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

RSVP Bought by Oasis Founders, Current Managers

OPW INTERVIEW - Mar 16 - Daniel Haigh (Dir. Product RSVP/Oasis since 2014) and Dave Heysen (CEO of RSVP/Oasis since 2014) created Oasis, which was bought by RSVP in 2014, the original Internet dating service at scale, in Australia. RSVP was bought by Fairfax Media in 2005, which itself was bought by Nine. Now Daniel and Dave are acquiring RSVP and will run it, along with Helium Dating, and launch a new app. I asked Daniel and Dave about their plans. - Mark Brooks

Why did you buy RSVP back?
Fairfax Media was acquired by Nine Entertainment in 2018, and as a result Nine became the major shareholder of RSVP. Since this transaction we recognised that RSVP would be better placed as an independent business and we (Dave & Daniel) are excited to have had the opportunity to complete a company buyback in January 2021. However, our relationship with Nine is still strong and we have an ongoing multimillion dollar media spend agreement in place over the next 3 years. The majority of this advertising will be for ongoing marketing of RSVP in Australia.

What will you do with RSVP next?
Although RSVP has certainly been affected by overseas competition, we are very confident about the future, and have a strong position in the Australia market. Our current focus is improving the services provided by RSVP. We genuinely want to help our customers find a lifelong partner, and will always refine our online dating platform while providing a high level of customer care. We are also completing the development of a brand new native app which we are super excited about.

How about Oasis?
Sadly we decided to close down our Oasis.com / Amorenlinea.com brands in December 2020. We had some serious backlash (to put it mildly) from our members upon announcing this decision as Oasis had a very strong following throughout Australia, UK and South/Central America. The service was no longer viable. Oasis was a free site and advertising revenue has been steadily declining year after year, while the technology platform was becoming more expensive to maintain.

You launched a new app recently. Can you tell us more about it?
We soft launched a new online dating app called Helium at the end of 2020. Although we are still rapidly developing the app we are excited about initial numbers with almost 200,000 users having signed up to the service. Features include direct contact (none of this swiping or liking stuff), fully featured (and encrypted) messaging platform, mini-video calling, 'Really Me' verification and so much more! Helium is available worldwide in all English and Spanish Latin American markets. See https://www.heliumdating.com.

See the top news on RSVP
See the top news on Helium

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RSVP Acquired by Oasis Founders

OPW - Mar 12 - Dave Heysen and Daniel Haigh sold their company, Oasis, to RSVP, went on to run RSVP and are now acquiring RSVP, which is the hallmark dating brand in Australia. Dave and Daniel are the majority shareholders now. The company is no longer owned by Nine (who bought Fairfax). Watch OPW.news for more information and an expanded post next week.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments

Creative Review: How Hot Are Ads For Online Dating?

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.

by Lindsay Bennett
See full article at AdNews

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Online Dating May Make Singles Ignore 'Ideal Mate' Wish List Traits

MEDICAL DAILY - Feb 21 - A new study from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has found that most dating app users aren't reaching out to people with desirable traits. The findings were published in journal Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking. Researchers looked at the digital dating preferences and contact behavior from online dating site RSVP. Results of the analysis showed that "stating a preference for what people are looking for appears to have little to no bearing on the characteristics of people they actually contact".

by Kelsey Drain
See full article at Medical Daily

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

How Dating Sites Use Behavioural Techniques

SMART COMPANY - Feb 6 - How do eHarmony and Aussie RSVP get customers to pay? RSVP offers low barriers to entry to acquire users. People can search, view profiles and express interest for free. eHarmony provides a much more limited experience for non-paying customers. Once people have joined, the sites work hard to convert users to paying customers. They use tension to drive conversion by withholding something of value. eHarmony withholds access to photos and RSVP withholds the ability to correspond. The key is to hold something back that customers value so you can entice them to upgrade. Both eHarmony and RSVP have been careful about how they present pricing options to their customers. Rather than spelling out the total price, customers are presented with the cost per month (eHarmony) and cost per bundle of "stamps" (RSVP). Use sequencing and cost per unit to advantage where possible. Use design to attract attention. RSVP uses a more vividly coloured and boxed design to drag customer attention toward the Premium membership option. Also, a great way to overcome customer anxiety about a purchase is to offer a guarantee.

by Bri Williams
See full article at Smart Company

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

Interview With Lija Wilson, Co-Founder Of Troozi

OPW INTERVIEW - June 7 - The Indian dating market is hot. I've known Lija and Nikhil since their days at RSVP. Now they've set their sights on the Indian dating app market. Here's my interview with Lija, the co-founder of Troozi. - Mark Brooks

What's Troozi's founding story?
Me and my co-founder Nikhil Jain met when we were working at RSVP. We formulated a rapid growth plan and tried to destigmatise online dating in Australia. RSVP moved from a #3 position in market to becoming the clear market leader in Australia over a 3 year period. We spent ~7 years working on RSVP before independently leaving to pursue other startup interests. Jain turned his focus to India. India posed an incredibly exciting opportunity for launching a new product focused on urban singles and younger women keen to expand their social circles.

