WIRTSCHAFTS WOCHE - The MGG Investment Group has acquired Spark Networks, a German online dating provider, for just over 164K euros, becoming its sole shareholder. This acquisition, sanctioned by the Charlottenburg District Court in Berlin, led to a total loss for the current investors of Spark Networks. Spark Networks, offering niche online dating services such as Edarling, Elitesingles, and JDate, has faced financial difficulties in recent years, with losses exceeding $150M since 2020, partly due to cyber-attacks and fraudulent profile registrations. The company's stock, once priced at 14.80EUR on NASDAQ, was delisted at 13c in September 2023 due to impending insolvency. Facing impending insolvency, a legal submission to the Charlottenburg District Court proposed using the StaRUG law for corporate stabilization and restructuring. This law, introduced in 2021, allows companies to avert bankruptcy through restructuring, even if it adversely affects some creditors or shareholders.
PRESS RELEASE - Mar 4 - A study from EliteSingles has revealed that pandemic dating has given rise to a new relationship milestone: finding a 'bubble bae' to quarantine with. 70% of people say they consider bubble sharing a major sign of commitment, with 69% saying you must be dating exclusively before bubbling up. EliteSingles is designed for successful single professionals seeking a committed, long-term relationship. EliteSingles is part of Spark Networks.
PRESS RELEASE - Aug 27 - Spark Networks, the parent of Zoosk, EliteSingles, Jdate, Christian Mingle, eDarling, JSwipe, and SilverSingles, reported H1 2020 revenue of €103.4, an increase of €54.2M from €49.2M in the H1 of 2019. The increase is primarily attributable to the integration of Zoosk following the Spark Networks / Zoosk Merger in July 2019. Net Loss was €0.4M, an improvement of €4.5M compared to Net Loss of €4.9M in the H1 of 2019. Average paying subscribers increased to 915K in the H1 of 2020, compared to 445K in the same period of 2019.
PRESS RELEASE - Feb 11 - According to a new EliteSingles' study, users whose profiles mention veganism or vegetarianism receive 73% more messages than the average user. The study also revealed that, while the term vegan gives a significant message boost (50% above the average), it's vegetarian that is the big winner, boosting message rates to 108% above average. Veggie sits in the middle, coming with an 62% boost in messages received. EliteSingles is designed for successful single professionals seeking a long-term relationship. EliteSingles is part of Spark Networks SE.
NEWSWEEK - Oct 14 - Dating site Christian Cafe has the best customer service, according to Newsweek rankings, followed by Elite Singles and Bumble. For the second year in a row, Newsweek worked with Statista, the respected global research firm, to collect and analyze data across 160 retail categories.
BUSINESSWIRE - Aug 8 - Premium dating site EliteSingles asked 300K Americans who should pay on a first day. 63% of men think the man should pay on a first date. Less than half of women (46%) agree. 1-in-5 women (18%) prefer to go Dutch on dates; only 7% of men feel the same.
NEWSWEEK - Nov 22 - EliteSingles, ChristianCafe and Tinder have recently received the "America's Best Customer Service" award in the online dating category. The Best Customer Service 2019 ranking has been identified in an independent survey from a vast sample of ~20K U.S. customers who have either made a purchase, used a service or gathered information about a product or service in the last three years. Newsweek worked with Statista, the respected global research firm, to collect and analyze data across 141 retail categories.
PR NEWSWIRE - Aug 30 - For the six months ended June 30, 2018, total revenue was €53M, an increase of ~26% YOY. The growth was attributable to the 34% increase in the number of average paying subscribers. Spark contributed 91.3% of the YOY revenue increase through the addition of Jdate, JSwipe and Christian Mingle following the close of the Affinitas / Spark Merger in Nov 2017. "Our growth strategy remains focused on EliteSingles, Jdate, JSwipe and Christian Mingle, and the recently launched SilverSingles brand," said Jeronimo Folgueira, CEO of Spark Networks SE. Net Loss was €(1.1)M, a €557K reduction compared to the H1 2017.
SEEKING ALPHA - Apr 25 - Spark Networks full year revenue increased 16.5% to €85.6M due to the 20% growth in paying subscribers as well as marketing efforts in North America and the Affinitas-Spark merger in Nov 2017. For the full year 2017 adjusted EBITDA was €6.6M, a YOY increase from €5.9M. It includes €509K of post merger adjusted EBITDA from Spark. The company ended the year with ~465K paying subscribers. (158K in North America and 307K international). Here a few key points from Spark Networks earning call:
Spark Networks is expecting future M&A to accelerate growth
EliteSingles is the largest and fastest growing brand (20% growth in 2017); ~60% of Spark Networks revenue comes from EliteSingles.
Elite Singles is expanding in North America
Jdate and Christian Mingle stable and expected to grow in 2018, marketing focus in North America for now, although new languages were introduced in April
The company launched a new matchmaking site SilverSingles in Dec 2017 in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Australia. The site targets serious daters who are 50+. 15% of Spark registrations coming already from this brand.
