Online Personals Watch Weekly News Summary #7, May 18th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.
Basisnote scent matching, Speedate on Android, Craigslist to moderate Adult ads, Kaplan launches Flirt140 Twitter dating service, Spark revenue 20% down, Indian matrimonials to hit $63m in 2011, sugar daddy blackmailing, and Air News Zealands matchmaking flight.
PR NEWSWIRE -- May 12 -- SpeedDate.com, the
speed dating Web site, announced the availability of its Android
application, allowing singles to effortlessly connect with potential
matches from their mobile phone. SpeedDate.com is a free service which
gives singles the ability to connect via three-minute instant messages
or live video dates. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE
Online Personals Watch News Summary #2, April 10, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.
This weeks news covers the rise of philandering, virtual goods companies making $500m+, mobile dating to hit $1.4b in 2013, banner ad blindness, lock and key and events, online speed dating and a survey of fussy singles.
JENN RUBIN -- March '09 -- SpeedDate.com sets up members on three-minute
chat sessions. Daters can converse via webcam or IM. If both vote “yes”
after the introductory conversation, the site allows them to continue
communicating. The company claims to have hosted more than 30m online
speed dates since its launch in 2007. Mark Brooks of Online Personals
Watch, calls online and real-world speed dating services
“complementary.” “I think real-world speed dating will tend to grow as
a consequence of the online speed dating companies, creating more
awareness on the concept of speed dating, Match and eHarmony should be
learning from SpeedDate.com’s platform. I think they need to add
similar functionality to their sites” he says. Dating expert Renee
Piane agrees that Match and eHarmony will eventually have to rethink
their site strategies in order to stay relevant in the communication
age. FULL ARTICLE @ JENRUBIN.COM
See all posts on SpeedDate
See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on eHarmony
USA TODAY
-- Feb 11 -- Within the past few years, researchers have begun to focus
on the nature of physical attraction. Personality, evolution and even
economic compatibility can all be factors in why people are drawn
together. Research suggests that some physical characteristics — a
symmetrical face, for example — are considered more universally
attractive. Other studies have found romantic attraction among those
who have similar family, religious and economic backgrounds. Attraction
is even more complicated for those who date online. SpeedDate.com
allows people to "meet" for three-minute interactions through live
audio-video and IM. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
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.com, 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
See all posts on PerfectMatch See all posts on BlackPeopleMeet
See all posts on SpeedDate See all posts on TheRightOne
See all posts on Plentyoffish See all posts on TogetherDating
TECH CRUNCH -- Feb 3 -- For at least 30 minutes SpeedDate passwords
were totally optional. Type in a user name (no password needed), hit
"Log In", and you had access to every private message, 'flirt', and
buddy list available on the user's profile. SpeedDate says it is now
fixed and that the issue only affected a subset of users, though the
number of accounts affected seems to have been substantial. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
CNET NEWS -- Feb 3 -- Online speed dating service SpeedDate announced on
Monday the availability of its free iPhone application. The app allows
access to SpeedDate members' profiles, which you can connect to by sending a
"wink" or a quick "flirt." The free version doesn't allow to save potential
dates, search based on screen name, or filter searches with more details.
SpeedDate offers a seven-day free trial. After that it will cost
$59.99/month. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS
STAR LEDGER -- Jan 5 -- When she hit 40, Neenah Pickett decided to find a husband by 2010. She created 52Weeks2FindHim.com so she can post self-descriptive videos and speed-date with email responders from her home via webcam. Online dating took off in the early 1990s, with users posting detailed personality profiles and flattering photos. More recently, sites like webdate.com and speeddate.com began to feature video dating, said Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com, an industry site for online personals. "Sometimes, you go out on a date with somebody and find out they don't have a full head of hair, or are 20 pounds heavier than that photo taken years ago," Brooks said. "With a video date, you see what you're going to get. It's very compelling." FULL ARTICLE @ NJ.COM
CNET NEWS -- Oct 24 -- SpeedDate.com, the purveyor of the Web video-based online dating
service snatched up the rights to the Oregon Trail Facebook
application, which will soon be replaced with the service's existing
speed-dating application. The practice of
changing an application's functionality and namesake is fair
and legal according to Facebook's platform application guidelines and
terms of service. Developers are free to make these drastic changes to
their applications as long as they stay within Facebook's relatively
loose rules. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS
MARKETWATCH -- Oct 20 -- Since launching in October 2007, speeddate.com
raised over
$8m in VC funding and hosted 18m online dates. SpeedDate.com allows
singles to meet each other
through 3-minute online speed dates using webcams, audio, and IM.