Why did you feel there was an opening in the market?
India's middle class was exploding and more and more young singles were turning to online in the search for connections, friends, fun and love interest in urban centres. Australia in comparison was a very small market and had reached a state of maturity.

Mobile is the most exciting opportunity for the future of Troozi. India has just overtaken the US in smart phone users, now ranking as the 2nd largest market in the world.

Troozi has focused on building its social presence which has been very successful in appealing to the female user base. Troozi now has members all over the country and Indian singles in the US, Australia and the UAE have also jumped on board.

How many active members do you have at this stage? 
We don't disclose our active member figures publicly but our engagement numbers continue to perform well and our churn rate is very small, members are checking their accounts frequently.

Are you focused on women more than men? 
Yes, in our marketing efforts and product planning.

How fast is the Indian dating market growing?
India is still showing strong and rapid growth in online dating, forecasts have the addressable market at ~115 M people and conservative estimates suggest this will surpass 200M by the end of 2017.

Obviously, the growth is being largely driven by mobile usage. In 2015, 100M smart phones were shipped to India, up 23% YOY.

How are the use patterns changing?
Users are becoming more and more comfortable with dating profiles and putting themselves out.

What kind of funding are you looking for at this stage?
We will most likely start to roadshow Troozi for our next raise mid year and our next stage of growth. Our plans for how much investment we will go out and seek to secure will directly to relate to our plans to hit some key milestones this quarter.

What are your plans for 2016-2017 for Troozi?
Our plans for mobile iteration continue to be the priority.

See all posts on Troozi

Post by Mark Brooks @ Courtland Brooks.

Dating Sites Investing In Behaviour-based Matching

SMH.COM.AU - Feb 14 - OkCupid's pitch says: "We use math to get you dates." Co-founder Christian Rudder is crunching data from millions of users to come up with insights such as women are most attracted to men their own age, and men are most attracted to women aged 20-22. "What people say they want, and what they really want, are very different in practice," says Kari Taylor, from RSVP. RSVP switched from profile-based matching to behaviour-based matching a few years back and saw an 80% surge in users saying yes to conversation requests. eHarmony's predictive model for attraction has improved up to 400% in the past couple of years. An algorithm for attraction is possible given how much data is available. But the real question is whether that's the direction the industry is heading. The biggest thing in the online dating is Tinder, an app that doesn't use any info except a photo.

by Inga Ting
See full article at SMH.com.au

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2-In-5 Single Australians Have ‘Friends With Benefits’

HERALD SUN - Jan 17 - The survey by dating site RSVP found women were 3% more likely than men to take up a “special friend”. 50% of those aged 18 to 29 had a mutually beneficial relationship with a friend. People aged 30 to 39 were most likely to have a friendship with benefits (58%). 1 in 5 singles older than 60 had a sexual relationship with a friend. More than 1/3 of people aged 40 to 59 admitted to such a relationship.

by Chanel Kinniburgh
See full article at Herald Sun

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Interview With RSVP & Oasis Active's CEO Dave Heysen

OPW - Jan 18 - Oasis Active is a big free Internet dating site that is very popular in Australia and South America. Dave Heysen and Daniel Haigh are the co-founders and will be attending iDate this week.

Why did Oasis Active merge with RSVP in June 2014?
We felt that together we would be a stronger market force and cover more of the market, particularly the Australian market. 

What was the nature of the deal?
The deal was a Merger, with the aim to look for synergies between the two companies. Both companies need to be more dynamic to deal with the pace at which the market is currently changing. Together the two brands control a strong % of the Australian dating market and we will work to try and strengthen that position even further. The Oasis.com/Amorenlinea.com platform will also now have the resources to push further into markets outside of Australia and promote our new App coming out early in 2015.

