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

PlentyofFish Kills eVow.com

OPW - May 13 - POF has pulled the plug on its property eVow.  The eVow website was developed as a direct competitor to eHarmony in September 2010. But POF is sticking to its knitting and focusing on growing its core offering, their mobile apps and POF.com. According to WayBackMachine, the last recorded date that eVow was live was March 25th. So eHarmony has one less competitor to think about. I hear eHarmony is in growth mode and doing very well now. Chemistry and PerfectMatch are becoming less of a concern for them as well. I still think we're leaving money on the table. Serious singles want more service, are willing to pay for it, but we're just not delivering. I hope to learn more about how Zhenai and Baihe are outperforming the Western markets in this respect, at iDate Beijing. 

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Post by Mark Brooks @ 

PerfectMatch.com Veterans Launch Agrilicious

GEEKWIRE - Aug 11 - After 11 years building innovative platforms matching singles with one another, Duane Dahl and Cindy Henry have co-founded a unique Seattle-based website that is a hub for local food. Its mission is to connect food producers, restaurant owners, entrepreneurs, and anyone associated with the food industry. Launched in April as a social purpose corporation, the site uses a business model that is a mix between AngiesList and Etsy, making money through business subscriptions and advertising in addition to a marketplace with listing referral and transaction fees where users can buy, sell, refer, and trade local food products and related services. In less than four months, the site has listed more than 125K farms, food hubs, farmers markets and food delivery services attracting more than 25K page views/day.

by Taylor Soper
See full article at GeekWire

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Psychologists Highlight Pitfalls Of Online Dating

HEALTH.COM - Feb 7 - "Online dating is great. It allows people access to potential partners they otherwise would not have," says Eli J. Finkel, Ph.D., the lead author of the new review, which was commissioned by the Association for Psychological Science. One of the weaknesses of online dating is an over reliance on "profiles". Although most dating websites feature photos and detailed, searchable profiles covering everything from personality traits to likes and dislikes, this information isn't necessarily useful in identifying a partner, Finkel and his coauthors write. That's partly because daters don't always know what they want in a mate. The abundance of profiles online also may make daters too picky and judgmental. "Online dating creates a shopping mentality, and that is probably not a particularly good way to go about choosing a mate," says Harry Reis, Ph.D. eHarmony and PerfectMatch.com, claim to minimize the guesswork involved in online dating by using mathematical algorithms to match couples according to various traits -- including, in one case, the ratio of index- to ring-finger length. The authors of the review are skeptical of these claims. They weren't able to find a single rigorous study showing the effectiveness of the algorithms, and other research suggests it's extremely difficult to predict the likelihood that a relationship will succeed before two people meet. None of this, however, means that online dating isn't a good way to meet people. Finkel advises online daters to identify promising partners and move the conversation off-line as quickly as possible.

by Amanda Gardner
See full article at CNN

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FriendFinder Acquired PerfectMatch.com

PR NEWSWIRE - July 18 - Adding to FriendFinder Networks' vast portfolio of social networks, PerfectMatch.com is a welcome addition to the platform of FFN's general audience sites. Unique to PerfectMatch.com is the Duet Total Compatibility System, which analyzes the "whole person" to find friends, taking into account each member's personality, values and ideals, life and love-style preferences to identify and find the person right for them. PerfectMatch.com founder Duane Dahl will join FriendFinder Networks as GM of the Company's general audience dating websites group, including Amigos.com, AsiaFriendFinder.com, BigChurch.com and SeniorFriendFinder.com.

See full article at PR Newswire

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Internet Dating Conference, PerfectMatch And Endemol

OPW - May 22 - PerfectMatch has been featured in reality TV shows and mentioned in the movies 'Must Love Dogs', 'Failure to Launch', 'Superman Returns', and 'The Break-Up.' How does PerfectMatch do it? Duane Dahl, the CEO of PerfectMatch is speaking at iDate about Product Placements.

Endemol has created shows such as Dating in The Dark, Big Brother and Extreme Makeover. How can your dating site work with Endemol. You'll get an insight on how you can work with Endemol if you attend Jerry Kowal's session at iDate on Friday 18th June. Jerry is the head of Digital Media at Endemol.

The conference agenda includes speakers from Match.com's, Club Med, Cinemark, Harvard, Gelato, Quantcast and Zoosk to name a few. See the full agenda line-up here.

The Science Of Online Dating

TIMES ONLINE - Apr 11 - Relationship science is an increasingly respectable field of academic study. Dr Gian Gonzaga and his team at the eHarmony Labs promises to match its customers using its patented 29 dimensions of compatibility, including sexual passion, anger management, appearance, intellect, obstreperousness, spirituality and emotional health. Other dating sites also employ complex algorithms based on psychometric testing, such as PerfectMatch, Chemistry, Plentyoffish, True, Parship and Matchaffinity. They all like to dismiss each other’s compatibility models. Plentyoffish, for example, thinks people should be matched on their differences. The exception is OKCupid, which is strongly against psychometric testing because, according to Sam Yagan, one of the Harvard mathematicians who founded it, “eHarmony’s patronising belief is that they know what’s best and you need help. We believe you know what you’re looking for and put the power in the user’s hands”. The industry analyst Mark Brooks sees psychological testing as an important part of their increasing credibility and market growth. “Internet dating services will get amazing,” he says. “The science will develop.” Brooks believes personality profiling is the future of matchmaking, and agrees with the eHarmony line: “People don’t know what they want. They need help.” FULL ARTICLE @ TIMES ONLINE

