PR LEAP -- Mar 20 -- LavalifePRIME, a dating site exclusively for singles 45+ will offer 50Plus.com members immediate access to LavalifePRIME's database and social networking resources at http://50plus.lavalifeprime.com. Boomers registered with 50Plus.com will be able to view LavalifePRIME members' profiles and use its instant chat and social networking features. FULL ARTICLE @ PR LEAP
« February 2008 | Main | April 2008 »
LavalifePRIME Partners With 50Plus.com
| |
Bone Fish Partners With SpectrumX
THE OPEN PRESS -- Mar 20 -- White label dating provider, Bone Fish, partners with SpectrumX to offer the option of incorporating a fully-branded personality profiler into the affiliate dating and social networking sites at no extra cost. FULL ARTICLE @ THE OPEN PRESS
| |
Betting On Love
HISPANIC BUSINESS -- Mar 19 -- QuieroLatino.com is a new dating site for U.S. Hispanics. For free users can create a profile and check out other users' profiles. However, in order to meet another user, members will have to sign up for a monthly subscription fee of $24.95. "According to U.S. Census data, 80% of married Latinos are married to another Latino," says QuieroLatino founder, Ariel Oxman. "We want to do for Latinos what JDate has done for Jews" he added.
The full article was originally published at Hispanic Business, but is no longer available.
| |
Dateline Unveils Online Service
NMA -- Mar 17 -- The UK and Germany are Europe's largest online dating markets, worth 66m Eur las year, according to Jupiter. PlentyofFish, Gaydar, DatingDirect and Match dominate the UK's online dating market, according to Hitwise. Offline matchmaking service Dateline, which has been operating in the UK for more than 40 years, has launched an online dating site Dateline.co.uk. WhiteLabelDating.com has been appointed to provide the platform for the site.
The full article was originally published at NMA, but is no longer available.
| |
Got News? We Need Your News!
OPW -- Mar 20 -- Online Personals Watch is for people who work in the business of
internet dating, and for the press, and marketers, to research the
industry. The site was started in June 2004 and we have quite an
archive of searchable news at this stage. Check out our internet dating news listed by company. We list and summarize all major online personals industry news, so
please send us your news hits. You can send them to Petra at [email protected], who reviews them and then forwards them all to Irena and I to summarize and post. Got an anonymous news tip? You can email me at [email protected], or call it in to me directly at 212-444-1636. - Mark Brooks
| |
It's Just Lunch Singapore Goes To Bangkok
PR WEB -- Mar 19 -- The dating agency, It's Just
Lunch!,
is adding another global branch. This time in Bangkok, Thailand. Now
the clients have an opportunity to date a bigger pool of singles from
not just one city but two: Singapore and Bangkok. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
| |
iDate Video And Pics
OPW -- Mar 19 -- Here's the video summary from the Internet Dating Conference in Miami in February. Check out the ending for a wrod from Marc Bell, CEO of FriendFinder. - Mark Brooks
iDate Video: http://www.idate2008.com
And here are the iDate photos: http://www.idate2008.com
| |
Lavalife And Axe Give Canadian Guys The Goods On Grooming
PRESS RELEASE -- Mar 18 -- What do women want? According to a recent survey done by Lavalife.com and AXE male grooming products, Canadian women say it's not necessarily the money, the cars or the beautiful home that make a man irresistible… it could be about how well he grooms himself. The survey asked more than 800 women exactly what makes a man more appealing, and found that 66% of women go for well-groomed conscientious guys, verses only 7% of the female population who prefer a hairy bad boy. FULL ARTICLE @ PR LEAP
| |
DontDateHimGirl.com Launches Facebook App
BUSINESS WIRE -- Mar 17 -- DontDateHimGirl.com has launched Love Inspector, a Facebook app to give users access to articles on everything from how to deal with a cheating man to finding ways to boost self-esteem after a break-up and other great DontDateHimGirl.com-branded content. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
| |
Seattle 'Smart Dating' Web Site Relaunched
KING5.COM -- Mar 17 -- Degreedate.com, the first education-oriented dating site, has re-launched with a new look after a two-year hiatus. The site continues to be free to members, most of whom tend to be more mature men and women further along in their professional lives as well as personal lives.
