AFP -- Nov 2 -- Out of a crowded field of Internet dating sites, two have emerged as international giants: Match.com of the US and Meetic of France. Each claims the number one spot in Europe. Last month Meetic was floated on the Paris stock exchange raising ~90 million euros ($108 million) which its founder and CEO, Marc Simoncini, plans to use to fund acquisitions. Match.com hit back by launching a Singles Observatory in France as an "independent" body to publish data about singles, their lifestyle and the hunt for the perfect partner. Meetic claims that 18,000 new users fill out their profiles on the site each day, while Match.com says it receives 40,000 registrations. Jupiter Research believes the sector's revenue in Europe will double over the next five years to 375 million euros.
Mark Brooks: I'm still here in Prague after the Euro iDate.
Ulteem (owned by Meetic) hired http://www.assessfirst.com/ (Dr. David Bernard) to develop Love-inSight Test.
Seems to be the French and German version of www.Chemistry.com and tests invented by WeAttract.com .
From http://www.ulteem.fr/misc/interview_g.php could be read (in French, I translated the most interesting parts, the better I could)
"....The test combines the elements of basic values that constitute our internal compass: there always is a strong coherence between these values and the important decisions that one takes in life. The method is the one proposed by Schwartz: on thousands of persons studied in different countries there always is ten basic values that constitute the individual, ten universal elements. Thus, one knows today that the individuals, whatever their country, have a system of organized values around these 10 basic pillars.
........
Concerning the personality, we adopted the method Big Five, the most often employed by the psychologists to summarize a personality.
..........
After defining the 71 adjustment criteria in love, we elaborated the test, then we put it to the test reality. The test has in fact to be stable in the time and substantiate a durable portrait of the person. To avoid all later adjustment, it has us therefore been necessary to test in big number with living couples together since at least a year.
.........
We tried to reflect the person in all his complexity and to avoid the trap reducer of that resembles itself assembles itself. Our method takes therefore some counts the similarities and the possible complementarities between two individuals. ...... We also were careful not to emit judgements."
They claim the tests meet the standards of analysis defined by the American Psychological Association and the Educational Testing Service.
MAIN WEAKNESS: Love-inSight Test Seem to have lack of precision when comparing the codification of a profile's pattern with others.
Kindest Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi
Argentina.
[email protected]
Posted by: Fernando Ardenghi | Nov 04, 2005 at 03:21 PM