarantees, does a greater financial investment result in a higher success rate? “They know that a paying member is serious about dating,” says Grainne Barry of Another Friend, Ireland’s largest dating site with ~60% of the Irish market share.
by Claire O'Mahony
See full article at Irish Times
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As 20-somethings Take To Online Dating
OREGON LIVE - Feb 12 - More 20-somethings are on online dating sites than ever, and their numbers are growing. Only 8% of users on Match.com are under 30. Free sites like OkCupid and PlentyofFish report much stronger numbers among 20-somethings. In fact, the majority of OkCupid's 8M members are under 30, with the most common age being 24. In the past year, countless more sites have sprung up promising to be the next big thing in online dating for the young adult. They tend to be more tech-savvy, carefree and interactive. There's MeetMoi, a mobile-based site that tracks your location through your phone, allowing you to invite nearby users on a spontaneous date. There's Clique, a site that lets New York City singles meet friends of friends by linking their profile to social networks like Facebook. There's Assisted Serendipity, which uses Foursquare check-in data to monitor a user's favorite hangout spots and notify them when the male-to-female ratio tips in their favor. There's even Spoondate, which lets users plan dates based on a mutual craving for, say, udon noodles.
by Kelly House
See full article at The Oregonian
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Plentyoffish.com: Most Visited Mobile Dating App
PR NEWSWIRE - Feb 7 - Plentyoffish.com (POF.com), the world’s largest dating site with more than 39.5M registered users, surpassed 300M monthly visits to their free IPhone and Android apps in January 2012. The apps’ success is a testament to the growing popularity of mobile-based services and changing habits of daters, with mobile traffic on POF increasing at a rate of 3% a week. “40% of sign-ups in the U.S. are now via mobile device”, says Markus Frind, founder and CEO of POF.
Modern Dating Offers Innovative Ways To Meet New People
SOUTH UNIVERSITY - Feb 5 - Janis Spindel of Serious Matchmaking, says her business has gone up by 62% since shows such as Bravo’s The Millionaire Matchmaker have made her matchmaking services better known. Spindel goes to breakfast, lunch, or dinner every day of the week with a different potential client. She takes note of behaviors such as good eye contact. Spindel’s clients are all men, ranging in age from 27 to 78 years old. She describes them as very well-educated, upscale, professional, awesome men. In order to find matches for her clients, Spindel accepts applications through her website from women hoping to meet them. The women need to be well-educated, well-spoken, intellectually stimulating, grounded, and must follow a healthy lifestyle. Having things in common is also an important part of a successful match. Shannon Smith, a representative from Plenty of Fish (POF), says the site’s matching system is based on a combination of the information members enter into their profile and their user behavior. “If they have specified that they are looking for blondes, but search for brunettes, they will get matched with brunettes,” Smith says. “If a user will not date a smoker, they will not see smokers in their matches. POF has ~38M users worldwide. POF also has a mobile app. “Currently, upwards of 60% of our users under the age of 40 in the US access the site via mobile device", Smith says.
Online Love Comes With Hefty Price Tag
INDEPENDENT - Feb 4 - Irish singletons are spending up to €50 a month in the hope of finding love online. As Valentine's Day looms, a survey by the Consumers Association of Ireland (CAI) has found that Irish dating sites charge between €12 and €49.90 a month. There were also plenty of free internet dating sites, with PlentyofFish the most well-known. Growing numbers of people may be in need of assistance in the dating game, as there was a 10% increase in the number of Irish singletons between 2002 and 2006, while divorcees were the fastest growing dmographic. Almost one in six Irish couples met online, according to a study published last year.
by Aideen Sheehan
See full article at Independent
Google Top Adsense Earners: #1 Markus Frind
- Markus Frind : PlentyOfFish.com : $300K per month
- Kevin Rose: Digg.com : $250K
- Jeremy Schoemaker : $140K
- Jason Calacanis : Weblogs, Inc. : $120K
- Mahmood Somani a Technology Entrepreneur from Vancouver, Canada quickly climbing to Top Adsense Earner really fast, and runs multiple classified websites sites earning him approximately $185,000.00 monthly.
- David Miles Jr. & Kato Leonard : FreeWebLayouts.net- $100K
- Tim Carter : AskTheBuilder.com : $30K
- Joel Comm : e-book : $24K
- Shawn Hogan : DigitalPoint.com : $10K
This list only comprises of people who are earning from Adsense.
