Month: February 2005

True Legislation; Added Support of California

Posted on February 28, 2005

PRNEWSWIRE — Feb 28 — True today announced that California is the sixth state to commit to its ground-breaking initiative to implement legislation to protect online daters from interacting with sexual predators and convicted criminals. The campaign, which started in Texas last year, has gained support in states across the country, including Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Michigan.

Mark Brooks: If the legislation passes, competitors will have to prominently state that they don't do background checks on their sites.  Very smart PR campaign…seems to be getting more traction than even the CEO, Herb Vest, expected.

TheFaceBook; Business, Casual

Posted on February 26, 2005

Thefacebook_zuckerbergHARVARD CRIMSON — Feb 26 — They wanted to make a website that would connect the Harvard campus with $1k startup money. They didn't anticipate meeting the CEOs of Friendster and Google—or that they would take time off Harvard to share a house in Silicon Valley with the co-founder of Napster, Sean Parker. TheFacebook.com serves 1.5 million. Zuckerberg estimates he’s been to 40 meals with interested VC's and other companies, like Google, to discuss investment. Advertising income exceeds their operating costs; $50k monthly server costs and salaries for eight employees. “We’re in a really interesting place because if you look at the assets we have, we’re fucking rich,” says Zuckerberg. “But if you look at like the cash and the amount of money we have to live with, we’re dirt poor." ConnectU filed suit in September '04 charging that Zuckerberg used their source code, business model, and original ideas to build TheFaceBook. Normally investors shy away from companies facing a federal lawsuit, but Peter Thiel—co-founder of PayPal—was willing to take the risk.

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

Mark Brooks: Peter Thiel, Ram Shriram and Tim Koogle were the power triage (smart money) involved with Friendster as Jonathan moved from homespun startup to VC darling.  (I worked with Friendster when Jonathan was working out of his apartment).  Ram and Tim are also on Plaxo's board.

Relationships Aren’t What They Used to Be

Posted on February 26, 2005

PRWEB — Feb 26 — The way we look at ourselves as part of a relationship has evolved. Until the 1970’s, it was inconceivable that a woman would have a baby without being married, unheard of that she would have one without a partner. Yet in 2003, 43% of single women polled in a Match.com survey say they would consider having a child without a husband or romantic partner.  FULL RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: Less marriages, more singles, higher divorce rates.  Less babies, older first time parents.  First marriages later in life.  The institution of marriage seems more and more disenfranchised.  What’s next?  Are casual, finite relationships the way of the future?  Should we admit there is no ‘one,’ rather, three or four ‘ones’ that we are supposed to be with in our lifetimes?

Friendster; Student Barred From School

Posted on February 26, 2005

INQ7 — Feb 26 — A 15-year-old student was barred from school after she admitted that she, and two classmates, created an account for their "enemy" at "Friendster.com," where they wrote testimonials full of obscenities and vulgarities maligning her reputation.

Mark Brooks: Friendster discourages and removes ‘Fakesters.’  Anonymity anon.  Unlike online dating sites, anonymity is not allowed on Friendster.  A factor that makes the Friendster service seem more ‘safe.’ 

Kurzweils Law and Friendster

Posted on February 24, 2005

ZDNET AUSTRALIA — Feb 24 — Which will have a greater impact on the history of humanity–Friendster or penicillin? Coined by futurist Ray Kurzweil, Kurzweil’s Law, otherwise known as the Law of Accelerating Returns, states that building on past accomplishments, the pace of technological change doubles every decade–leading to a Moore’s Law vision of progress.  Early stages of technology–the wheel, fire, stone tools–took tens of thousands of years to evolve and be widely deployed. A thousand years ago, a paradigm shift such as the printing press took on the order of a century to be widely deployed. Today, major paradigm shifts, such as cell phones and the World Wide Web, were widely adopted in only a few years time.  The social networking site Friendster debuted in 2002. Penicillin was invented in 1928.  FULL ARTICLE @ ZDNET

Mark Brooks: We have yet to see the best of Friendster.

Park Place Singles Offers Columbus Singles a Safer Way to Meet

Posted on February 24, 2005

PRWEB — Feb 24 — If you’re married, you can’t join. They check.  Park Place Singles was formed to accommodate Columbus singles through fun and relaxed events. Many of the members like having the ability to communicate and network with other members through an interactive ‘member’s only’ website. Peace of mind is an added benefit. Through a National Background check, Park Place screens all applicants for marital status and any felony or other reported convictions that may have been of a physically violent or threatening nature.  FULL RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: True popularized background checks for simples and now the idea is morphing over to 'real world' singles clubs. 

Park Place Singles Offers Columbus Singles a Safer Way to Meet

Posted on February 24, 2005

PRWEB — Feb 24 — If you’re married, you can’t join. They check.  Park Place Singles was formed to accommodate Columbus singles through fun and relaxed events. Many of the members like having the ability to communicate and network with other members through an interactive ‘member’s only’ website. Peace of mind is an added benefit. Through a National Background check, Park Place screens all applicants for marital status and any felony or other reported convictions that may have been of a physically violent or threatening nature.  FULL RELEASE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: True popularized background checks for simples and now the idea is morphing over to 'real world' singles clubs. 

UK Mobile Communities Roundtable

Posted on February 24, 2005

NMK — Feb 24 — Match Mobile users are urban, younger, of a lower socio-economic base, and (in the US) more from the immigrant population, with Match Mobile growing at a rate of 15% per month.  The most favoured mobile content applications, according to recent Enpocket research in the UK: Sharing pictures with friends and family7 – 46%, Making / receiving video calls – 36%, Downloading songs -23%, Video clip of sports highlights – 20%, Text flirting / dating – 16%, Watching movie trailers – 12%, Help in managing a diet – 11%, Celeb news / gossip – 9%.  There are 52 million handsets and 60 million people in the UK. China has 350 million handsets and 300 million texts a month are sent in Singapore and the Philippines.  overall, Japan and Korea are 2-3 years ahead of the UK, who are in turn about 1-2 years ahead of the US. 

MSN Viral Campaign Mentions True

Posted on February 24, 2005

MEDIADAILYNEWS — Feb 24 — MSN will supplement its massive TV, radio and Web ad campaign for its new search service with a viral campaign dubbed “MSN Found” built around six fictional bloggers who collect MSN Search results, also links to phenomenon like exploding whales.  42 Entertainment will be creating viral programs to promote the search engine.  msnfound.com collects all the blogs together.  Several of the blogs also mention the dating site True; MSN declined to comment on any relationship with the dating service by publication time. 

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

Mark Brooks: MSN is (currently) partnered with Match.com for MSN Match.  Denise is the blogger in question.  "Age: 31, Occupation: I own my own local dating service, True.  Drooling over: The new True dating questionnaire. Talk about soulful!"

Match Launches Happen Magazine

Posted on February 23, 2005

PRNEWSWIRE — Feb 23 — For the first time 80 million singles have a magazine of their own.  Match.com today announced the online launch of Happen Magazine www.happenmagazine.com focused exclusively on dating and relationships. Happen Magazine will be free until April 2005. After that full access by subscription or as part of a Match.com subscription.

Mark Brooks: Ahem…  Mary Spio is hooked into Hollywood and launched the first quality, glossy singles magazine One2One Living; Started in 2002, now has 178,000 distribution.