Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

Looking For Love

SW TIMES -- Dec 29 -- Traditional dating is almost a thing of the past. But there is a lot to be said for meeting a person face to face. Most experts claim that while the online sites may be good for meeting people, it can't compare to actually meeting someone in person. "The anonymity of many online dating sites may provide a slew of impersonal introductions, but what happens when you get to the next step ... meeting them in person?" asks Paul A. Falzone, CEO of The Right One and Together Dating. "The ways of meeting someone have changed, but the rules of behavior have not." Matchmaking companies do a lot more screening before they match someone. Some dating sites offer virtual dating, where each person creates an avatar and go on a virtual play date online. 

The full article was originally published at SW Times, but is no longer available.

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Help For Devout Muslims Looking For Love

SACRAMENTO BEE -- Dec 28 -- The Matrimonial Singles Task Force at Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims, or SALAM, is getting a lot of attention within the Muslim community. It is not a dating service. "The goal is to find a spouse," said Imam Mohamed Abdul Azeez, spiritual leader of SALAM. Practicing Muslims do not date. Traditionally, devout men and women meet spouses through friends and family. 

The full article was originally published at Sun Sentinel, but is no longer available.

No Recession For Online Dating Sites

LA TIMES -- Dec 28 -- Online personals websites are experiencing a major boost. Craigslist personals postings and eHarmony.com registrations have each seen 20% increases in 2008. Match.com's memberships were 22% higher in Dec than they were in Dec '07. Both eHarmony and Match.com reported especially high traffic on days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted. Money worries are even making them more picky. While Match.com reported a 50% increase in profile views from Nov to Dec, a recent survey of 1,500 members found that 84% of them were "being more selective about first dates." Wendy Rice, a 33-year-old chef from Hollywood, said she'd also experienced an unusually high frequency of daters playing "chicken" with the bill. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES

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FriendFinder Not Likely To Find Pals On Wall Street

CNET NEWS -- Dec 24 -- Friend Finder Networks, the company formerly known as Penthouse Media Group, is filing an IPO (underwritten by Renaissance Capital, based in Moscow) to pay off almost a half a billion in debt, to stay alive. The $460m IPO will go to paying off FriendFinder's ~$450m debt. For the nine months ending September 30, FriendFinder had revenue of $243m, operating income of $17.6m and a net loss of $32.3m. In its prospectus:

Our ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on our ability to raise additional capital, including from this offering. As of September 30, 2008, our balance sheet had...$420m in short-term debt... $411m of which had been reclassified from long-term debt, due to our failure to comply with certain covenants and restrictions in the agreements governing our 2005 Notes and 2006 Notes... We do not currently have sufficient cash to repay this indebtedness if our debt is accelerated and if the noteholders instituted foreclosure proceedings against our assets.

FriendFinder averaged 1 million paying subscribers a month for the first nine months of September 30 good for 77% of Internet revenue. Net revenue per subscriber was $19.06 a month. The monthly churn rate is 18% for the nine months ending September 30, down from 19.6% at the end of 2007.

Various neglected to collect taxes in the EU. The company says:
After our acquisition of Various, we became aware that Various and its subsidiaries had not collected VAT from subscribers in the European Union nor had Various remitted VAT to the tax jurisdictions requiring it. We have since registered with the tax authorities of the applicable jurisdictions and have begun collecting VAT from our subscribers in the European Union and remitting it as required.

The full article was originally published at CNet News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: The IPO is underwritten by Renaissance Capital a Moscow based investment bank. Huh? On the other hand, adult site membership is up, user churn is down, and ARPU is $19.31 a month. Your comments please.

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Fishing For That Perfect Partner On The Web

NORTH SHORE NEWS -- Dec 24 -- For some people the online dating world is a boon, for others it is a waste of time and source of more frustration. One of the biggest and apparently best of the online dating sites is www.plentyoffish.com. Plenty of Fish is absolutely free. It might not have the fancy matching logic but it does have volume. You have to love some of the other names for dating sites: LonelyWivesAffairs seems to have promise, kisscafe has a nice Sleepless in Seattle feel to it, and I won't even begin on Sugardaddie.com.

The full article was originally published at North Shore News, but is no longer available.

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WhiteLabelDating.com Wins Contract With Natmags

WLD BLOG -- Dec 23 -- Natmags currently publish well established magazines in the UK including Good Housekeeping, Country Living, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire and Cosmopolitan. They will initially be using the WLD application to roll out dating sites for their celebrity gossip magazine Reveal, along with women's weekly magazine Best.

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Xmas Day Internet Dating Conference Discount

OPW -- Dec 24 -- Happy Xmas!  As a little Xmas bonus we've negotiated a very special $75 discount for OPW readers who book an iDate conference pass or a pass to my Introduction to Internet Dating session through this link. This offer expires January 15th. Have a happy and safe holiday season! - Mark Brooks

Lack Of Advertising on Dating Sites?

