Online Personals Watch: News on the Dating Industry and Business

Online Dating Sites Want Couples To Stick Around

BLOOMBERG - Feb 13 - Every time dating sties are successful, they lose two customers. Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr think they have a solution. They're the co-founders and co-CEOs of Zoosk. They have been thinking of ways to spur growth by becoming more like LinkedIn, a hub for job seekers that's also a destination for people not actively looking for a new gig. This month, Zoosk will begin offering features to keep happy couples engaged with the site. These include anniversary gift ideas, digital scrapbooks, restaurant discounts and relationship advice from experts. Most of the extra features will be free to Zoosk couples who keep their profiles active. Zoosk became profitable in the fourth quarter and revenue surpassed $90M last year, according to Zadeh.

See full article at SF Gate

See all posts on Zoosk

Badoo: Social Dating

NPR MARKETPLACE - Feb 10 - Social networks got popular and we got much more comfortable sharing our personal lives online so much that entrepreneurs are now latching onto our social networks to create social dating sites like Badoo.com. Broadcasting your private life is key to Badoo’s success. Sites like eHarmony spend millions of dollars on advertising to attract new users. Badoo doesn’t have to. Its users spread the word. Mark Brooks, a consultant to the online dating industry: "Yes they’re not paying so much to acquire users. In fact in many cases they’re not paying anything". The company says it’s on track to take in $150M a year.

 

by Sally Herships
See full article at NPR Marketplace

See all posts on Badoo

Mamboo.com: Interest In Online Dating To Grow By 60%

PR NEWSWIRE - Jan 3 - This Christmas, Mamboo.com noticed an average 40% increase in user activity. Mamboo is reporting some interesting statistics, including members sending 30% more online gifts, as well as a 38% increase in spending on the site. The number of messages sent and received by members also doubled. Mamboo also forecasts a rather romantic January, with 60% more traffic to their site expected during the first two weeks of the year.

See full article at PR Newswire

See all posts on Mamboo

ICQ And Mamboo Develop API For New ICQ Love

PR NEWSWIRE - Nov 30 - ICQ has joined forces with Mamboo.com. The result is ICQ Love. Unlike traditional dating sites, ICQ Love promotes 'Social Dating' - a concept coined by Mamboo.com. It provides a chance to meet new people through existing online friends. Mamboo has ~415K members in North America and Europe.

See full article at PR Newswire

See all posts on Mamboo

Badoo Has 130 Million Users

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT MAGAZINE - Nov 4 - Badoo claims to be the 4th largest social network in the world. Russian owned and London-based, Badoo is available in 35 languages in 180 countries on the web, and also as an iPhone, Android, Facebook and Blackberry app. Badoo has 130M members, up 62% compared to the last year.

by Tim Green
See full article at Mobile Entertainment Magazine

See all posts on Badoo

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Zoosk Launches App For iPad

MARKETWIRE - Nov 3 - Zoosk, the social dating network, has released its new Zoosk app for iPad. The Zoosk app for iPad, which debuted last week in the iTunes App Store to coincide with Zoosk's fourth birthday, has already ranked among the top 20 apps in the U.S. Social Networking category on the iTunes App Store, above all other dating apps.

See full article at Marketwire

See all posts on Zoosk

Woo Media Acquired By Zoosk

PR WEB - Nov 3 - Woo Media, the live interactive video network, with web properties including WooMe.com, Shufflepeople.com, and Monsterchat.com, has announced its sale to Zoosk, the world’s largest social dating site. WooMe’s 10M users will soon be able to engage directly with Zoosk’s user base of over 100M users. In addition, all properties owned and operated by Woo Media will also be merged into Zoosk. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

See full article at PR Web

See all posts on Zoosk
See all posts on WooMe

Snap Launches Mobile Web Version of AreYouInterested.com

MARKETWIRE - Sep 20 - SNAP Interactive, a social app developer with~50M installs across its properties, is announcing several significant mobile-related developments including the launch of a mobile Web version of its flagship AreYouInterested.com social dating app.

See full article at Marketwire

See all posts on SNAP Interactive
See all posts on AreYouInterested

Read the interview with Cliff Lerner, co-Founder of SNAP Interactive (September 2010)

Interview with Gloria Diez, COO of Mamboo, Social Dating Site

OPW INTERVIEW - Sep 8 - Mamba.ru is Russia's top dating site. They've turned their hand to social dating with their international social dating site Mamboo. Here's our interview with the COO, Gloria Diez. - Mark Brooks

How was Mamboo started?
We already had a sister service, Mamba.ru which is very popular in Russia since 2004. We have the only dating system in the world that keeps users 30 min online per visit. People from other countries contacted us asking for a similar service in their country. We decided it would be a good idea to create an international site.

You define it as social dating site. What is a social dating site? How is it different from an Internet dating site?
I define social dating as any kind of system that allows the members to meet up with other people in a social atmosphere. We like to provide our users with the chance to meet their other half from among the network of friends they have. To find someone who belongs to the same peer/reference group as them and has the same social values. Social aspects are very influential in real life dating so we had to repeat that online.

How do you protect privacy at Mamboo?
We understand users have to feel relaxed to meet new people. We give users options to set up their privacy. They disclose information that they are fine with. We never share our resource data with any 3rd party. 90% of our users confirm they are real people. They send us a message after we send a code to their cell phone so we know its an actual person.

How many active members do you have on Mamboo?
We have 300,000 users. We are growing fast adding 2,000 members a day.
OPW Editor Update: Mamboo is now claiming ~10,000 new members a day.

Are you advertising?
We are starting to advertise. We are also beginning to become incorporated with subscription dating sites. We want to offer a different kind of dating to their users. We have also incorporated our services as a white label provider with other kind of websites such as ICQ.

Mamboo is mostly free; tell us about what you charge for?
Mambo is a free dating site but we do offer other extra premium services such as gifts as part of our upgraded service to help grab the attention of someone who you specially like.

There are a few social dating services but there is one that you have a special interest in, in fact you share an investor, Badoo. How is Mamboo different from Badoo?
The main difference is the social aspect. Badoo is a social network for meeting new people. Mamboo is an online dating service. Mamboo mission is to spread love around the world.

See all posts on Mamboo

The Secret Social Network Site Hooking up Millions Nearby

THE TIMES - Sep 5 - Badoo is a cross between a dating site and a social network, but is better known as the web's premier "hook-up service". It is most popular in Spain, other parts of Europe and throughout South America. Whereas social networks such as Facebook revolve around existing friends, Badoo concentrates on connections to strangers. Dating sites match people through their interests, but Badoo is mainly about proximity, as its app for smartphones reveals nearby users. The service is free to join and makes money through add-ons, or "superpowers" in the site's jargon.

by Murad Ahmed
See full article at The Australian

See all posts on Badoo

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Badoo: Social Networking & Dating & Location Based Service

THE NEXT WEB - July 17 - For microblogging, there’s Twitter, whilst Facebook is where you keep in touch with friends. LinkedIn is best kept for business acquaintances. Google+ seems to straddle a line somewhere between Facebook and LinkedIn and it’s too early to say on which side it will eventually fall. What about SNS for people you don’t know? This is where the story of Badoo begins. Badoo was launched in London in 2006 by Russian serial entrepreneur Andrei Andreyev. His other ventures include SpyLog, Begun and Mamba. There’s a good chance you associate Badoo with dating, but this is an image the company is feverishly attempting to rid itself of. There’s two reasons. Online dating still has some negative associations. And secondly, not everyone is necessarily interested in dating – some people simply want to meet new people. You go to Badoo and connect with others in the area. It could be for drinks, dancing or a game. Today Badoo has 121M members in 180 countries, a turnover of ~$100M.

by Paul Sawers
See full article at The Next Web

See all posts on Badoo

Badoo Built A Billion-pound Social Network... On Sex

WIRED.CO.UK - Apr 25 - - Apr 25 - Badoo is a 120M-member social network that's adding ~300K users a day. Its Facebook's fastest-growing app, with 570K new daily users, making it the 3rd biggest app, after FarmVille and CityVille. Still barely registering in Britain or the US, the free network is a mass phenomenon in Brazil (14.1M members), Mexico (9M), France (8.2M), Spain (6.5M) and Italy (6M). Andrey Andreev founded Badoo and highly profitable Russian internet businesses: Mamba, SpyLog, Begun. Badoo launched in 2006 in Spain, where Andreev was living, as a photo-sharing site. The site wasn't generating revenue, but was growing sharply. In 2008, Andreev refocused the site on meeting new people. He introduced premium services. You could pay a dollar or euro to "rise up" the search results. In 2009, the site had 48M users and 20% were paying to boost their profile. Badoo Mobile launched on the iPhone and Android and was downloaded 1.5M times in 8 months. Forbes Russia put Andreev in the top 30 successful businessmen in Russia.

by David Rowan
See full article at Wired

Mark Brooks: $2 billion! Kthud! (fell off chair). There's hope and money and prospects left in the idating industry yet. ;-)

See all posts on Badoo

A New Kind Of Love Story

AD WEEK - May 3 - Not so long ago, you’d assume that a girl alone at a bar on a Friday night, furiously thumbing her smartphone, had been stood up. Now, thanks to apps like meetMoi NOW, SinglesAroundMe, and Skout, she could just be planning her evening’s assignation. While dating sites sift and sort according to compatibility, apps pre-screen for something else: instant availability. There’s another name for the inefficiency these apps eliminate: courtship. They might dance around it, but what the apps are really offering is the ability to order up sex on demand. One of the pioneering location-based apps is Grindr. Launched in 2009, it allows gay men to locate other nearby users. It claims ~1M users. The developers of Badoo, Facebook’s fastest-growing third-party app, liken its ambiance to a club. Friend.ly makes the search for love a more convivial experience by quizzing users about friends and interests. It has ~4M monthly active users. Among the newer apps is Singlesquare, a Foursquare offshoot launched in Jan.

by Hephzibah Anderson
See full article at Ad Week

Mark Brooks: Finally, location aware apps are gaining significant traction. Facebook has driven people to be more willing to share private info. The tech is now mature. Apple has driven the smart phone into ubiquity. iDating will morph considerably now.

(Full Disclosure: Friend.ly is a former client of Courtland Brooks)

See all posts on MeetMoi                  See all posts on Badoo
See all posts on SinglesAroundMe     See all posts on Friend.ly
See all posts on Skout                      See all posts on Singlesquare
See all posts on Grindr

Zoosk To Spend £2m On Advertising In The UK

MEDIA WEEK - Zoosk has appointed MediaCom to its multimillion-pound account after a three-way competitive pitch against undisclosed agencies. Activity for the brand will be mainly television-based, with Zoosk estimated to spend £2m in the UK. The activity in the UK is the first time the Zoosk brand has been seen outside the US and Canada, where the dating service has based most of its advertising until now.

by Mark Banham
See full article at Media Week

See all posts on Zoosk

Badoo: Global Online Dating Sensation

INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - Apr 12 - Badoo, the social network that replaces the supposed romance of online dating with instant hook-ups based on physical attraction, is now gaining some ground in the UK. Although the service is run from London, its current membership of 113M consists predominantly of users in Brazil, Spain, France and Italy and 300K people join daily. The site was founded in 2006 by now very rich Russian businessman, Andrey Andreev. The killer feature driving Badoo's success is location.

See full article at Independent.co.uk

See all posts on Badoo

Top Facebook Applications

INSIDE FACEBOOK - Apr 11 - Phrases, as well as Badoo and other dating apps, a few Connect apps, horoscopes, Friend Buzz and a Page tool were on the list of top 20 Facebook applications by monthly active users this week. 