SpeedDate is also available as an application on Facebook, MySpace,
Bebo, and meebo. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKET WATCH
TECH CRUNCH -- Sep 22 -- WooMe, the site that throws users into 60-second one-on-one online
video sessions, will now allow users to post recordings of their brief dating
sessions to the public. The site is a direct competitor to SpeedDate, a video dating site that
has recently been caught using some deceptive tactics on Facebook to
gain users. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
PRESS RELEASE -- Aug 28 -- SpeedDate.com, the online speed dating
service, has secured $6m in Series B funding from Menlo Ventures.
SpeedDate will use this funding to further grow its user base, expand
operations, and enhance SpeedDate.com's functionality. The site
launched in October '07. SpeedDate.com allows singles to meet each
other
through 3-minute online speed dates using webcams, audio, and instant
messaging.
See all posts on SpeedDate
PRESS RELEASE -- Aug 11 -- Starting Tue, August 12th, SpeedDate.com, the online speed dating service, is hosting an Olympic-themed online speed dating competition to determine the world's best online daters. The event will run through Sun, August 24 at which time SpeedDate.com will award gold, silver, and bronze medals to the men and women who match with the most other singles.
AFP -- Aug 3 -- Francesca Salcido recently went on 300 dates in 24 hours on the site SpeedDate, an online speed dating company, where dates are 1-2 minutes long. The site hosts 100,000 virtual dates daily, up from 1000 per night when it opened a year ago. Competitor WooMe, boasts 1000 – 4000 registered users logged into the site at any given time. WooMe recently sent two of it’s users on a US road trip to meet 1000 friends they met on the site in a trip called WooAroundAmerica. FULL ARTICLE @ AFP
TECH CRUNCH -- July 9 -- The most recent victim of the Facebook vs. annoying application war is SpeedDate. SpeedDate has disappeared from the application list, and the link to the application leads to the Facebook homepage. SpeedDate is a web-based speed dating service that also offers a Meebo application and, until recently, a Facebook application. Other speed dating applications (from Desidate.tv and Randomate) on Facebook remained untouched. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
PRESS RELEASE -- Mar 21 -- SpeedDate.com, the online
speed dating site has hosted over one million "3-minute" online speed
dates. SpeedDate.com also recently launched a Facebook application. The company is backed by
Silicon Valley venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
CNET NEWS -- Feb 18 -- Worldwide there are more then 1400 internet
dating sites. Given the
market saturation online dating consultant Mark Brooks says newer sites
are forced to innovate both in concept and technology. Want your avatar
to meet mine? Try out OmniDate.com or let's find out if our voices are
compatible. Log onto LoveDetect.com. Another one of those alternate
dating sites is CrazyBlindDate.com. Prior to the date you only get to
see a pixilated photo of your match
and you can only communicate by texting through the site's cupid line.
Unlike more established dating sites, webcam sites like SpeedDate.com, Woome.com and Camlink.com
require very little personal information to get started. As long as
people are out there looking for love there will be a website to cater
to their needs, desires, fantasies and fetishes. SEE THE VIDEO HERE
OPW INTERVIEW -- Feb 10 -- Speed dating is fun, but wouldn't it be cool if someone bottled it
and put it online. Turns out a couple of companies have done just
that. Namely WooMe, Camlink and Speeddate. Here's our interview with
the founder of Speeddate.com, Dan Abelon.
What is the founding story of SpeedDate.com?
I was at Stanford Business School with a good friend of mine and co-founder, Simon Tisminezky. He had used a lot of different online dating services and found them frustrating. We also kept hearing these same stories over and over from many of our friends. On most sites, there’s a long process you have to go through before actually interacting with someone. We really liked the offline speed dating idea, but found nobody was doing it online. We thought of the idea about a year ago and the site launched this past October.
How is it going so far?
