LA TIMES - June 23 - Last week business owners and industry experts discussed the latest trends and ideas at the iDate 2010 Internet Dating Conference. We asked Mark Brooks, an industry expert and the event's spokesperson, to tell us a bit about what's going on. Upwardly mobile: Over the last few years, mobile dating has skyrocketed. (In February, Whitney Casey, Match.com's relationship expert, said that the mobile members alone grew 250% from 2008 to 2009). More important, Brooks says users are now willing to pay for it, thus helping the industry have "moderate growth over the year and looking up for 2012." Brooks praises GPS-based dating site Skout, which certainly thought bigger. Called the HotMap, Skout's iPad app gives a real-time rundown of nearby singles. Brooks also said that dating sites need to "look at other industries" like movie-theater chain Cinemark, or Starbuck's. "They're there anyway, they might as well form an alliance or bond," he says. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
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