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

Parents Using Dating Sites To Find Matches For Their Children

OPPOSING VIEWS - June 17 - Mothers are now signing up for sites like TheJMom, Duo and Telugu Matrimony that help mothers find their sons and daughters a significant other. TheJMom.com, a Jewish matchmaking site, has ~5K registered members. A six-month subscription package costs $78. A Personal Concierge Service costs $199 and includes one-on-one advice and a profile makeover. Similarly, Duo, a South Korean matchmaking service, helps parents find matches for their children. The site is not free, with annual fees starting at $2K.

by Ashley Davis
See full article at Opposing Views

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Parents Play Matchmakers

NY TIMES - May 9 - “It’s almost like outsourcing your online dating to your mom,” said Kevin Leland, CEO of TheJMom.com, a Jewish matchmaking site. Mothers, fathers and even grandmothers share online profiles of their ready-to-wed children. Duo is a traditional matchmaking service based in South Korea. 80% of the members are mothers inquiring on behalf of their sons. Annual fees can range from $2K - $5K, and include 7-9 introductions and parents monitor the dating progress of their children. Posting and browsing on TheJMom.com is free, and a six-month subscription package, which provides contacts and connections, starts at $78. The $199 premium service, the Personal Profile Concierge, provides mothers with a makeover of their own profile and their child’s online profile and one-on-one attention from someone at the company. Indian families are known to begin the matchmaking process by collecting a prospect’s “bio-data,” which is a résumé of someone’s marital qualifications — from the basics like age, weight and height, to information about a prospect’s job and character. There are a number of matrimonial sites including BharatMatrimony.com, Shaadi.com, and SecondShaadi.com (for second marriages).

by Ji Huyn Lee
See full article at NY Times

See all posts on TheJMom        See all posts on BharatMatrimony
See all posts on Shaadi            See all posts on SecondShaadi

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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Operation Match Version 2012

UNLIMITED MAGAZINE - Mar 6 - In 1965 a group of Harvard students started Operation Match that used questionnaires to identify compatible matches. When the students sold it three years later they had received ~1M responses which resulted in a few marriages. Today North America’s dating sites attracts 22M users a month, says online dating industry analyst Mark Brooks. Online daters have upwards of 1,000 dating sites to choose from, aside from industry giants Match, eHarmony, OKCupid and PlentyofFish. "Starting a dating site is like starting a restaurant," Brooks says. "It’s very attractive but there’s a lot more to it than meets the eye."

Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkrout created HowAboutWe.com in 2009. The site is built around going on "awesome dates," with users able to see a list of date proposals in their immediate area. The company has raised ~$19M. Another site Sparkology is invite-only dating site. Other startups include Soul2Match, which links potential dates based on their photos and facial features, and Luv@FirstTweet, which uses Twitter to match singles. At TheJMom.com, matchmaking is left up to parents.

In a report in the Journal of Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a team looked closely and critically at the online dating industry. The researchers found that while online dating has great potential to improve meeting potential romantic partners, the exclusive matching formulas many online dating sites claim to have are unsubstantiated and likely little more effective than randomly approaching strangers at a bar. Sites and apps can facilitate face-to-face interactions quickly. Mark Brooks agrees. "I don’t think people want to come home and spend hours and hours tappity-tapping on the keyboard. They want to be in front of people," he says. "Computer-mediated communication is not gratifying enough for the human soul." Brooks thinks three trends will define the future of the industry: location-based services, mobile services and behavioral matchmaking. "Dating sites that do well will be serving their users’ interests, which means a little more immediacy, a little more help and going mobile," he says.