OPW -- Dec 23 -- Why don't more dating sites make money from banner advertising? I think its because dating site users are very focused on what they are doing. Even more so than on social networks which have notoriously low click through rates. Watch this video to see what I mean. - Mark Brooks

FriendFinder Files For $460 million IPO

REUTERS -- Dec 23 -- FriendFinder Networks Inc, an operator of social-networking websites and publisher of the adult men's magazine Penthouse, filed on Tuesday for a $460m initial public offering. FriendFinder plans to use the proceeds of its IPO primarily to pay off debt, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

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Christian Dating Service Flourishing In Down Economy

PR INSIDE -- Dec 23 -- Together Christian is doing well in spite of the downer economy. Together Christian is an online dating service that caters to clients who are Christian and seeking the same. Together Christian operates under The Right One and Together Dating service.

The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.

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Plentyoffish Not In Danger Of Over Fishing

MASHABLE -- Dec 21 -- Plentyoffish.com boasts 900k active daily members and one solo developer and is actually gaining market share and distancing itself from seasoned competitors with full staffs and fancy websites like Match.com and eHarmony. Plentyoffish's US monthly market share in the dating category continues to rise, now 17%, while Match and eHarmony have only managed to amass 3 - 5% market share. According to Frind's Plentyoffish blog, not only is Plentyoffish the top dating site in the US and the UK, but it's continuing to see steady signups in December, a month that Frind observes normally sees a 30% decrease. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE        

Mark Brooks: In this economy, no wonder. Your comments please. (Full Disclosure: POF is a client of Courtland Brooks)

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The Real Cougar Woman Radio Interview

BLOG TALK RADIO -- Dec 19 -- The Real Cougar Woman Radio was coined by Linda Franklin who has a website, RealCougarWoman.com. Linda focuses on real concerns of today's Cougar Woman – wellness, beauty and relationships. Linda and her co-host Bonnie D. Graham interviewed Paul Falzone, CEO and founder of The Right One and Together Dating and Mark Brooks, the online dating guru. Paul believes that people want to go back to face to face and there is a trend moving away from online. TRO/TD made an acquisition of a  Love Access which will be changed to eLove.com in the very near future. " Right now we are converting a lot of online people to the offline centers and giving them a lot more service and it's proving to be ideal", said Paul. FULL INTERVIEW @ OPW

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MySpace Vs Facebook Advertising Showdown

TECH CRUNCH -- Dec 21 -- Ryan Hupfer at HubPages who advertises on both MySpace and Facebook, compared the two platforms. In a nutshell, he finds Facebook a much better experience. When it comes to the results, though, things are mixed. Ryan's test showed a lower cost per click on MySpace than Facebook ($.27 v. $.44). But the Facebook clicks were more productive: a new user cost just $5.11 on Facebook, v. $8.03 on MySpace. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

New Internet Dating Conference Video

OPW -- Dec 22 -- There's a new 2 minute video showcasing the Internet Dating Conference at iDate2009.com. Check out the quote from Marc Bell, CEO of FriendFinder, at the end. - Mark Brooks

Robert Wuttke, Be2 CEO And Founder Interview

OPW INTERVIEW -- Dec 20 -- You’ll be hearing more about be2. They are a rising star in Europe and are launching in the USA. The company is founded and run by Robert Wuttke, PhD. He’s a regular attendee at the internet dating conferences in the USA and Europe. - Mark Brooks

What is your background and the founding story of be2?
I have a PhD in sociology and history. I did my studies in Germany and Italy and then spent a year at MIT in Boston. I focused on sociology and have my first business experience in the media industry with Bertelsmann AG and Lycos Europe. At that time I became aware of the first internet dating products, which fascinated me because online dating can bring together people who would otherwise have had no chance to meet each other offline.

Congratulations on the round of funding you just received. What will you do with the 15 million Euro?
We are going to focus on improving our service, which has always been our priority. Then we’ll further expand our product into other countries. But in particular we want to start penetrating the markets we’re in now, serve those markets better and increasing our respective market share.

Why do you think personality profiling works well for dating sites?
There are different people with different needs on dating sites. One of the needs is to find somebody for a long term relationship. Typically people 25+ have put this focus much more up front. So for somebody, who is looking for a long term relationship, it makes more sense to find the compatible matches immediately instead of browsing through a database and finding out later whether the person is a match or not.

In general, how do you think personality profiling on dating sites can be improved?
They will get better not just by becoming more reliable in terms of psychology but also through other things like the expression of attitudes, preferences and interests with sophisticated algorithms, rather than just simple questionnaires. There are a lot of things that will be done over the next couple of years and I think we’re just seeing the beginning of what is going to happen. What makes the be2 test very strong is that the number of questions is very elegantly reduced. We don’t ask irrelevant questions and I think this is something that users appreciate. We are going to improve the test even more now.

I understand be2 has very aggressively opened up in a number of countries, over 30 countries at this stage. What are your lead countries at this stage?
We like the Spanish speaking countries, but also are intrigued in what’s going on in Europe overall and central Europe where we are less present at the moment. But this is something that will also change over the next year or so because we’re now going to use the funding to start penetrating markets better. Right now you can say be2 does not have a single location it would depend on in terms of revenues.

Are there any particular people that you would like to reach out to people in the next year or so?
I’m looking forward to continuing our dialogue with academics.

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