The full article was originally published at King5.com, but is no longer available.
| |
Craigslist Not Liable For Discriminatory Ads
ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Mar 17 -- In a victory for web companies that publish user-generated content, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that online classified service Craigslist isn't liable for discriminatory housing ads placed by users. The 7th Circuit upheld a trial judge's ruling dismissing the case, holding that the federal Communications Decency Act doesn't permit people to "sue the messenger just because the message reveals a third party's plan to engage in unlawful discrimination". The lawsuit stemmed from a complaint by the Chicago Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which sued Craigslist for housing ads that contained language like "no minorities" or "no children". Craigslist argued that the federal Decency Communications Act immunized it from suit based on content posted by users. A similar issue is pending in the 9th Circuit in a lawsuit against Roomates.com. The appeals court in that case originally ruled that a lawsuit against the site could proceed to trial, but later granted re-argument. A decision in that lawsuit is expected soon.
The full article was originally published at Online Media Daily, but is no longer available.
| |
Marketers And Virtual Worlds: Still More Questions Than Answers
ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Mar 14 -- For some brands, harnessing the power of virtual worlds--or even just the idea of crafting a marketing campaign focused on one--is an immobilizing prospect. This year, about a third of the more than 34 million child and teen Internet users in the U.S. will visit virtual worlds at least once a month, according to eMarketer.
The full article was originally published at Online Media Daily, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: I didn't list the advice on marketing to virtual worlds users in this article. It basically said, find partners, spend $100-$500k and prepare to fail ! The same rules apply on virtual worlds as in any social network. Advertisers who are stuck on invasive traditional advertising methods will fail. One needs to identify members of the community who are bonefied fans of your brand, and then encourage them along by empowering them as ambassadors/evangelists of your brand. Pay attention to them. Listen to them, take their advice, show them you took their advice. Fan the flames of enthusiasm. This is all very granular micro-marketing, but the effects resonate far and wide.
| |
Userplane, Michael Jones - OPW Interview
OPW INTERVIEW -- Mar 15 -- Userplane has been busy. I interviewed Mike Jones, the CEO, to see what they've been working on since our last interview. - Mark Brooks
Why would a social network or Internet dating site choose Userplane IM over third-party software?
Userplane’s value as a publisher-oriented solution set hasn't changed. The technologies we’re developing and implementing are fairly complicated to build and tricky to maintain. With chat or IM, you have huge volumes, active and live server- intensive traffic that requires many resources. Even if open source or packaged solutions can be found, they can’t compare to the value of what Userplane IM has to offer.
The main benefit of using Userplane IM compared to developing/maintaining systems internally is that we can’t be beat on a pure cost analysis basis. If you post a large chat infrastructure internally, the labor cost alone will be much larger than Userplane’s costs. Publishers use us for expanded functionality, increased engagement, and large sources of revenue. They use a free product with ads, and substantial amounts are registering those advertisements back to themjb.
Can you tweak the look and feel of your IM application?
You can’t re-layout our buttons, but everything from language settings to graphics on the user interface, chat and IM are scannable. Our new mini-chat is a lighter application, with a smaller input and output window. It allows a simpler implementation of technology that’s still brandable.
Who would use Mini-chat instead of the full Userplane IM version?
Mini-chat is a complement or alternative to the Userplane Webchat. Users can drive more activity by copying and placing a version of the chat room anywhere on their site. Mini-chat can be built in a very small footprint, so users can easily place it on their social networking pages. Many sites use Mini-chat as an entry tool, allowing access to our full chat functionalities only when the user becomes a member. Mini-chat encourages users to test their sites/technology, and then they’re up-sold into full memberships.
What kind of money are Userplane partners earning at this stage?
Some partners are making substantial revenue, earning well above tens of thousands a month. Smaller webmasters are creating dedicated sites, driving traffic to the sites, which drive up the Userplane revenue as well.
Interesting. Any sites you could recommend looking at?
