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Dating Site For Gay Men Enters Super Bowl Ad Fray
MASHABLE - Jan 29 - ManCrunch, a dating site for gay men, submitted their ad on January 18, and when they checked in again on January 22, they were told that the ad had not yet been approved and that all the spots were sold out. According to Fox News, a CBS representative told Pop Tarts that spots were still open. Officials from the dating site say that they think the process is taking so long because CBS does not want to air the ad, yet the network doesn’t want to reject it outright for fear of backlash from gay and lesbian advocacy groups. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
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40% Of Older Women Want A Younger Man
PR WEB - Jan 28 - Four out of ten women 40+ are in the market for a Toy Boy according to a poll carried out by a UK cougar dating site YesMrsRobinson.com. The poll also revealed that a quarter of the women over 40 already have a younger lover. 17% of the UK women admitted they would have an affair with a younger man if they knew their partner wouldn’t find out – while another 14% confessed they often fantasise about having a man half their age. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
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The First iDate Awards Winners 2010 Were...
OPW - Jan 28 - The first ever iDate awards finished just 5 minutes ago at Royal Palm Beach hotel's banquet hall in Miami Beach. Winners get a ribbon they can place on their sites. We're proud to announce the following award winners.
- Best Up and Coming Dating Site
Zoosk
- Best Marketing Campaign
eHarmony
- Best Affiliate Program
FriendFinder
- Best Payment System
PayPal
- Best New Technology
iovation
- Most Innovative Company
OKCupid
- Best Matchmaker
Cupids Coach (Julie Ferman)
- Best Mobile Dating Site
Zoosk
- Best Dating Software Provider
White Label Dating
- Best Dating Site Design
Match
- Best Dating Site
Match
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FriendFinder And Investors Reschedule Their Rendez-Vous
WSJ - Jan 28 - FriendFinder Networks rescheduled its date with IPO investors Wednesday, and realtor chain IFM Investments cut its asking price. FriendFinder was supposed to begin trading under the symbol FFN on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, but is now launching the deal next week. FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ
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The Modern Love Connection
KANSAS.COM - Jan 28 - In a study done by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in Dec 2009, 93% of the 18-29-year-old group was reported as internet users. Younger adults make up 28% of the entire social networking population. According to Laurie Davis, host of LoveNation, a weekly web show that covers emerging trends in the dating world, more people will be digitally connected romantically through “micro-dating.” Zoosk is one of the many companies doing just this. Zoosk allows singles to connect through Facebook. Cell phone apps are also becoming popular. Skout is an iPhone app that uses the iPhone’s GPS to offer a real-time location-based service for online daters. With this app, a single could view profiles based on location.
The full article was originally published at Kansas.com, but is no longer available.
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eHarmony Settles Lawsuit Over Gay Matchmaking
SF CHRONICLE - Jan 27 - As a result of a 2008 settlement with the state of New Jersey, which sued the company for discrimination, men and women seeking same-sex matches were redirected from eHarmony to an affiliate Web site, Compatiblepartners.net. A separate class-action civil rights lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles in 2007, saying that eHarmony violated California law barring businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The firm would establish a $2M settlement fund, with about $500,000 set aside for gay, lesbian and bisexual Californians who can show they were harmed by eHarmony's policies. The company did not admit wrongdoing. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
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iovation Stops 30,000 Online Fraudulent Activities Daily
BUSINESS WIRE - Jan 26 - iovation, provider of the reputation service for preventing online fraud and abuse, today announced monthly recurring revenues are up 50% over the beginning of 2009. Since inception, iovation has performed 2.7 billion reputation checks on behalf of customers, processing nearly double in 2009 over 2008, and actively stopping more than 30,000 fraudulent activities per day on the Internet.
The full article was originally published at EON, but is no longer available.
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Matchmaker Helps Young South Asians
CHICAGO TRIBUNE - Jan 27 - Jasbina Ahluwalia got a master's degree in philosophy, went to law school, and then seven years into a successful law career, she became a professional matchmaker. Many young South Asians have little dating experience because parents discouraged it earlier because of religious or cultural beliefs. Ahluwalia trains them in dating do's and don'ts. For those who are actively searching sites like shaadi.com or bharatmatrimony.com, the agency helps with the online profiles. It all begins though with a $375 pre-consultation. After the initial consultation, which includes a background check, clients can be selected into a tiny pool of 30. They place personal ads. Introductions are made. Dates are evaluated and discussed. Prices range from $5,000 into the tens of thousands of dollars.
The full article was originally published at Chicago Tribune, but is no longer available.
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BoonEx Partners With Messmo
PRESS RELEASE - Jan 26 - BoonEx, a supplier of downloadable open source software for social networks, dating sites and online communities partners with messmo, a mobile messaging company for dating and personals websites. The messmo Extension is planned to be available for Dolphin 7 in March 2010. Thanks to messmo sites can easily extend the reach of their existing member-to-member communications, such as email or IM, to now reach members when not at their PC by delivering rich messages. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
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SNAP Interactive Reports 79% Increase In Revenue
MARKETWIRE - Jan 26 - SNAP Interactive, a provider of online dating apps for social networks, has experienced an increase in gross receipts since transitioning to a premium subscription model on its 'Are You Interested?' brand in late 2009.
-- $5.6 million + Annual Revenue Run Rate Based on December 2009 Gross Receipts
-- Annual Run Rate Increases More than 79% over Pre-subscription Revenue Run Rate
The full article was originally published at Marketwire, but is no longer available.
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China's Super-rich Look For Love Online
CNN - Jan 25 - Xu Tianli is the founder of Golden Bachelor, a dating site catering to an expanding class of super-wealthy Chinese singletons who have it all except for a bride. The Golden Bachelor "Diamond Love" membership goes for 300,000 Yuan ($44,000). The qualifications for joining: a personal or family wealth of at least 2M yuan ($292,000); a background that is extremely superior, wealthy and aristocratic; very good personal qualities or young, talented and beautiful. Golden Bachelor says it has 5M registered members. There also are the so-called "love hunters" event. The last one was on Dec 20 in Beijing in a luxury hotel. The ticket price was 100,000 yuan, ($14,600); 21 single women and 22 single men attended. Ladies took part in a wedding gown show and also sang, danced, even cooked for their moneyed suitors during a talent program. Eighty percent of those who came found a date, according to the company. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN
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Avid Life Media Pushes For IPO
THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Jan 25 - Avid Life Media, the parent company of dating sites such as CougarLife.com, EstablishedMen.com and AshleyMadison.com, a site for people seeking extramarital relationships, is raising $60M and is pushing for a listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Avid Life posted $30M of sales and $8M of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (or EBITDA) in 2009. Avid Life will use part of the money in a private placement to acquire privately held Moxy Media, an online advertising sales company that runs more than 300 websites.
The full article was originally published at The Globe and Mail, but is no longer available.
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iDate Awards Nearly Sold Out
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Marriage And Divorce In Numbers
8% decline in the divorce rate from 2003 to 2008 in states without constitutional bans on same-sex marriage.
20.7% decline in the divorce rate from 2003 to 2008 in Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage (2004).
20% of new divorce cases that contain the word "Facebook" in their petitions.
30% of "singles" on online dating sites who aren't single
FULL ARTICLE @ CLEVELAND.COM
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