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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Nothing Fishy About This Office Christmas Party
FINANCIAL POST - Dec 27 - Making new hires feel at home is the key to growing business. The founder and owner of one of the world's biggest dating sites, Plenty Of Fish, piled 40 staff members into a couple of limousine buses and drove them to Whistler for a weekend of fun and frivolity in the snow. There, the members of the Plenty Of Fish "work family" spent two days and nights cross country skiing, zip trekking, snow tubing, exchanging gifts, enjoying fancy restaurant dishes and staying in penthouse suites at the resort's top hotel. Frind says the expense, the amount of which he won't reveal, was worth it. Plenty Of Fish is growing and he needed to integrate some new hires into the family. It can be tough to find good developers in Vancouver so "when you find good ones, you want to hold on to them," Frind says. Also, happy employees create good office morale. That's why Frind, only 33 himself, joins his team in pursuits outside the office. (Full Disclosure: POF is a client of Courtland Brooks.)
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.
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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PlentyofFish Rebrands As POF
OPW - Nov 23 - Just in case you missed it, PlentyofFish.com now drives to POF.com, and the site has been rebranded as POF. Its easier to remember, and easier to refer to in conversation and by 'word-of-mouse'. One of the tricks to viral marketing is to make it as simple as possible for people to refer to your brand. The perfect brand name is 2 syllables and 4 letters, apparently. POF is a whole lot easier to refer to and type-in than Plenty...of....fish. (Full disclosure: POF is a long term client of Courtland Brooks)
PlentyofFish.com Adds New Features To Its Advertising Program
OPW - Nov 15 - POF Ads traffic has increased from 2.5 billion page views per month in 2010 to 3.9 billion per month. You can now target people by the number of ads they have clicked on previously. This allows you to exclude a certain % of users that will never click on an ad. Frequency cap has always been minimum 3/visit. POF now has the option to serve your ads on a minimum 3/hour or 3/day frequency cap, which helps you better manage your exposure.
This post also appears on FrequentFlirters.
PlentyofFish vs. PlentyMoreFish
OPW - Oct 18 - PlentyofFish were appealing for a declaration of invalidity for the UK registered trademark PlentyMoreFish. They argued that granting the trademark PlentyMoreFish in October 2007 was illegal and that it had left some consumers confused between the two services thus affecting the business of PlentyofFish in the UK.
Mr Landau, who approved the trademark, believed that on the 24th of April 2007, when PlentyMore applied for the trademark, PlentyofFish had no ’goodwill’ in the mind of the purchasing public in the UK. He found hits and visits to the website but no customers at that time.
PlentyofFish argued there was a proven trade connection between their website and the UK market and that visitors to the site should be viewed as customers as the site earns its money from advertising. However, the judge contended that a reputation is not enough and reminded PlentyofFish that this was case regarding the trademark of a dating site not advertising services. He said that since there were no paying customers in the UK before April 2007 then there was no ‘goodwill’ in the mind of the purchasing public and the case was dismissed.
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Badoo: No Dating Services for Now
by Desire Athow
See full article at ITPro Portal
Mark Brooks: Badoo used to be more defined as a dating site. They changed their position. Now they're a friends discovery site. Facebook is more about staying in touch with people you already know.
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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Plentyoffish.com to Grow Through Global Buys
MERGER MARTKET - Oct 6 - PlentyOfFish.com has set aside $15M to acquire companies in dating, mobile and the daily deals space. POF revenue is estimated at $20-$30M. Markus said POF is not for sell at the moment. Noel Biderman, president of Avid Life Media, parent company of Ashley Madison, said Avid would absolutely acquire POF.
Frind compared POF's valuation to Badoo, which he said is £2 Billion. Cupid also could consider buying POF. Cupid has 34M members in 39 countries, and generated revenues of $25M in the six months. An IPO is also a possibility for POF. Frind maintained that POF is focused on buys and so far has made several acquisitions and investments this year, launching offeron.com, its new daily deals business.
Mobile Dating Apps Show Who's Single Without the Mingle
THE JAKARTA GLOBE - Sep 29 - The phone apps, from Match.com or newcomers such as howaboutwe.com, pack in the features, from IM and video profiles to "check-ins" at hot nightlife spots. "It's all about getting people off-line", says Aaron Schildkrout, touting howaboutwe.com, the app he co-created. Users post specific date ideas such as attending a baseball game or having drinks on a rooftop bar. In the service's first month live, there were ~60K downloads; the user base was 60% female, ages 22 to 40. Andrea Martinez, 24 found her new boyfriend on plentyoffish.com's mobile app version. She preferred the app over the computer version because uploading photos from her phone was easier. Grindr founder and CEO Joel Simkhai says company surveys show that 85% of members used the app for making new friends, especially when they were new to town. That's why Simkhai believes the next evolution of apps won't be about dating but will focus on friendships.
by Sheba R. Wheeler
See full article at The Jakarta Globe
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