OPW INTERVIEW - Nov 12 - Peter Christopher is the CEO/co-founder of Christian Filipina, which is a Premium International Dating site. He used to work for Amazon, met his lovely Filipina wife, and was inspired to start ChristianFilipina.com. - Mark Brooks
What was your inspiration for starting Christian Filipina?
Most men go to the Philippines to meet women, and a lot of those guys try to use dating sites. The sites I saw were lacking in community and education. There was no moderation in place to keep the scammers off. We tried it just as an experiment to see if we could bring the site together and provide a resource, education, and community for people. It's been a great success.
When did you start?
In 2008.
What did you do before?
In 1998 I had a cubical right outside Jeff Bezos's office in Seattle at Amazon.com. I have always been completely inspired by him.
How does ChristianFilipina work?
We have an application process. Every application is manually reviewed by our staff. We protect women from guys that are trying to defraud them. We protect guys from women that we believe don’t have sincere intent. Once they’re approved, they join in the forums and are able to send winks and messages just like on most singles types of communities.
And the cost?
$97 for basic entry which gives them one month as well as an initial romance consultation with one of the ladies on our staff. $297 gives them the romance consultation and some other bonuses as well as 12 months membership. The $997 gives you unlimited membership, which means all the privileges such as extra verifications.
How is it different from iDating?
Online dating in the USA almost seems like a different industry. People behind those companies believe they are in the entertainment industry, not the relationship industry. We really see ourselves in the Relationship Industry. Another thing I want to point out is that men on US dating sites generally don't get a lot of responses from women. When they visit an international dating site, they get lots of attention and are really interacting with women.
You're working on a book…
Yeah, it's in the final publication. I'm self publishing it with CreateSpace. It will be out by the end of the year. It's called, "How to Meet, Date, and Marry Your Filipina Wife."
And you have an advocacy site...
We created HonestDatingSites.org to strengthen the awareness of the differentiation between the sites that are trying to help you meet somebody versus sites that are only trying to make money. The site will be launching soon.
What's your plan for the next year with ChristianFilipina?
We’re going to continue expanding the size of our team. Some might think that “Christian and Filipina” is a small niche but we've got more members and more revenue in a week than we ever did in our first year. There’s so much more room to grow.
Could you give us a sense how big Christian Filipina is?
We have over 200K members. About a third of those are men, then a third are women from the Philippines and a third are overseas women.