What's your new role?
Daniel Haigh (the other co-Founder of Oasis Active) is now the Director of Product and Technology and myself CEO of RSVP & Oasis. We are both Executive Directors of the combined entity.

How's the team transitioning to work with RSVP?
Great – within the next few months we will all be under the same roof. The teams from both sides are excited at the prospect of working across all the brands RSVP, Oasis and Amorenlinea.com, to name a few. Combined we have circa 30 full Time employees as well as customer service representatives. Our customer service is a combination of in-house/outsourced. We currently have a couple of relationships outside of Australia that primarily help us with the languages we support apart from English, such as Spanish, Portuguese etc.  

How will the products work in unison? Has their positions changed?
The brands will still remain separate. We have been pushing some traffic between the sites trying to offer daters more opportunity as there is under 10% crossover of membership in Australia. At this stage their positioning will remain the same but we will be working to make sure we give each brand the best chance in the market. If that means altering the market positioning, that is something we will have to do.

Oasis is quite international. Will you continue to push internationally? What countries are you strongest in?
We continue to grow our Spanish speaking base throughout Central and South America and Spain. We will be pushing harder in these markets once our new Spanish android app is released in February 2015.

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Online Dating Second Most Successful Meeting Method

THE MORNING BULLETIN - July 21 - According to RSVP's 5th annual report - Date of the Nation, has revealed that 17% of Australians who have used online dating have got married or entered a relationship as a result. When it comes to meeting new partners, online dating is now #2 most popular method behind introductions via friends or family. (Online Dating was #5 in 2012).

See full article at The Morning Bulletin

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RSVP To Merge With Oasis Active

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - June 24 - RSVP, the online dating site owned by Fairfax Media, is poised to sign a merger agreement with rival Oasis Active, which is backed by Ten Network Holdings. RSVP is wholly owned by Fairfax, while Ten controls ~40% of Oasis, sharing the registry with other investors including co-founders David Heysen and Daniel Haigh, as well as former Star City, Engin and Solution 6 boss Neil Gamble. The merged entity would be worth ~$90M, with Fairfax to retain ~50% holding. Ten will control ~20% with Mr Heysen and Mr Haigh also retaining stakes.

by Sarah Thompson, Jake Mitchell & Gretchen Friemann
See full article at Sydney Morning Herald

Oasis Active Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Dave Heysen, said: “Oasis has always admired the RSVP brand in Australia and look forward to working with a business that has been one of the major players in the Australian market for more than 15 years. Together we can ensure that we continue to develop our products to cater for a wider range of the Australian singles market as well as collectively develop ways to best leverage rapidly changing technology.”

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RSVP Strikes Deal With Oasis Active

THE AUSTRALIAN - Mar 24 - Fairfax Media dating site RSVP has struck an alliance with the Ten Network-backed dating site Oasis Active. Fairfax will pay Ten $5M for 25% of the free-to-air broadcaster’s shareholding, which stands at 40%. The remainder is owned by private investors. The agreement values Oasis at ~$40m. The dating sites have come under pressure from a new wave of free mobile apps led by Tinder, which has already been adopted by 5% of the Australian population.

by Darren Davidson
See full article at The Australian

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Online Dating Is Popular Across All Generations

SMH.COM.AU - Feb 18 - 1.2K people sign up for RSVP each day. Success stories are attracting new groups to online dating, both young and old. ''There's recently been a move for more baby boomers to come online as well as more younger singles,'' says RSVP spokeswoman Melanie Dudgeon. The latest 2011 Australian census figures show there are ~7K more single women (age 45-54) than men in Australia.

by Bettina Arndt
See full article at SMH.com.au

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RSVP In Talks With Oasis Active For A Possible Merger

AFR - Feb 4 - Free Aussie dating site, Oasis Active, has approached Fairfax's RSVP dating site about a merger or partnership. Both sites have come under pressure from international rivals like eHarmony and Tinder. An alliance, rather than a merger, was more likely.

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

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eHarmony's Average Online Dater

SYDNEY MORNING HERALD - Sep 11 - According to eHarmony, the average Australian online dater has never been married, is in their early-to-mid thirties and works as a teacher. The second and third most popular professions are nursing and retail for females, truck-driving or in a trade for males. The numbers and professions on RSVP paint a slightly different picture. The most popular profession is healthcare followed by education, science and then trades and services. The most popular age group is 25 to 34-year-olds, followed by 35 to 44.

by Sarah Berry
The full article was originally published at Sydney Morning Herald, but is no longer available.

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