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

Religious CEOs: eHarmony Founder, Neil Clark Warren

MINYANVILLE - May 19 - It's been stated that faith and rationality are two models of belief that are resolutely incompatible. Marrying faith and rationality is not only spiritually beneficial, but can be profitable as well. Just ask psychologist and eHarmony founder, Neil Clark Warren, a man who has effectively integrated moral elements of his evangelistic religion with practical constituents of business management to create the most popular dating site. After appearing on Dobson’s radio show in August 2001, eHarmony received 90,000 new referrals. However, in 2005, Warren began to distance the company from the conservative Christian community to try and achieve greater mainstream involvement. This decision -- while profitable for the company -- caused grievances on both ends. Running on a platform open to only heterosexual applicants, eHarmony suffered an inevitable fate when a New Jersey man complained to New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights that his registration to eHarmony was rejected due to his homosexual classification. The company settled the suit, created a satellite site Compatiblepartners.net, and offered the first 10,000 same-sex registrants a free six-month subscription. Many evangelists felt that eHarmony should have gone down fighting, and even argued that allowing a same-sex service was a betrayal to the Christian community. FULL ARTICLE @ MINYANVILLE

Mark Brooks: eHarmony raised $110 million in June 2004. Neil Clark Warrens stake and control was diminished at that point. As much as he may object to having a same sex dating site under eHarmony's wing, its the right thing to do and a good and appropriate extension of the eHarmony service. Power to eHarmony for doing the right thing, and settling in this manner. Here's OPW's comparison of eHarmony vs Compatible Partners from September 2009.

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Quepasa Partners With Zoosk

MARKET WATCH - May 18 - Quepasa.com, a social network targeting the Latino community, signed an agreement to make the Zoosk online dating service available to Quepasa's registered user base of over 13M Latinos. The objective of the agreement is to extend the Zoosk community across the countries of Latin America by promoting and monetizing the Zoosk offering to the users of Quepasa.com. The service is expected to go live on Quepasa.com before the end of May.

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

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This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Catholic Online Dating

AMERICA MAGAZINE - May 24 - Online dating is not new. Match.com, one of the largest dating sites, was launched in 1995. Catholics joined the action in 1997 with the site CatholicSingles.com. Today it is one of three major Internet sites about holy union, including AveMariaSingles.com and CatholicMatch.com. CatholicMatch.com began in 1999 as St.Raphael.net. Most of the required information is like what you are asked on a first date or what is revealed on a Facebook profile—until you arrive at the Catholic faith/doctrine section. There users confront seven topics: Eucharist, contraception, sanctity of life, papal infallibility, premarital sex, Immaculate Conception and holy orders. Brian Barcaro, one of the founders of CatholicMatch.com, said that the seven faith questions are difficult and often controversial by design, but that asking these questions is critical to a successful Catholic relationship. FULL ARTICLE @ AMERICA MAGAZINE

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SNAP Interactive Releases Q1 2010 Operating Results

MARKET WIRE - May 18 - Snap's revenue increased 20% from $768,972 for Q1'09 to $927,436 for Q1 '10. The revenues generated during 2009 were primarily from advertising. 2010 revenue is primarily generated from premium features placed on various apps as well as subscription fees from AreYouInterested? app on Facebook.

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

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Got A Dollar? Sign Up For BuckMatch.com

PRESS RELEASE - May 18 - BuckMatch.com, a new dating site, provides premium online dating services for $1/month. The site started by Saul Waizer in 2009 and officially launched in the US in 2010. The site also features PayByMobile technology, enabling users to pay using any cell phone without the need to disclose any personal information.

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

China Smitten By TV dating

USA TODAY - May 18 - You Are the One and Take Me Out are China's top-rated TV entertainment shows. The programs, which both first aired in January, have generated discussion about money worship among China's younger generation. They also highlight how a perpetual human struggle, finding the right mate, presses harder than ever in the world's most populous nation. The shows' popularity is easy to explain, says Tian Fanjiang, CEO of baihe.com, a matchmaking website. "There are 180M single people in China," Tian says. "They and their parents are all worried about the marriage problem." "The Chinese family is unique in the world, as we have a one-child policy," says Take Me Out producer Liu Lei, "but parents attach great importance to carrying on the family name, so marriage is a big issue." Liu insists that the money-worship of some contestants does not reflect mainstream Chinese society, but she concedes, "Many girls really love rich men." 15 000 women applied for a chance to date a wealthy man at an event May 1 organized by matchmaking website jiayuan.com, says Zhang Guoyu, director of the company's Southwest China branch. In June, 50 of them will meet the men who paid $14,650 for the service. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

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Android Sales Surge Past iPhone

PC PRO - May 18 - According to research from firm NPD, US sales of Android devices passed those of the iPhone in the first quarter of this year. Android-powered smartphones accounted for 28% of US consumer sales in Q1 compared with 21% for the iPhone. Smartphone sales at AT&T comprised 32% of the smartphone market, followed by Verizon Wireless (30%), T-Mobile (17%) and Sprint (15%). FULL ARTICLE @ PC PRO

Mark Brooks: The real story here is the continued dominance of RIM. There will be a real battle between the top three vendors over the next 12 months, and this makes it challenging for dating sites to identify a way through the rapidly changing mobile landscape. Courtland Brooks has recently produced a white paper that outlines the strategic issues for dating sites when considering mobile dating options. It goes live on Thursday 17th June, but we're looking for early feedback on the whitepaper. So please email me at mark@courtlandbrooks.com if you'd like an early peak at it.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Marrying A Younger Man Increases A Woman's Mortality Rate

GUARDIAN.CO.UK - May 12 - Women who are seven to nine years older than their husbands have a 20% higher mortality rate than if they were the same age. Marrying an older man shortens a woman's lifespan, but having a younger husband reduces it even more, the study found. A study by Sven Drefahl at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rosktock, Germany, shows that the greater the age gap between a woman and her husband, the shorter her life expectancy, regardless of whether he is older or younger. While the study shows that women on average die younger if there is a large age gap in their relationship, married men and women both tend to live longer than unmarried individuals. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDI

How To Name Your iDating Site

OPW - May 17 - We're going through a naming project for a client right now. Apparently the perfect brand name is 4 letters, 2 syllables and doesn't mean anything to start with. Plentyoffish and OnlineBootyCall don't quite fit those ideals. This video makes fun of the names being used in the social-networking-sphere.

Meanwhile, you might want to check in on some of the domains being sold on Moniker's latest auction. There's quite a few idating domains. Here's a few of them along with their minimum bids.

• idates.com - $247k
• datingonline.com - $88k
• marriages.com - $37k
• 1date.com - $23k
• erelationship.com - $20k
• cupidsearch.com - $17k
• datingoffline.com - $11k
• floridapersonals.com - $9k
• masquerades.com - $6k
• livelounge.com - $6k
• romanticnovelties.com - $6k

 

TangoWire Announces Second Free Virtual Dating Day

PRESS RELEASE - May 17 - The success of their first Free Virtual Dating Day has prompted TangoWire, a community of online dating sites, to repeat the offer of free Virtual Dating on their network this Thursday, May 20th. The first Free vDate Day resulted in 40 times more virtual dates than normal. TangoWire is an online dating network of over 3,700 sites including BBWDateFinder.com, USMilitarySingles.com, LesbianPersonalsOnline.com, GaySingles.com, ArmySingles.com, SingleParentMatcher.com and more. FULL ARTICLE @ 24-7 PRESS RELEASE

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Women Marrying Men With Less Education, Income

CNN - May 17 - A Pew Research Center report this year noted a surge in women between the ages of 30 and 44 making more money than their husbands. Women made more money than men in 22% of married couples surveyed in 2007, compared with 4%  in 1970. Women represent ~ 60% of students holding advanced degrees in areas such as medicine, law, business and graduate programs, the U.S. Census reported in April. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN

SpeedDate.com Launched On iPad

PRESS RELEASE - May 14 - SpeedDate.com, the speed dating site, today announced the first dating app for the Apple iPad. SpeedDate for the iPad allows singles to browse photos and profiles, search for matches and connect while on the go. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTH TIMES

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Spark Networks' Q1 2010 Financial Results

MARKET WIRE - May 14 - Revenue for the Q1' 10 was $10.5M, a decrease of 12% compared to $12.0M for the Q1'09. Q1' 10 revenue for Jewish Networks was $7.1M, a decrease of 7%, for General Market Networks was $370,000, a decrease of 61%, for Other Affinity Networks was $3.0 M, a decrease of 10%, for Offline & Other Businesses was $113,000, a decrease of 47%. Average paying subscribers for Jewish Networks were 93,235, Other Affinity Networks has 68,124 subscribers and General Market Networks has 7,813 subscribers.

The full article was originally published at Market Watch, but is no longer available.

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The Twitter Me Is Not The Real Me

LA TIMES - May 14 - Some psychologists and sociologists who have studied usage habits on Twitter, Facebook and dating sites say there's little correlation between how people act on the Internet and how they are in person. "I don't think that you could have any type of accurate personality analysis based on what people are writing in their Twitter streams. Probably the same case goes for Facebook statuses as well," said John Grohol, an online mental health expert and founder of PsychCentral.com. "It could be the opposite. It could be that the shyest person is the person who tweets the most," Grohol said. Online, people tend to exaggerate their personas because they have much more time to revise and calculate the content they present than in spontaneous face-to-face interactions. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES

Hannity Debates Founder Of AshleyMadison.com

FOX NEWS - May 13 - Unlike Match.com or Eharmony.com or Hannidate on Hannity.com, AshleyMadison.com isn't just another dating Web site for singles. It is a dating Web site for married people. Now not only do they actually encourage cheating on your spouse, the company proudly acts as the vehicle to help make that happen. Here is the interview with founder and CEO of AshleyMadison.com Noel Biderman.

Q: You think it's good for people to have affairs? 
A: I think if they are totally unhappy with their relationship and that is the avenue they need to pursue to preserve their marriage, absolutely. That's what they should do.

Q: Why would you not have a conscience bother you that this might hurt people's marriages?
A: I'm at the cutting-edge of what society needs. It's important to create a platform for these people because having them utilize a single dating site and meet an unsuspecting single, that's inappropriate. Having an affair in the workplace and risk you losing your job, that's inappropriate. What is so wrong with people having a social network of their own?

Q: You're rationalizing your contribution to the potential break up of marriages which will not only affect the two people involved, but also the children. Do you want to look the young kids in the eye when his parents get a divorce?
A: It's the same argument you can make and say, "Oh, divorce attorneys are profiting from divorce, and we should get rid of divorce attorneys."

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

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