AD NEWS - Nov 3 - Creatives from Marcel, Loud and VCCP weighed in on ads from Tinder, Elite Singles, eHarmony, Bumble and RSVP.
eHarmony Seems like a safe bet for those who take dating and relationships seriously. eHarmony understands that there's a moment when something just clicks but could have gone down a much richer creative path.
Tinder It's great that Tinder are self-aware and don't take themselves too seriously. As for the idea, it's ok but we've seen this sort of set up before.
Tinder, Apple TV The writing's great. Characters are funny. Very watchable. Feels like a sitcom. And strategically it works hard. This definitely gets a swipe to the right.
RSVP Hats off to The Core Agency and RSVP team for sticking with a great line, 'Find a keeper', and building on a really strong platform.
Elite Singles For all its obvious flaws, this ad makes up for it in spades when it comes to appealing to a particular audience. It knows who it wants to target and is not shy about it. However, there's a big difference in appealing to your audience, and understanding them.
Bumble Bumble is the cool kid. The fact that there is only one ad in the series that features a guy, and that he doesn't utter a word, is a teeny bit unnerving though. It totally appeals to the confident millennial females out there.
NOAH CONFERENCE - Nov 10 - CEOs of Parship, EliteSingles and The Meet Group were interviewed at the "Future of online dating" panel during the NOAH17 conference in London. They spoke about the past, present and future of online dating.
Parship – two brands - Parship & ElitePartner that operate in the matchmaking segment, €120M annual revenue (mobile revenue €35M), ~50% of registrations are via mobile, 100k babies
EliteSingles – renamed to Spark Networks, predicted 2018 revenue $122M, EBITDA $22M, 500K paying members
The Meet Group – 15M monthly active users, 4.5M daily active users (DAU), 190K new members every day, acquired Lovoo and Tagged; focus on live video streaming, 20% of DAU use live streaming every day.
Q: Are people on your platform looking for a relationship? Geoff: Half of Meetme users would say dating, half would say friendship. On Lovoo, ¼ of users say they are looking for entertainment. Tim: Serious relationship, people go through our questionnaire that takes 30-40 minutes. Jeronimo: We have very similar product as Parship, our questionnaire also takes 30-40 minutes.
Q: What's your view on Bumble? Geoff: It is a great success story. Tinder introduced double swipe to unlock the chat, Bumble amped it up with the female initiating the conversation after double swipe. Tim: It helps them a lot to be part of Badoo.
Q: How much do you spend on TV ads? Jeronimo: It is a double-digit million number. 2/3 of our marketing budget goes into offline media, 1/3 goes to online&digital. Geoff: 70% of our revenue comes from advertising today, that was 85% before Lovoo. We believe live streaming is going to change that. People can send gifts to the streamers. The gifts could be purchased with our virtual currency.
Q: Do you see the younger demographic declining on your platforms because they don't watch TV with ads? Tim: No, we have actually seen the biggest influx in the younger demographic (25+) Jeronimo: We are shifting our advertising from TV to online. We are shifting to where our audience is. So I don't think shifting away from TV will impact our business.
Q: How global is your business? Geoff: 80% is international. Jeronimo: Half North America, half the rest of the world, mostly Europe. Tim: We are mostly focused on the German-speaking market and we are very comfortable.
Q: What is going to happen in 5 years? Tim: We will continue with consolidation. Geoff: I think if you stand still, you'll die. The competition is big.
ACCESSWIRE - Nov 2 - Spark Networks announced the successful completion of the previously announced merger of Spark Networks and Affinitas GmbH ("EliteSingles") in a stock-for-stock transaction. Former EliteSingles stockholders now own ~75% of the combined company and former Spark Networks stockholders own ~25%.
ACCESSWIRE - Oct 2 - The special stockholder meeting is scheduled for Nov 2, 2017 at Spark's offices. Spark and EliteSingles have entered into a definitive agreement under which Spark and Elite Singles will combine in a stock-for-stock transaction that is expected to result in EliteSingles stockholders owning ~75% of New Spark and Spark stockholders owning ~25%. The merger is subject to approval by Spark stockholders and is expected to close in the Q4 of 2017.
ACCESSWIRE - Aug 8 - In May, Spark Networks entered into an agreement with Affinitas GmbH ("EliteSingles"), which operates premium online dating platforms EliteSingles, eDarling and Attractive World to merge. The transaction will close in Q4 2017. Q2 revenue was $6.6M, down 27% YOY and 9% down from the previous quarter. The decrease was driven by a decrease in average paying subscribers, reflecting reduced direct marketing investment in the Jewish and Christian Networks. Total direct marketing expenses decreased 53%. Q2 net loss was $2.5M. The company has no outstanding debt.
OPW INTERVIEW - Aug 8 - Affinitas wants to be the world's leading operator of paid (premium) dating services. They're in the process of merging with Spark Networks (JDate). I paid their HQ in Berlin a visit a few weeks back and met Bart, and then we did this interview for you. Attractive World is launching in Australia. Bart is Head of Brand Marketing, so I asked him about market fit for Attractive World.
