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

How Match.com Changed The World Of Dating

NEWSWEEK - Aug 31 - In 1993 Gary Kremen founded Electric Classifieds, to bring classifieds to the net, raised $200k and launched Match.com in April '95. Today Match has 1.7 million paid subscribers, with sites in 30 countries and 8 languages. 1 in 5 relationships and 1 in 6 marriages are between people who met through a dating site. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 74% of the 10 million Web users who are single and looking for a partner have turned to the Internet to find someone. 850 services make up the multi-billion-dollar dating industry. Match consistently comes in among the top five based on traffic.

Kremen received $1.5 million in venture capital. In '97 Match’s investors sold the startup for $8 million to Cendant who sold the company to IAC/InterActiveCorp the next year for $50 million. Kremen got $50k from company stock. A combination of joint ventures and innovation helped Match to flourish. In 2001, the service partnered with AOL and MSN. Today, smart phones are Match’s fastest-growing channel, according to Match CEO Greg Blatt. “We’re trying to be wherever our users are,” whether in the waiting room at a doctor’s office or in line at the grocery store, he says. The company now lives up to its name, using complex formulas to recommend users to each other.

“People have become more willing to open their wallets to find love,” says Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, a consulting firm for the online dating industry. That’s partially because Match’s fees ($35/mo) are relatively modest, and it also helps, Brooks says, that the site has really “stocked its shelves” and continues to do so, with more than 20,000 singles registering on Match every day. In 2001, a judge awarded Kremen $65 million in a dispute over the domain name sex.com. Kremen also married the woman of his dreams. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWSWEEK

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Internet Dating Conference In Paris

OPW - Aug 31 - The Internet dating conference (iDate) is only 2 weeks away. Register today and save on the attendance fee. The event will be held on September 16-17, 2010 at the Hotel Concorde Lafayette in Paris. iDate Paris will discuss: European business strategies, new markets, mobile technologies, online / traditional marketing, venture capital for E.U. businesses, online personals software, partnerships, legal issues, background search and payments. See the agenda.

If you're interested in starting a dating site, you can attend the special 3 hour pre-conference session on Wednesday - Introduction to the Online Dating Business and Mobile Overview.

Mark Brooks: I'll be providing an overview of the European iDating industry news and trends, along with doing a 3 hour pre-conference introduction to the business of internet dating.

MySpace Extends Its Search Ad Pact With Google By One Month

TOP NEWS - Aug 31 - It is for the second time that MySpace’s contract with Google has been extended. The agreement, under which Google had agreed to pay $900M for placing ads on MySpace over a three-year period, was initially supposed to end in June; but was already extended till the end of August. MySpace was in talks with Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google for replacing the contract. The replacement of the contract is one of the key moves that MySpace President Mike Jones has been trying to work out; especially after new features have been introduced to revive the website, which was surpassed by Facebook, in terms of worldwide users, in April 2008.

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

Mark Brooks: Mike Jones was founder and CEO of Userplane which provided instant messaging services to a plethora of internet dating companies along with MySpace. He's VERY well respected and liked among the idating industry executive. We're rooting for him.

Kids Text Every 10 Minutes When They're Awake

BUSINESS INSIDER - Aug 26 - American kids under 18 send and receive roughly 2,800 texts per month, according to Nielsen, or about 93 per day. Assuming 7 hours of sleep per night, that's ~5.5 per hour spent awake, or one every 10 minutes or so. But it's people ages 18-24 who talk the most on their cellphones, according to Nielsen, averaging 981 minutes per month. And women talk 22% more per month than men, on average, and send ~35% more SMS per month than men do. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS INSIDER

Mark Brooks: SMS has continued to become more popular because there's minimal advertising intrusion and maximal user attention via the SMS channel.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Digital Overload

NPR - Aug 24 - The average person today consumes almost three times as much information as what the typical person consumed in 1960, according to research at the UC San Diego. The average computer user checks 40 sites a day and can switch programs 36 times an hour. "When you check your information, when you get a buzz in your pocket, when you get a ring — you get what they call a dopamine squirt. You get a little rush of adrenaline," says Times technology journalist Matt Richtel. "Well, guess what happens in its absence? You feel bored." There are enormous benefits associated with technology, too. Research from the University of Rochester indicates that certain video gamers have more visual acuity than those who don't game. And there's value in offloading thinking to a computer, for example, using Google Maps instead of calling for directions or organizing information in Excel instead of keeping track of it in your head. FULL ARTICLE @ NPR

Mark Brooks: Its very wise to take a day off on the weekend and abstain from touching a computer. Still, I need my dopamine!!