It’s going really well. People seem to be responding and joining very fast. We have a bunch of success stories so far and a lot of people are signing up every day. I think people in general are looking for a new way to meet people that is more interactive and that’s what SpeedDate is providing for them. It’s spreading rapidly via word of mouth.
How does SpeedDate work?
You fill out a little information and it takes about a minute when you sign up for the site, which is completely free by the way. Then we take the information you’ve given us and match you with relevant people based factors such as age, location, gender and gender preference. Basically people pop up on your screen for 3 minutes at a time using live video, live audio and instant messaging. At the end, you vote yes or no. If you vote yes and the other person votes yes, you are considered a match and you can connect with each other through our site through email or instant messaging for as long as you want afterwards. If either side votes no, then you have a little break and go on to dating the next person.
What makes SpeedDate.com unique and better then some of the other services?
I think it’s because it’s such a fast way to meet people face-to-face. There really aren’t any other sites where you can quickly give a little bit of information and immediately be matched with someone who has also opted in to wanting to find someone for a romantic connection. There are a lot of sites out there that are starting to add more interactive features, but SpeedDate is completely focused on interaction. We’ve had over 300,000 dates take place on the site since we launched in October.
How did you decide on 3 minutes?
We went to offline speed dating sessions and tried them out at various different time intervals. We settled on 3 minutes because we thought that it worked best. Most people seem to think it’s an appropriate amount of time.
You used yourself as guinea pigs on speed dating sessions?
Exactly!
Now you mentioned a few times that your service is free. What is your revenue model?
We’re planning to introduce premium features potentially in the future. Right now it is completely free and we’re focused on user acquisition, and then refining the site and adding features.
Who is your typical member?
We have all different kinds of members. We have members of all ages. There are a lot of people in their 20s and 30s primarily because there’s a higher penetration of webcams and early adopters in that age group, but we do have a very wide range of people on the site. We have people from every state and almost every country. I think the commonality among people who join is either they have been frustrated with other dating services or they don’t want to fill out lengthy profiles and questionnaires. Any many are just looking for something new that’s a fast and effective way to meet people.
Now you don’t need a webcam to use SpeedDate right?
That’s right. We do encourage people to use a webcam. Live video with live audio is as close to the real world as you can get in terms of determining whether you have a connection with someone. But we do think that interaction in general is so important so we do let people instant message as well or just use their microphone if they don’t have a webcam.
Do you have any success stories?
Yes we do. I have people writing in a lot about how they really like the site and have met boyfriends and girlfriends on it. And actually, several people have written to tell us that they got engaged on the site which is really, really exciting. We’re a young site so I guess these people decided they wanted to move quickly.
Where do you see online dating going in the next 5 years and what is your place in it?
I think online dating in general will become more interactive. I think we’re one of the early sites that is completely focused on live interaction. We’ll start to see the industry transitioning too, especially as webcams have a greater penetration in society. More and more people have them and I think online dating will be most successful when it facilitates the richest interactions possible given existing technology.
How do you see social networking affecting online dating?
I think there’s a lot of talk about social networking taking over online dating but I don’t see that being the case. I think you’ll still have sites that are focused; we’re trying to be as focused as possible on romantic interaction. And the social networks, while they’re a place where a lot of romantic interaction takes place, they are not only about that. We do have a Facebook application that we’ve launched that allows people to SpeedDate from Facebook. So it’s a good way for us to acquire customers, especially of younger demographics.
BUSINESS WIRE -- Dec 19 -- SpeedDate.com secured an exclusive license to U.S. Patent Number 7,203,674 covering key aspects of online speed dating. SpeedDate.com, launched in October 2007 and has hosted over 100,000 online speed dates internationally. SpeedDate.com is also bringing speed dating to social platforms such as meebo. "SpeedDate.com is all about connecting people live, making it a natural partner for meebo", said Seth Sternberg, CEO of Meebo. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
Mark Brooks: The patent is entitled Method and system to connect and match users in an electronic dating service. Details here. The patent appears to cover the major components of online speed dating. 'Immediate Dating, Invited Dating, Group Dating', along with the telephony involved in online speed dating. Any lawyers care to comment? Will this stand up? There are a few instances of online speed dating being attempted in the past. Match gave it a good shot in 2004. Surely there's some prior art that could undermine this patent?
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