OPW INTERVIEW – February 20, 2013 – AnastasiaDate is a premium international dating portal with four separate sites that serve members from throughout the world. I interviewed Lawrence Cervantes, Anastasia’s Chief Communications Officer, to understand more about Anastasia and what they’re about.
Who are the founders of Anastasia, and what's their story?
Anastasia was founded in 1993 by a Russian woman who immigrated to the U.S. and married an American. They named the company after Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia who was reportedly quite a young lady and a role model for young Russian women. The company actually began as a specialized tour operator once the Wall collapsed. The owners originally took groups of American men to Moscow and St. Petersburg on organized excursions to meet single Russian women. The company soon became a success and expanded operations to include more and more cities throughout Russia and Ukraine. Then in 2003 Anastasia went online and has achieved amazing growth year on year. Since then we’ve gone worldwide with 4 main sites: AnastasiaDate.com, AmoLatina.com, AsianBeauties.com, and AfricaBeauties.com.
What business is AnastasiaDate in?
Anastasia is in the business of international dating. We mix the concepts of international romance and modern love, and I’m happy to say that we have the lion’s share of the market. More and more it’s not just about domestic dating. As the net and travel break down barriers to business and society, more people are aware of the possibilities and ease of finding romance throughout the world. We enable that.
How many members does AnastasiaDate have now?
Our family of sites connects over 4,000,000 members in over 110 countries, and we have regularly organized social activities throughout the year on 3 continents.
Where is AnastasiaDate based?
We have principle offices in New York and Moscow, with regional offices in Odessa, Ukraine, in Chongqing and Foshan, China, in Cebu the Philippines, and in Medellin, Colombia.
Do you have a mobile app?
Any day now…we’ll have more on a mobile application for Apple and Android within a few weeks and we’re very excited about that.
How is AnastasiaDate different from other Internet dating services?
I like to say that we’re the next generation of dating. While the vast majority of dating sites have forever focused on domestic connections primarily with sometimes a smattering of foreign members, we concern ourselves with international relationships almost exclusively. As expanding facets of travel and tech enables the average person to discover and learn more about the world outside their own country, they discover new cultures, people, and realize the possibility for romance on another level. We help them connect. This concept is growing in scope and awareness, and is the reason we exist. It’s night and day a different direction and focus than most dating sites.
How do you make money?
Like everyone we’re always looking for ways to create new revenue streams through technology, new services, improving what we have, better customer service which we’re very proud of by the way. I think like anyone will tell you, bringing home bacon is a cumulative effect, so we need to keep our finger on a lot of pulses. Whereas Chat hasn’t gone as far as we think it can in the U.S., internationally it’s done very well by us.
Who are the users typically?
Our demo is the 30 to 60 age group who are interested in romance and finding a mate from a number of countries. The U.S. contains the usual suspects, followed by UK, Germany, France and Italy. We’re big in Latin America especially Colombia, and China.
What is AnastasiaDate focused on for 2013-2014?
Mobile is a big directional push as it’s growing on all internet user fronts. We’ve recently added considerable muscle to our senior management team, so there should be strong acceleration in growth. We’re looking afresh at acquisitions and ventures, and we’re growing more charity participation. I’m publishing a book, so stay tuned.
