OPW - Feb 17 - Match acquired 27% of Meetic in February last year and then acquired People Media for $80 million in July, 2009. They took a piece of the German market last week by partnering with Neu.de. Diller showed interest in Yahoo Personals back in April 2009. Sometime soon, perhaps Match will announce a deal to power Yahoo Personals USA. Match already powers Yahoo Personals in key European markets.
The real question is, how can you possibly compete with the behemoth Match? Its has niches with People Media, Europe with Meetic and Yahoo Personals, and growth this season is looking very strong. I hear concerns about growth stalling for second tier dating sites. However, Piper Jaffray predicts U.S. spending on online dating will reach $1.7 billion by 2013, with $1.2 billion being spent in 2008. Meanwhile, Forrester expects the market to reach $1.6 billion by 2013, up from an estimated $957 million in 2008. - Mark Brooks