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Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Oct 23rd, 2009 - 3.5 mins

This is the news for October 18th through October 23rd, 2009. Here are some of the topics we covered for this week:

• People Media ranked on Deloitte’s prestigious Technology Fast 500 list
• Zoosk’s member base surpasses 40 million users
• Newly-launched eLove.com fuses online dating and traditional matchmaking
• AARP partners with Perfectmach relationship expert Dr. Pepper Schwartz
• Australia’s Cupid Media rejecting 3,000 profiles a day due to fraud suspicions

Dr. Pepper Schwartz Joins AARP

PR NEWSWIRE - Oct 20 - AARP, the world's largest organization for people 50+, has announced that one of the industry's leading relationship experts, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, will be the organization's new Love & Relationshipsexpert. In her new role, Dr. Schwartz will guide AARP's members through the emotional, physical and practical sides of love, dating and sexuality as you age.  Schwartz is the author of 16 books and over 50 academic articles. She is presently also the relationship expert for Perfectmatch.com.

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

Mark Brooks: Its about time AARP teamed up with a personality profiling dating site. I wonder when the AARP PerfectMatch cobrand will be launched?

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Neverblue Partners With Perfectmatch

PRESS RELEASE - Sep 22 - Neverblue, a global lead generation network, has signed an agreement with Perfectmatch. The agreement names Neverblue the exclusive agency for Perfectmatch in the UK. 

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

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OMG -- My Mom Is Online Dating

CNN -- Sep 2 -- As the baby boom generation ages and once-married boomers become single again, they increasingly are turning to the Web in search of dates. The number of eHarmony users age 45+ and divorced has more than doubled in the past eight years, says Gian Gonzaga, senior researcher for eHarmony. Registered users ages 45-64 jumped 9% from 2007-2008. For many grown children, having a parent suddenly jump into the dating pool is a shock, especially if the parent begins dating numerous people, and perhaps having sex with new partners. PerfectMatch.com CEO Duane Dahl, age 46, helped his own mother, who is in her late 60s, enroll in his service. "This is a great opportunity for us to help our parents and educate them", says Dahl. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN

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Room For Maturity In Modern Dating Age

WASHINGTON POST -- July 19 -- By 2007, the over-50 set had become the fastest-growing group of subscribers for online dating companies, and double-digit growth has continued since, according to industry watchers. Pepper Schwartz, an adviser to Perfectmatch.com, cheers the trend. If a person in their 60s or 70s lost a spouse 20 years ago, "the chances of pairing again were small, because the avenues to meet new people were limited mostly to churches, senior centers and friends of friends. Today single seniors can go online and be opened up to thousands of options." FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

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Love And Money

SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY -- Apr 20 -- During this time of economic hardship, people are finding that online dating is a relatively inexpensive way to meet people. Where one night out at the bar can cost the better part of £25, membership to a dating site is only about £20 a month. It also allows matches to cover a lot of ground in a short period of time and get things in the open before they meet, instead of waiting until the third or fourth date to find out she never wants kids, or he wants them within a year. PerfectMatch.com has seen a membership increase of 51% compared to the same quarter last year, and Match.com, billed as the world’s largest online agency, has reported its strongest fourth quarter in the last seven years. Plentyoffish.com visits have increased 77% from December 2007 to December 2008, and 32% over the last three months. FULL ARTICLE @ SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY

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Balancing Love & Money

PR NEWSWIRE -- Apr 7 -- Perfectmatch.com has released its Love & Money Assessment. The seven-question assessment is designed to evaluate financial compatibility and determines the ideal economic profile of a future mate by providing an accurate diagnostic about financial habits and values. Perfectmatch integrated the Love & Money Assessment into its Duet Compatibility System.

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

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Divorce Numbers Fall Off, Dating On The Rise

UNION TRIBUNE -- Feb 14 -- Struggling couples are are staying together for love and money while singles are looking for romance and half the rent. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 37% of its members said they see a decrease divorce cases during national economic downturns. At eHarmony, registrations from Sep '08 to Jan '09 have increased 20% from the same period a year ago. Perfectmatch's revenue increased 42% from the previous quarter. FULL ARTICLE @ UNION TRIBUNE

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The Mature Dating Game

HARVARD MAGAZINE -- Feb '09 -- Increasingly, those 45-55 are meeting online through sites like Match, eHarmony and Y! Personals. Those 45+ comprise the fastest growing segment on PerfectMatch.com, and at PlentyofFish.com, where they tend to log on and stay on more often then younger users says CEO Markus Frind. "They are more committed to the dating process." Internet dating creates 'a bit of the kid in the candy store mentality.' But the anonymity can prompt some socially undesirable behavior such as misleading photos, married people posing as singles, and outright scams. Database matching relies on input from candidates who list their preferences. But Dawn Touchings, president of The Right Stuff, an 'introduction network' that caters to ivy leaguers, says "Many of th people who meet on our site tell me the person they are compatible with did not fit any of the categories they set." FULL ARTICLE @ HARVARD MAGAZINE

Mark Brooks: As a student I worked at the Simi Valley Ford dealership selling cars one summer. Seasoned salespeople liked to remind me that 'buyers are liars.' I refuted this but it seems strangely relevant in the dating space. Our buyers are liars, only insofar as they really don't know what they are looking for. Beyond the basic showstopper questions, don't we go a bit far by asking so many questions and offering up so many search filters?

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