AD AGE - Mar 21 - Match historically spends about half its revenue on advertising to bring new users. They added 5.4M paying members in 2009 and 6.9M in 2010. Usernames are why dating sites can't grow on their own, like social networks. They have to grow by advertising. So where does Match go to buy ads? - Facebook. A social network. The Social Network. Barry Diller says Match just can't get enough of Facebook ads. To Match's credit, it's not like they haven't tried to grow "organically." Notable experiments include a mobile dating service called MatchMobile and a 2007 attempt to integrate with Facebook, called it Little Black Book.
by Julie Ruvolo
See full article at Ad Age
Mark Brooks: Zoosk did pretty well growing by word of mouth, and Facebook, for a while. Check out Badoo for a case study in massive massive growth without advertising. 110 million users and counting.
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Match should just buy Badoo's app for FB.
Posted by: joe | Mar 23, 2011 at 02:33 PM