That instant face-to-face interaction is what MeetMoi, a location-based mobile dating company led by CEO Alex Harrington, has been facilitating since 2007. Users are matched with one another based on preferences and proximity, through application-based and mobile web-based dating.

by Cailynn Klingbeil
See full article at Unlimited Magazine

See all posts on Match.com      See all posts on HowAboutWe
See all posts on eHarmony       See all posts on Luv@FirstTweet
See all posts on OkCupid          See all posts on Soul2Match
See all posts on POF.com         See all posts on TheJMom
See all posts on MeetMoi          See all posts on Sparkology

Online Dating: Popular And Stigma Is Gone

ABC NEWS - Feb 6 - A review of 400 psychology studies and public interest surveys was commissioned by the Association for Psychological Science and will be published in the February edition of its journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest. "Online dating has entered the mainstream, and it is fast shedding any lingering social stigma," said researchers. When dating online, it's fine to rule out those who have unsuitable habits, such as smoking. In the early 1990s, less than 1% of those seeking relationships met through personal ads. But by 2005, 37% of Internet users said they had dated someone they'd met online. Brad Weisberg, co-founder of TheJMom.com, said his site uses "old-school traditional values" to make matches. It charges between $10 and $18 a month for a subscription. Jewish mothers can post photos of their families and look for commonalities in their children's education, values and personalities.

by Susan Donaldson James
See full article at ABC News

TheJMom: the Virtual Umbilical Cord

THE BRANDEISHOOT - Sep 23 - In Nov '10, siblings Brad and Danielle Weisberg launched a dating site aimed at Jewish mothers: TheJMom.com. This site allows Jewish mothers to create dating profiles for their children, search through dating profiles created by other Jewish mothers. The Weisbergs got the idea for TheJMom after their mother, Barbara, became frustrated with their single statuses.

by Yael Katzwer
See full article at The Brandeishoot

Mark Brooks: I just came across another Jewish dating site today, that is run by the folks who run Date.com and Matchmaker.com. Jewcier.com. They're driving about 40,000 users a month to it right now.

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TheJMom.com Launching in Israel

MARKETWIRE - Aug 12 - TheJMom.com is launching in Israel. In almost a year, TheJMom has connected 1K  parents throughout the U.S. and Canada. How the site works: A parent writes a profile, including a photograph of their child and information about their family as well. Then, if the parent spots a potential set up, they contact the parent of the potential date. Once both parties agree to set up their kids, the profiles are emailed to their children. The kids then take it from there and choose to email their potential match.

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

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Jewish Mother Playing Matchmaker On TheJMom.com

USA TODAY - Mar 14 - On TheJMom.com, it's Jewish mothers — not singles — who are making connections, trying to find potential mates for their kids. Users, who don't have to be moms even though most are, write about their families and can upload pictures of themselves and their single children. They also fill out profile information with their child's name, age, location, education, occupation and religious background, and write about their kid's interests. Since the site was launched in Dec, 60 dates have been established and 500 people have signed on as users.

by Piet Levy
See full article at USA Today

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Two New Websites For Jewish Singles

PJ VOICE - Dec 28 - According to the latest surveys 47% of American Jews who married between 1996 and 2001 did so outside of their faith. While intermarriage affects only 6% of the Orthodox community, it reaches 32% of Conservative, 46% of Reform, and 49% of secular Jewish households. The number of intermarriages continues to grow (in 1970 only 13% of American Jews intermarried), and only 13% of the grandchildren of intermarried couples continue to identify themselves as Jews. Two new Jewish dating sites have launched:
- The JMom, geared toward Jewish parents and their single sons and daughters, the site offers a unique, but old-fashioned, concept: "Let Mom decide."
- My Jewish Matches: 100% free, members are certified to be Jewish, single with no criminal record.

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

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New Jewish Dating Site For Parents

PR NEWSWIRE - Nov 30 - TheJMom.com is a new dating site geared specifically toward Jewish parents and their single sons and daughters. The site offers a unique, but old-fashioned, concept: let mom decide. "More parents are recognizing that making connections online can lead to love off-line," said Danielle Weisberg, co-founder of TheJMom.com. "TheJMom.com puts parents behind the keyboard and lets them do the clicking and the matching." FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE