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

JDate Launches "Get Chosen" Campaign To Mark Its Rebrand

MARKETWIRED - Feb 15 - JDate.com is launching a new marketing campaign that further emphasizes the "J" in JDate. The rebranding initiative, titled "Get Chosen," represents the first major rebrand for JDate since its launch in 1997. The multi-platform campaign will roll out across various channels, including print, digital and social. In addition to adding the tagline "Get Chosen" to the logo, JDate revealed a new homepage design to reinforce the brand's position as the go-to community for Jewish singles.

The full article was originally published at Spark Networks website, but is no longer available.

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CEO Of JDate: Mobile Log-ins Up 114%

FORWARD - Feb 10 - Greg Liberman has been president and CEO of Spark Networks since 2004.

Q: Why do you think JDate has been so successful?
A: JDate was built out of a need. One of our founders wanted to expand his social circle of single Jewish women; that’s how it started.

Q: What  trends have you observed over 10 years with the site?
A: Mobile. We saw a 114% increase in log-ins via mobile in 2013.

Q: What about non-Jews on JDate? Do you have any theory about why they’re there?
A: JDate’s extremely successful, so that may drive them there. It’s an extremely small proportion of the site. The default search on JDate is Jewish only. We don’t discriminate on the basis of religion, and so people can come in, and there are. Some people want to be part of the Jewish community and says they’re willing to convert.

by Doni Bloomfield
See full article at Forward

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Seniors Seeking Companions Online

THE INQUIRER - Jan 22 - Between 2010 and 2013, ChristianMingle saw a 500% increase in registrations from 55+ singles, while JDate.com saw ~70% rise in mature adults registering during the same period. 1 in 4 people over 50 is divorced, compared with 1 in 10 in 1990.

by Terri Akman
The full article was originally published at Philly.com, but is no longer available.

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SparkNetworks' Study: Cheating Is Not A Deal Breaker

MARKETWIRED - Jan 21 - jDate and ChristianMingle.com have released their second annual State Of Dating In America Report. The definition of cheating is not black and white, the study found. In 2014, the number of women who believe a flirtatious message is cheating dropped to 68%, while men observed a slight decrease to 51%. A quarter of singles would marry someone who was unfaithful to them while dating. The stigma of online dating is a thing of the past. 85% of singles say online dating is socially acceptable. 94% believe online dating expands their dating pool.

The full article was originally published at Spark Networks website, but is no longer available.

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SMS Have Blown Up The Dating Culture

USA TODAY - July 18 - Casual, easy and non-threatening — the simple beauty of SMS. For dating, it has given rise to new ways of flirting and even defining exactly what's going on between two people. Hearing someone's voice on the phone is still a key element for a relationship, yet people are increasingly more likely to rely on the relative "safety" of a text for initial contacts. An Independent research firm conducted a survey in May for ChristianMingle.com and JDate.com. One third of singles agree it's less intimidating to ask for a date via SMS, the survey found. One in four say an hour is the longest acceptable response time to a text. According to Nielsen, 764 SMS per person were sent/received each month in the USA in 2012, compared with 165 mobile calls per month.

by Sharon Jayson
See full article at USA Today

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ChristianMingle And JDate Debut New Mobile Apps

MARKETWIRED - June 9 - ChristianMingle.com and JDate.com have released two new mobile apps: ChristianMingle's Quick View app and JDate's JPix app. Both apps are available for Android and Apple devices. "Mobile logins ChristianMingle and JDate grew by ~60% in Q1", said Greg Liberman, CEO of Spark Networks, the company that owns and operates both ChristianMingle and JDate.

The full article was originally published at Spark Networks website, but is no longer available.

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The 20 Most Useful Dating Websites

TELEGRAPH.CO.UK - May 10 - Online dating is now one of the most popular ways to meet a new partner and there are ~1400 sites in the UK alone. 

• Match.com
• MySingleFriend 

• eHarmony
• Friend Finder
• JDate 

• Gay.com 

• Christian Connection - the largest, and longest established subscriber based UK Christian dating site.
• Muddy Matches - For Single Farmers, Rural Singles, Equestrian Singles and Country Friends could be the place for you.
• Zoosk
• Telegraph Dating
• Lovestruck.com - for dates in your lunch hour. 
• Parship 

• Shaadi.com
• Saga Connections - for people over 50.
• Dating Vegetarian
• Dating Direct
• Flirtbox
• Love Arts - for singles who love arts
• Dating For Parents
• Green Singles

See full article at Telegraph.co.uk

Stock Market: Spark Networks Could Be The Next Netflix

BENZIGA - May 10 - 9 months ago Netflix traded for $55 a share. Over the last 7 months, Netflix quadrupled in value and is now trading at ~$217 a share. Who will be the next Netflix? It could be Spark Networks, which owns and operates JDate and Christian Mingle. It only has $170M market cap. JDate been around for over a decade and has had a 90% or higher contribution margin for the last 11 years running, but it hasn't grown. It is the very definition of a beautiful cash cow. Christian Mingle is aimed at the market of Christians in the United States, which is 30 times larger than the Jewish market. It is now substantially larger than JDate. It is not yet profitable because they take all of their cash flow and plow that back into growth. Last quarter, revenues grew 45% YOY. IAC is the most logical buyer for Spark, and it would be a tiny bite-sized acquisition.

by Louis Bedigian
See full article at Benzinga

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More Religious Singles Are Searching For Love Online

PBS - Apr 11 - While a research shows that marriage among partners of the same religion is on the decline, faith-based dating sites like ChristianMingle and JDate have increased in popularity since 2008. JDate was founded in 1997 and was immediately a hit in the Jewish community. The site has 750K members worldwide and claims to be responsible for more Jewish marriages than all other websites combined. ChristianMingle has 9M members.

by Cindy Huang
The full article was originally published at PBS, but is no longer available.

