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

For Many Chinese Men, No Deed Means No Dates

NY TIMES - Apr 14 - Chinese men increasingly find themselves lovelorn and despairing as a growing number of women hold out for a mate with a deed. More than 70% of single women in a recent survey said they would tie the knot only with a prospective husband who owned a home. Among the qualities they seek in a mate, 50% said that financial considerations ranked above all else, with good morals and personality falling beneath the top three requirements. (Not surprisingly, 54% of single men ranked beauty first, according to the report, which surveyed 32,000 people and was jointly issued by the Chinese Research Association of Marriage and Family and the All-China Women’s Federation. Zhang Yanhong, a matchmaking consultant at Baihe, one of the country’s most popular dating sites, said many disheartened men had simply dropped out of the marriage market.

by Andrew Jacobs
See full article at NY Times

See all posts on Baihe

iWould: Facebook Dating App

HUFFINGTON POST - Apr 14 - iWould is a crush wish-list launched last month. The app allows you to go through your friend list and select anywhere from one to ten people you'd be interested in romantically. The application cross-references your list with those of your friends also using the app. If someone you selected put you on their list, you'll both get a notice of the match. The company recently received a valuation of $750K from a private investor.

by Katherine Bindley
See full article at Huffington Post

Online Daters Growing Weary

VANCOUVER SUN - Apr 15 - Online dating is a booming business in Canada, where PlentyofFish gets ~105M hits a month. But according to U.S.-based Socialone.com, growth in the industry is trending downward, dropping 58% this year alone. It could be that it’s too much work. The solution may be to hire some help. Scott Valdez offers that through his international online service, Virtual Dating Assistants. Valdez’s dating assistants, a group of professional writers and coaches, will take care of all that onerous administrative stuff: Creating an online brand, writing the profile, and sending the engaging emails. VDA offers several different packages starting at ~$400 and going up to $1440. Dates guaranteed.

by Denise Ryan
The full article was originally published at Vancouver Sun, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Sure, uniques are down, but revenue isn't.  The nature of the industry is changing, and social networking is drawing users away.  But idating is a more focused and refined premium experience.

See all posts on Plentyoffish
See all posts on Virtual Dating Assistants

Matrimony Day, A La Bharat Matrimony

OPW - Apr 14 - Today, April 14th, is Matrimony Day. Bharat Matrimony has a site live at MatrimonyDay.org to celebrate the occasion (and drive some goodwill and attention).  Last year they engaged noted motivational speaker and spiritual guru T.T Rangarajan to talk on the subject of 'the bliss of love.'  See more videos at BharatMatrimony.tv.  In this cute testimonial video Archenna describes how her husband's parents first called her parents.

See all posts on BharatMatrimony

Dear Match.com, What Have You Done With Headlines?

OPW - Apr 14 - IDEA is building a panel of internet dating power users. Here's feedback from one of our friendly internet dating power users.
___

Hey Mark, Match has been experimenting for awhile on some profiles with a new layout which is worse than the old one but they finally changed over to it. Can you you believe they would go with a layout where the "HEADLINE" is in smaller fonts than everything else on the page? (see enclosed pic)  Do they know what the word "headline" means? A headline is supposed to be A HEADLINE. Look at a newspaper, how many headlines are 10 or more words? The layout was better before. Now it's just more clicks to accomplish the same thing.

See all posts on Match.com

Woman Files Civil Suit Against Match.com Following Sexual Attack

EXAMINER - Apr 14 - Jane Doe was sexually assaulted by another Match.com member, Alan Paul Wurtzel. It turns out that Wurtzel had been convicted for sexual battery on six different occasions. The suit seeks a temporary restraining order requesting no more members be signed up for Match.com until there's a means to weed out sexual predators. According to her attorney, the woman wants Match.com to screen members' names against public sex offender registries.

by Dave Thomas
The full article was originally published at Examiner, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: How ridiculous! Background checks are far from foolproof. Social networks aren't forced to use them, and dating sites should not be forced either. I'm a fan of dating sites using background checks. But I'm not a fan of them being legislated into the industry. TRUE uses them; a basic Rapsheeets/Choicepoint check of felons and sex offendors. I'm not aware of any other sizable sites that use them. Matchmakers often use them as a differentiating feature against their idating brethren.

See all posts on Match.com

Divorces Rise As Taboo Falls In India

BUSINESS WEEK - Apr 14 - Just a decade ago, divorce was a dirty word in socially conservative India. But as the economy has boomed, the rigid boundaries governing traditional Indian life are beginning to fall, especially among the growing urban middle class. Dating among twentysomethings is growing popular, love matches (as opposed to arranged marriages) don't provoke the family scandals they once did and divorce is no longer out of bounds. The country maintains no statistics on divorce. In the 1980s, New Delhi had two courts that dealt with divorce. Today there are 16. A new Indian matchmaking website Secondshaadi.com, or second marriage, now targets divorcees and widowers. "Women, especially now, have little tolerance for bad marriages, for parental interference in their marriage. They have more economic independence," says Iti Kanungo, a court-appointed marriage counselor.

by Muneeza Naqvi
The full article was originally published at BusinessWeek, but is no longer available.

