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

eDarling Announces UK And Ireland Expansion

VENTURE VILLAGE - July 11 - Shortly after eDarling bought back its shares from eHarmony (May 2013) comes the news that the German company will be expanding to the UK and Ireland. Until now, the dating service had avoided expanding to areas where eHarmony was already active. The new UK and Irish versions of the company will be called “EliteSingles”, similar to Hamburg-based service ElitePartner. Both dating sites connect singles that have certain academic qualifications. eDarling is keen to move forward under the generic Affinitas brand, which explains the new name for the UK and Irish branches. eDarling is planning on funding it via its own operative cash flow.

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

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eDarling Managing Director Steps Down

VENTURE VILLAGE - May 13 - German dating site eDarling, which last week bought back its shares from US partner eHarmony, has lost its Managing Director, Christian Vollmann. Vollmann will, however, remain on as an investor in the company and also likely as an advisor. The investors in eDarling all contributed to buying back the company from eHarmony, including founders David Khailil and Lukas Brosseder along with Rocket Internet and Holtzbrinck Ventures. The exact reasons behind the buy-back remain unclear.

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

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eDarling Buys Itself Back From eHarmony

VENTURE VILLAGE - May 8 - A two-year affair between eDarling and eHarmony is over. eHarmony purchased a 30% stake in eDarling with an option to buy the rest if all went well. Now that offer is off the table and eDarling has bought back its shares from eHarmony. Rumours put the cost of the buyback at $30M with talk it will be followed by an eDarling launch in the UK. The company behind eDarling, Affinitas, reported a €9.2M loss for 2011, an improvement on the €13.6M loss it reported for 2010. In May last year, it said it expected slightly positive EBITDA on a boosted €50M turnover for 2012. It’s unclear who led the break-up – but it seems both firms were more than ready for a refresh in strategy.

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

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Offline Is The New Online For eDarling

VENTURE VILLAGE - Nov 28 - eDarling just opened a physical shopfront. The company went live in 2009 as a clone of eHarmony and now claims 13M users across 16 markets, most recently Chile and Mexico. It expects to break even for the first time this year. The new space in West Berlin will house trained consultants offering two levels of support. Basic customer service will be free. A premium service will pair customers with a personal matchmaker, who will search for possible matches, suggest them to the client and even make first contact. The test run in Berlin will prove whether it’s worth opening similar spaces in other cities or countries.

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

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eDarling To Speak At iDate In Cologne

IDATE - Aug 2 - Christian Vollmann, Managing Director at eDarling will cover the new code of conduct the 4 major players in the German dating industry have initiated. The iDate event will be on September 10-11 in Koln, Germany. eDarling is a matchmaking service for singles who are looking for a long-term relationship.

See full article at iDate Forums

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eDarling Infographic: 50 Million Euro In Revenue In 2012

DEUTSCHESTARTUPS.DE - eDarling's 2011 revenue was 36 Million Euro and is on track to hit 50 Million Euro this year according to eDarling's CEO Christian Vollmann. "eDarling is an important part of our future strategy", said Jeremy Verba, CEO of eHarmony. eHarmony acquired 30% of eDarling at the end of 2009. eDarling claims 12M registered users according to its infographic.

by Alexander Hüsing
See full article at DeutscheStartups.de

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Top 4 German Dating Sites Agreed To Follow A Code To Protect It's Customers

PRESS RELEASE - May 10 - eDarling, FriendScout24, Neu.de and Parship voluntarily committed to comply with rules (SPIN Kodex) that Federal Association of the Digital Economy (BVDW) put together to protect their customers. The "SPIN Kodex" defines clear rules related to cancellations policy, recurring payments and privacy issues. All parties must take all necessary measures to prevent fraudulent or criminal misuse of their platforms by third parties.

See all posts on eDarling             See all posts on Neu.de
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Religious People Better Adjusted Psychologically

STOPTHEACLU - Jan 23 - Psychological research has found that religious people feel great about themselves, with a tendency toward higher social self-esteem and better psychological adjustment than non-believers. But a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that this is only true in countries that put a high value on religion. The researchers got their data from eDarling, a European dating site that is affiliated with eHarmony. Like eHarmony, eDarling uses a long questionnaire to match clients with potential dates. It includes a question about how important your personal religious beliefs are and questions that get at social self-esteem and how psychologically well-adjusted people are.

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

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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

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eHarmony Becomes A Multilingual Network Of Dating Sites

EHARMONY BLOG - Sep 13 - eHarmony finally posts links to its European tie-in eDarling. eDarling is offered in Swedish, Dutch, Polish, German, French, Italian and Spanish. An unofficial report in March 2010 says that eHarmony acquired a 30% share of eDarling.

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

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 This week: news on eHarmony, Match, PlentyofFish, eDarling, RSVP, BeNaughty, SeniorPeopleMeet, GameCrush and Back Row Dating

eHarmony Invested In eDarling.de

ONLINE DATING NEWS - Mar 19 - eHarmony acquired 30% of German dating site eDarling.de. eDarling was founded in the summer of 2009. The valuation of the company is estimated at EUR 15-20 Million. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE DATING NEWS

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