Top Gainers This Week
        Name                           MAU              Gain          Gain,%
1.     Phrases                     20,606,742     +1,704,743     +9%
2.     Badoo                       67,976,269     +1,582,045     +2%
3.     Diamond Dash              2,759,892     +1,187,499     +76%
4.     Book List Challenges      1,545,394     +1,065,757     +222%
5.     Frases Diarias               8,095,449     +979,888       +14%
6.     friend.ly                      2,511,080     +963,091        +62%
7.     FarmVille                    48,229,941     +942,563        +2%
8.     Yahoo!                      13,172,942     +833,616         +7%
9.     Cupid                         5,434,267     +769,007        +16%
10.    Are YOU Interested?   16,595,172     +740,478         +5%

See full article at Inside Facebook

Mark Brooks: The social dating services Badoo and Mamboo were founded by people who worked on Mamba.ru in the past. Russia's top dating site. Badoo has driven unprecedented growth in recent months. Friend.ly is another service to keep your eye on.  (Full Disclosure: My company, Courtland Brooks, advised and was retained by Friend.ly)

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch

SNAP Interactive Reports Q4 And Fiscal Year 2010 Results

MARKETWIRE - Mar 31 - SNAP Interactive, a leading social app provider with ~40M installs across its social dating apps, announced its fourth quarter and fiscal year financial results for 2010. 
- Revenue increased 242% to $2,791,418 in Q4 2010 compared to $816,390 in Q4 2009
- Net loss increased to $382,048 compared to a net loss of $237,555;

SNAP is pleased to report that the quarter ending March 31, 2011 will produce SNAP's highest revenue total ever and represent their eighth consecutive quarter of revenue growth.

See full article at Marketwire

See all posts on SNAP Interactive

Badoo: Fastest Growing App On Facebook

FINANCIAL TIMES - Mar 20 - Badoo, a “social dating” service that helps people to meet new friends online, has become one of the fastest-growing apps on Facebook, this week overtaking Zynga’s popular Farmville game in terms of user numbers. The service is little-known in English-speaking countries, but has become very popular in continental Europe and Latin America, where millions of people use it for online flirting, often leading to offline encounters. “Facebook is about my friends. Badoo is about meeting and discovering other people,” says Bart Swanson, a former Amazon executive who joined Badoo as its COO in September. Badoo, founded in Spain in 2006 by Andrei Andreyev, a Russian entrepreneur, now has its headquarters in London. Badoo's Facebook app now has ~50M monthly active users, according to AppData, adding 1M people every day.

by Tim Bradshaw
See full article at Financial Times

See all posts on Badoo

JDate Slaps Zoosk, OkCupid, And 2RedBeans With Patent Lawsuit Over Secret Admiring

TECH CRUNCH - Mar 13 - JDate has filed a patent lawsuit against 2RedBeans, Zoosk, and OKCupid. JDate alleges that all three companies are infringing the same patent, which states that Sparks Networks (JDate’s parent company) has invented a method or apparatus for automating the process of confidentially determining whether people feel mutual attraction or have mutual interests. JDate has a patent on detecting secret crushes. The suit calls out OkCupid’s QuickMatch, Zoosk’s Scientific Matching Service, and 2RedBean’s Secret Admire function as infringing JDate-owned patent # 5,950,200, titled “Method and Apparatus for Detection Of Reciprocal Interests or Feelings And Subsequent Notification.” Spark Networks wants the three companies to pay damages to JDate for the infringement.

by Leena Rao
See full article at Tech Crunch

See all posts on JDate         See all posts on Spark Networks
See all posts on OkCupid      See all posts on Zoosk

Athens Ranked As Most Flirtatious City By Badoo.com

REUTERS - Mar 1 - Athens topped a “World Flirtation League,” which ranked cities by the number of online flirtations initiated per month by the average user in each on Badoo.com. Moscow came second, while Rome placed 8th and Madrid 31st, Paris 38th, London 57th, Berlin 79th, and New York 89th in the study of nearly 200 cities across the world in which Badoo analysed 12M flirtatious contacts made during a month, with 108M users chatting and flirting in 180 countries.

by Paul Casciato
See full article at Vancouver Sun

See all posts on Badoo