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Online Dating Matches Don't Come As Advertised

NY POST - Aug 29 - People are way harsher online than they are in real life. The sexes have one thing in common -- they both lie. 24% of men and 13% of women lie about their age. Men are on average 2 inches shorter than they say in their profiles, while women are an inch shorter. About 50% of daters fib about their weight. Almost everyone exaggerates their income by 20%, according to trends tracked by OKCupid.

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

See all posts on OKCupid

iovation Listed On The Inc. 5000

BUSINESS WIRE - Aug 29 - iovation, the device reputation authority protecting online businesses from fraud and abuse, is included in the Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest growing private companies. Inc. Magazine ranked iovation number 1662 on its annual list, number 38 within private security companies, and number 14 within the Portland, OR metro area. iovation was founded in June 2004 to make the Internet a safer place for individuals to conduct business and interact with one another. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: I've worked with iovation since 2007 helping them get their arms around the internet dating industry. They help the industry work together to beat scammers, spammers, and those that would be obnoxious or obscene or abusive to members. Beyond the idating industry, they also work with the gaming and financial services industries. If you've not talked to iovation yet, I'd recommend talking with them. My clients, and industry referrals have been happy with their services. (Full Disclosure: iovation is a long term client of Courtland Brooks)

See all posts on iovation

Got Rogue Affiliates?

OPW - Aug 30 -A rogue affiliate is running this ad on Facebook. We removed the identity of this site to protect the [somewhat] innocent. The site in this ad is definitely NOT 100% free. Its a paid dating site. This is NOT COOL. It's not good for the idating industry as a whole when affiliates falsely represent dating sites. How can you/we possibly police against this practice? Affiliates often find innovative messaging and methods to get high click through rates and conversions. This is great for short term profits for both the affiliate, and the dating sites. But the industry suffers when rogue practices mislead people. Users remember that they had a bad experience with 'internet dating' and we all suffer, in the long run.

When I was an affiliate manager at FriendFinder in 2003 we had to police affiliates who used email, and then CAN-SPAM came about. FriendFinder could not risk breaking CAN-SPAM rules. So the FriendFinder edict was, if affiliates used email their affiliate accounts would be cancelled. Affiliates were not permitted to use email to promote FriendFinder. It was relatively easy to monitor. If an affiliate had bursts and lulls of traffic that was an indication that they were using email promotion.

Dating sites can use similar edicts to get the attention of affiliates. Your brand related ad messaging should be consistent and pre-approved on all site promotions. If an affiliate mentions your internet dating brand name in an ad, that ad should have been approved by you. Protect your brand! Protect this industry from misleading, rogue affiliates.

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Match.com Reveals Cities With Most Online Summer Activity

PR NEWSWIRE - Aug 27 - Match.com reveals that more singles than ever used online dating at Match.com to find love this summer with 33.5% more winks and emails compared to summer of 2009. Miami is the city where the heat is on. 

Top 10 Cities for Online Dating in Summer 2010:

   1. Miami, FL
   2. New York, NY
   3. Los Angeles, CA
   4. Chicago, IL
   5. Washington, DC
   6. Dallas, TX
   7. San Diego, CA
   8. Phoenix, AZ
   9. Boston, MA
  10. Houston, TX
FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Mark Brooks: You'd think San Francisco would make the top ten list? Perhaps SF daters are using the local company, Zoosk?