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ChristianMingle Saw 89% YOY Increase In Paid Members

BUSINESSWEEK - Feb 28 - The $30M advertising and marketing push had made ChristianMingle an unexpectedly popular dating site with 8M registered users, 154K paying subscribers at $19.99 a month. That’s almost double the 84K paying subscribers of SparkNetwork’s groundbreaking Jewish singles site, JDate. SparkNetworks.com was founded in 1997. JDate grew rapidly by word of mouth. ChristianMingle was launched in 2004 and remained small until 2010, when Spark consulted with local ministers and prominent Christian leaders about how best to serve their constituents. As a result, the company founded an advisory council of church leaders and hired ChristianMingle spokeswoman Ashley Reccord, a pastor’s daughter, to help conduct outreach. Then the company launched Believe.com, which features Christian editorials, and redesigned the site into something more devout-seeming than JDate. Spark reported the number of ChristianMingle paid subscribers grew 89% for the Q4 of 2012 vs. the period a year earlier. There are other suitors in the market for Christian romance; eHarmony and ChristianCafe.com.

by Logan Hill
See full article at BusinessWeek

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Jewish Dating Sites

NEW VOICES - Feb 13 - Everyone knows JDate, but there are plenty more out there that don’t take the typical route to matchmaking.

• Yenta - A mobile app that uses GPS to help users find a “JewBoo” in their vicinity.
• TheJMom.com - Moms post profiles for their single kids.
• TheShidduch.com - A site that is relying on matchmakers. Similar sites include SawYouAtSinai.com and YUConnects.com for Y.U. students. These sites usually don’t let you see other profiles until they’re matchmaker-approved.
• Jewster.com - The site offers community events and organizations to support.
• JewCanoodle.com - Free site that provides AccuPic Trust Ratings, which let people know just how trustworthy someone’s picture is.

See full article at New Voices

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State Of Dating In America

VCSTAR - Feb 9 - The 2013 State of Dating in America report was sponsored by ChristianMingle and JDate. Among the findings: 91% of Jews and 84% of Christians would live together before marrying a partner. ~75% of Christians and Jews were looking for a partner who shared their religious faith. The survey showed 87% of singles think online dating is a good way to meet people. 62 % of those 18 to 24 would be disappointed if they never married compared to 16% of those 55 to 59.

by Kim Lamb Gregory
The full article was originally published at VCStar, but is no longer available.

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ChristianMingle.com Growth

WASHINGTON POST - Jan 10 - ChristianMingle is owned by the same company, Spark Networks, that owns JDate, the wildly successful Jewish dating service. Indeed, JDate has been the engine behind ChristianMingle’s “God” campaign this year. Spark has plowed revenue generated by the older, more established JDate into promoting the Christian site. ChristianMingle is now the biggest of Spark’s 28 dating sites, each for a specific subset of singles. The company says ChristianMingle is the nation’s leading Christian-based dating site, with ~8M registered members. Spark Networks' Christian dating division had revenue of $22.9M during the first nine months of 2012, an increase of 111% over the same period the year before. (Its Jewish division had revenue of $19.4M, down 5%). Spark poured ~$30M into marketing and advertising for the division, more than double the year before. Overall, Spark lost $4.45M over the first three quarters of 2012 after a loss of $503K during the same period of 2011. ChristianCafe, which says it is the only Christian-owned dating site among the major players, has a marketing tie-in with Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian group founded by author and radio preacher James Dobson. Focus on the Family once had ties with eHarmony.com and its founder, Neil Clark Warren, but eHarmony has moved away from a Christian-centric approach in a bid for a broader market.

by Paul Farhi
See full article at Washington Post

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Google's Most Searched Singles Sites Of 2012

HUFFINGTON POST - Dec 14 - Google Zeitgeist -- the search engine's annual online presentation of the year's top "trending" and "most searched" terms -- includes a list of the top 10 most searched dating sites.

1. PlentyofFish
2. Match.com
3. OkCupid
4. eHarmony
5. DateHookup
6. Zoosk
7. ChristianMingle
8. AdultFriendFinder
9. JDate
10. Singlesnet

by Christina Huffington
See full article at Huffington Post

JDate Partneres With 92nd Street Y

MARKET WATCH - Nov 4 - JDate and 92nd Street Y, the nonprofit community and cultural center in New York, announced a strategic partnership aimed at furthering their shared mission of building and strengthening Jewish communities. JDate members will have special access to the organization's most popular events, classes and Jewish Life programming, with offers including VIP access, priority tickets, specialty cocktails and other benefits.

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

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