Mobile Dating

WASHINGTON POST – Mar 27 -- Skout, changed its business model and joined a growing wave of firms trying to turn smart phones into dating devices. Right now the service is free, but the company will soon charge a $5 to $10 monthly subscription. A January report by Juniper Research predicts the market for mobile dating and chatrooms will grow to nearly $1.4 billion by 2013. "I see usage going through the roof because it's no longer a compromised experience," says Mark Brooks, a consultant to the online dating industry. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

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Comments

[Fernando Ardenghi]

"A January report by Jupiter Research predicts the market for mobile dating and chatrooms will grow to nearly $1.4 billion by 2013."

The market for mobile dating and chatrooms will be USD0 because cell phones will be replaced by notebooks with mobile broadband modems.

Regards,

Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
[email protected]

[Mark Brooks]

Its not quite as simple as that. Notebooks are getting smaller, netbooks are gaining popularity (I'm writing this on an Asus eee 1000 10") and the iPhone and other competing devices are blurring the lines further. But the lines still exist. There's less and less of a performance and screen rendering compromise when users downshift in size to smaller devices for their web access. But there are still enough differences for the distinctions in devices to exist. There will always be distinction of size, so there will always be the category called 'mobile.'

You would not tote around a netbook to make phone calls. I made a Skype call on my Asus netbook from Prague to Los Angeles today. The callee told me the line was A1 totally crystal clear. Nice. At last. Skype has improved enough and my netbook works well enough in combination with my Skype approved headset that I can get landline level quality via a net call. But its still a 3lb laptop with a bumch of cords dangling around me. (LAN, power, USB drive, headset). Hardly really 'mobile.'

In past presentations at internet dating conferences I've liked to conclude my presentations on mobile dating and social networking by showing a picture of a Star Trek pad. 'We're all going to go Star Trek eventually.' Indeed, the Nokia N800 series pads and HTC Advantage are positioned nicely to fulfill that prediction. Are THEY mobile phones? Nope. They're mobile pads. Will we eventually call our mobile pads phones. Probably they will be bundled under the 'mobile' category. Lines will be blurred but the distinctions will remain until we find a way to mind meld with our computers and they disappear altogether because we've implanted them entirely into our heads. It will happen one day, I'm sure, but not for another 50 years at least ...I hope. As for the next 40-50 years, we're stuck with the mobile category.

[Ryan]

I am not sure about the Jupiter research comment. Jupiter research has been predicting mobile e-commerce for so long as its yet to take off that big. Only if more smartphones like blackberry and iphones sweep the market, mobile e-commerce and mobile dating will take off that well.

So, far the majority of money on mobile is still in the age-old ringtones and wallpapers. Till then, online dating sites like http://hintcafe.com will have to depend on web for traffic

[Mark Brooks]

The L.A. internet dating conference is coming up in June and we'll be covering mobile dating at that conference. Probably 25% of the sessions will cover mobile. (Full Disclosure: I work for the internet dating conference and manage the agenda)

[Noni Berry]

I just watched a pretty interesting dating advice video (DatingExpert.TV – I love that site!) about the 5 things you SHOULDN’T do in your online profile. Quite fascinating. Great video from the author of that new dating book, HOW TO DATE LIKE A GROWN-UP. If any of you are interested, you can see the clip here:
http://lisadaily.com/datingexperttv/2008/12/is-your-online-profile-working-against-you-datingexperttv11/

[warcraft gold]

Another source of income from mobile and in a way beneficial to the people who love online dating. This is dating on the go, just like a candy.