See all posts on Match.com

Japan's Government Plays Matchmaker

BUSINESS WEEK - Aug 26 - Japan's Fukui prefecture has the nation's biggest share of dual-income households, the highest ratio of working women, and the lowest unemployment rate. What it doesn't have is enough babies. So this month the provincial government will launch an online dating site for singles, called the Fukui Marriage-Hunting Cafe. At 1.34 children per woman, Japan's fertility rate is one of the lowest in the world, well below the 2.1 that is considered the minimum for a developed nation to maintain a constant population. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Mark Brooks: The Singapore government has also gotten involved in spurring and supporting matchmaking startups. Meanwhile, in Japan, idating is somewhat of a dirty word thanks to thousands of sites that match men with young girls, preferably school girls. A major fetish in Japan. Mixi is the main social network in Japan, and the place where many young singles connect, through their friends.

eHarmony CEO On The Limits Of Online Dating And The Future Of Love Online

HUFFINGTON POST - Aug 26 - eHarmony celebrated its 10th anniversary and a major milestone: 540 weddings in the U.S. every day. Here is the interview with Greg Waldorf, CEO of eHarmony.

Q: Where do you see social media fitting in with online dating?
A: Social networking is such a powerful experience on so many levels, but it's about a lot of different things. I think paid dating creates a private environment.

Q: Do you see social media as an asset for paid dating sites?
A: Social media and paid dating coexist very well as long as the paid dating sites are very mindful that you'd better be delivering a lot of value when people are paying you. 

Q: What does "real life" dating offer that you can't yet get online?
A: I think the hardest thing is the shared social experience of dating. That makes dating easier. If you're nervous about asking out that person at a party, you might have more courage if you can walk up with a friend.

Q: And what does online dating offer that you can't yet get in "real life"?
A: It gives you more efficiency and it's purposeful.

Q: Why does eHarmony have a separate site for gay couples?

A: We thought we'd be more successful.

Q: Do you measure the marriage rate for gay couples?
A: I don't think it'd be showing up as a significant number if you think about how few states you can get married in.

Q: You track marriage rates, but do you measure divorce rates?
A: We don't. But we're working on it. 

Q: Have you done research to see whether the qualities that make for compatible, heterosexual couples are the same for same-sex couples?
A: We haven't yet, but we're getting closer to that.
FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST

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Italian Males Biggest Users Of Dating Sites From Mobiles

BIG MOUTH MEDIA - Aug 26 - Males aged 25 to 34 are leading the way in Europe's mobile dating market, according to comScore. This demographic accounts for 22% of the 11M Europeans who access online dating sites from mobile devices each month, compared to 8.7% of females in the same age bracket. Online dating via mobiles increased by 52% from June 2009 to the same month this year, according to comScore's MobiLens.

The full article was originally published at Big Mouth Media, but is no longer available.

eHarmony Says It's Found The Formula For Love

DAILYMAIL.CO.UK - Aug 26 - There are more than 1,400 UK dating sites and the industry is expected to be worth ~£150M by 2014. Of the 16M singles in the UK, 60% have tried online dating at some point. Dr Warren spent 35 years counselling patients on relationship issues. Before launching eHarmony, he says he spent three years working with a team of scientists to define the characteristics that determine successful relationships. Dr Warren and his team use scientific methodology to try to discover how relationships work. They repeated the process with researchers at Oxford University, who analysed 1,000 married British couples. The work highlighted interesting cultural differences. Happy U.S. couples say they do a lot of laughing and kissing, but admit to regularly making excuses not to have sex. Successfully married Britons report having more sex, are better at dealing with in-laws and dividing chores. 800 of eHarmony 's UK members are already in long-term relationships after meeting on the site. They say there's also been more than 100 marriages and engagements among British members, too. FULL ARTICLE @ DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

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Online Dating Sites Are Way Past Hook-ups

TORONTO SUN - Aug 26 - At CanDoBetter.com, you can have folks you've never met rate your mate. Why anyone would want to do this is a mystery, but thousands of couples are posting photographs on the site to find out how well-matched a bunch of strangers think they are. If you think you can turn heads, BeautifulPeople.com will be the judge of that. This controversial singles site is said to be for hotties only. In contrast, TheUglyBugBall.co.uk is for the less attractive portion of the population. The site is just over a week old, and already has thousands of potential daters. A recent Canadian-born dating site called LuvHertz.com has added a social media twist to the online dating scene. If you're unsure about the person you're seeing, want to dish the dirt on an ex, or get feedback about a cute single who's caught your eye, this is the place to go. FULL ARTICLE @ TORONTO SUN

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