LOS ANGELES TIMES - Dec 13 - Neil Clark Warren came out of retirement to take over as CEO. In the last three years, he said, new memberships, retention rates and time spent on the site were all down. eHarmony growth has slowed: Its 2012 revenue is estimated at $275M, up 3.8% from last year. That's down from 2008, when eHarmony saw 16.4% YOY growth. Now, just 15% of eHarmony's staff has been with the company at least five years. Warren wants to make eHarmony a broad "relationship site" that includes services to help users make new friends, find the right job, become better parents, cope with aging and solve interpersonal problems, among others. How eHarmony manages that wealth of member information — users fill out an extensive questionnaire when they join the site, answering questions about their daily habits, likes and dislikes, past experiences and goals — will be the key to whether the new ventures are successful, said Mark Brooks, an online dating industry consultant. "I've seen a few Internet dating companies moving into other areas and failing," Brooks said. "But in the case of eHarmony it makes a lot of sense because they have deeper information on their users than any other company I can think of." Still, Brooks said he doesn't want eHarmony to lose focus on its core business, which "no question should have been a half-a-billion-a-year-revenue company by now."
eHarmony declined to release financial details but said new memberships increased 20% in the last month from the month before. It also said a member's average total amount spent on the site is up 15% year over year.
by Andrea Chang
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