We’re now working with media savvy publishers like CBS and MTV, but as far as those who are doing smaller blogs and creating dedicated chat-oriented sites, it would be hard to single out one above the others. There’s a lot of outstanding work going on.
How is the Desktop app coming along?
We launched our first Desktop application (built in C++) last year, and recently re-released an upgraded Desktop as an Adobe Air application. This has enabled us to have a full multi-platform version (Mac and PC), easier download and upgrade process, advanced scanning capabilities and functionalities that enable large website pieces to be truly integrated onto a desktop.
Clients who use the C++ version got minor traction. From a positive perspective, clients seeing a 30 percent download–to-install rate were driving additional traffic from those users to return to the website while increasing overall website activityjb.
The Adobe Air Desktop version will be a solid competitive advantage to sites that truly embrace it because it’s easier to install, is Mac/PC friendly and has expanded functionality. You’ll see our marketing and sales efforts driven around Desktop for the next six months.
Is the social networking industry starting to peak?
I pay attention to numbers. Facebook is still growing, just not as quickly as the last few months. Across our entire network, I’m seeing growth from many big partners, along with new social networking clients who see expansive growth through our platform. We may see some fragmentation with those primarily using MySpace, Facebook and Friendster – users who want to complement their experiences with more niche-oriented sites. We’ll also see some fragmentation in traffic, but not a decline in the amount of social networking activity.
I don’t have specific metrics, but one in every “x” Americans visit a social networking site daily, unlike three years ago. The big deal is that when people open their browsers now they have more options. Five or ten years ago, they went to a portal news page and email account. Now, they’re going to their social networking site, email account, and portal news page or personal aggregator like Netvibes. Consumer behavior has changed quickly, insofar as where users spend their Internet time. Time spent online is not declining, and I don’t see another category rising to offset that behavior.
Are there any products in the works or new product features that you can leak to me?
Yes. Desktop was our big release, but we’re also putting out a Board product with a skinnable, Flex-based, bulletin boards application, with full SEO. That will be followed by a gifting product that will facilitate user-to-user gifts. In addition, we also released a media player product that enables users to upload customized videos and playbacks, with full chat built in and a revenue sharing option back to the publisher. We’ll host and maintain all video streaming, a big advantage to publishers. Finally, we’re releasing full AIM interoperability in our IM suite.
Currently, Userplane has substantial reach within the ad network space. We’re a social ad network that represents ad inventory for quite a few large and small publishers considered online dating social networking sites. We haven’t formally put out a big push to find more publishers or market ourselves as a social networking advertising platform, but our volume is substantial. In fact, we’re within the top few networks dedicated to reaching social media websites. In the next few months, many of our publisher-oriented services will begin to include monetization around social networking inventory, and we’ll actually make a formal claim in the market there.
| |
Hong Kong Dating - Yellow Fever
OPW -- Mar 15 -- The stereotype of the shallow, wealth seeking woman is slowly slipping away in Hong Kong. Many women now make as much as men and share in the expenses of the date though some are still very traditional. Usually shy, most women from Hong Kong will not approach men so expect to put in some effort. Beware the overly flirtatious women however as she might expect to be paid at the end of the date.
| |
WhiteLabelDating.com Is Celebrating
PRESS RELEASE -- Mar 13 -- WhiteLabelDating.com has been selected as one of the UK's fastest growing businesses at the Fast Growth Business Awards (FGBA) and its Financial Director Jennifer Raines won the Financial Director of the Year category for her outstanding contribution to the company's growth. The ceremony took place at the London Marriott, Grosvenor Square last night. WhiteLabelDating.com is a UK-based software company that enables partners to set up their own branded, online dating sites. One of their casual dating sites, MatingDirect.com, made it to top ranking in the UK for one day last week according to Hitwise. "Since we originally put the entries in for the business we've already increased by 25%. So we're up from the 4 million to 5 million GBP already," said Jennifer Raines. This week WhiteLabelDating.com was appointed by UK's Dateline to create and provide the platform for Dateline.co.uk. The site is being launched to compliment Dateline's existing service, www.dateline121.com.
| |