See all posts on SecondShaadi

eDarling Recently Expanded Into Russia And Turkey

EU STARTUPS - Feb 22 - eDarling launched its online dating service in Russia and Turkey in the beginning of 2011. Thus, the company is now operating in eleven European countries. By the end of the year eDarling wants to double its userbase up to 10M members across Europe. The Berlin based Affinitas GmbH started eDarling in 2009.

by Thomas Ohr
See full article at EU Startups

See all posts on eDarling

Zoosk To Spend £2m On Advertising In The UK

MEDIA WEEK - Zoosk has appointed MediaCom to its multimillion-pound account after a three-way competitive pitch against undisclosed agencies. Activity for the brand will be mainly television-based, with Zoosk estimated to spend £2m in the UK. The activity in the UK is the first time the Zoosk brand has been seen outside the US and Canada, where the dating service has based most of its advertising until now.

by Mark Banham
See full article at Media Week

See all posts on Zoosk

Badoo: Global Online Dating Sensation

INDEPENDENT.CO.UK - Apr 12 - Badoo, the social network that replaces the supposed romance of online dating with instant hook-ups based on physical attraction, is now gaining some ground in the UK. Although the service is run from London, its current membership of 113M consists predominantly of users in Brazil, Spain, France and Italy and 300K people join daily. The site was founded in 2006 by now very rich Russian businessman, Andrey Andreev. The killer feature driving Badoo's success is location.

See full article at Independent.co.uk

See all posts on Badoo

How You Meet Your Spouse Matters

EHARMONY BLOG - Feb 10 - Online dating has become the third most-popular way for newlyweds to have met over the past five years. Lately we’ve been asking ourselves a basic question: Does where you meet your spouse make a difference in how happy the marriage is and if the relationship lasts? It turns out that eHarmony couples are more satisfied with their marriages than those who met on Match.com, via friends or family, or at a bar/social event, according to eHarmony study. People who met on eHarmony were 66.6% less likely to get divorced, those who met through school were 41.1% less likely to get divorced, those who met through some other means were 16% more likely to get divorced, and those who met at a bar were 24% more likely to get divorced.

by Dr. Gian Gonzaga
See full article at eHarmony blog

See all posts on eHarmony
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Greg Liberman Named President & CEO Of Spark Networks

MARKETWIRE - Apr 12 - Adam Berger, who joined Spark as a board member in 2006 and then served as its Chairman and CEO since 2007, has resigned his positions but will remain with Spark as a director. Mr. Liberman has served as Spark's President since 2006, its COO since 2005 and joined the company as its General Counsel in 2004.

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

See all posts on Spark Networks

Online Dating Tips From VirtualDatingAssistants.com

BUSINESS INSIDER - Apr 12 - According to market research, 1 out of 6 marriages that are happening in the US right now originated online, and these days ~30% of couples meet on the internet. However the authors of “Freakonomics” discovered that 56% of men that create an online dating profile do not even get one single message while Jupiter Research found that 97% quit within 3 months. Scott Valdez, Founder of Virtual Dating Assistants (ViDA VirtualDatingAssistants.com) advises that informed decisions yield better results.

- It Usually Pays to Pay: ViDA found that each message they sent on a pay site  was two times as likely to result in a date as a free site. 

- Photos - Avoid Flash: According to data analysis by OkCupid, flash adds 7 years to your age. Men, Smiles are Out of Style. Women, Smiles are In Style

- Messages: Focus on the most active users
- Tailor your approach to your audience:  While women of all ages respond well to humor, women in their early 30s and above responded well to longer, more thoughtful emails. Women in their 20s rejected these more serious emails.
- Profile Updates: Increase your visibility by keeping your content fresh

by Katharine Blodget
See full article at Business Insider

See all posts on Virtual Dating Assistants

Cyberstalkers Take To Social Networks Over Dating Sites

HUFFINGTON POST - Apr 11 - According to a new study by the British Electronic Communication Harassment Organization (ECHO), cyberstalking has become more prevalent than real-world stalking. Researchers surveyed 250 participants between the ages of 14 and 74, and considered harassment that occurred via social networks, email and mobile phones. According to the study, most of the victims' ages ranged from 20 years old to 39 years old. Only 4% reported being stalked by a former partner, compared with victims of face-to-face stalking, where around half are former partners. Victims told researchers that stalkers commonly used social networks as channels for harassment and intimidation. 20% of victims said they were tracked through their social networks, compared to 4% who said they were targeted via dating sites.

by Catharine Smith
See full article at Huffington Post

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch

Top Facebook Applications

INSIDE FACEBOOK - Apr 11 - Phrases, as well as Badoo and other dating apps, a few Connect apps, horoscopes, Friend Buzz and a Page tool were on the list of top 20 Facebook applications by monthly active users this week. 

Top Gainers This Week
        Name                           MAU              Gain          Gain,%
1.     Phrases                     20,606,742     +1,704,743     +9%
2.     Badoo                       67,976,269     +1,582,045     +2%
3.     Diamond Dash              2,759,892     +1,187,499     +76%
4.     Book List Challenges      1,545,394     +1,065,757     +222%
5.     Frases Diarias               8,095,449     +979,888       +14%
6.     friend.ly                      2,511,080     +963,091        +62%
7.     FarmVille                    48,229,941     +942,563        +2%
8.     Yahoo!                      13,172,942     +833,616         +7%
9.     Cupid                         5,434,267     +769,007        +16%
10.    Are YOU Interested?   16,595,172     +740,478         +5%

See full article at Inside Facebook

Mark Brooks: The social dating services Badoo and Mamboo were founded by people who worked on Mamba.ru in the past. Russia's top dating site. Badoo has driven unprecedented growth in recent months. Friend.ly is another service to keep your eye on.  (Full Disclosure: My company, Courtland Brooks, advised and was retained by Friend.ly)

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch