PSYCHOLOGY TODAY — June 13 — Online dating has established itself as a legitimate relationship maker. Meeting someone virtually can forgo much of the uncomfortable aspects of dating. A half-million new members register each month with Match.com, and 6 million profiles are viewed every day. Some 7,000 people leave the service each month because they found someone.
The full article was originally published at Psychology Today, but is no longer available.
POTOMAC NEWS — June 13 — Thousands of uncreative personal ads, dozens of first dates, one three-month relationship, but still, Aaron Tax believes in dating online. “Just like the real world, it’s a crapshoot,” said Tax, 29, a lawyer. “You can really find anyone you’re looking for,” said Tim Chanaud, PR manager at FriendFinder. Members on Amigos and FilipinoFriendFinder are very focused on marriage, he said, while SeniorFriendFinder users have different goals in mind. “They’re looking for companionship, friendship,” he said. Maansi Kashyap, spokeswoman for Shaadi (means 'marriage' in Hindi), said marrying within a similar culture is vital in many South Asian countries.
The full article was originally published at Potomac News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Shaadi is the leading matrimonials site. FriendFinder does not appear in the top 15 online dating sites…but if you rolled all of their 20 sites together they would be in the top 3 every month. Really! They fly nicely under the wire because Hitwise, Comscore and Nielsen refuse to list AdultFriendFinder, Passion (same database as Adult FriendFinder but with a PG home page and users have to opt in to see naked profile pictures), Alt and Outpersonals in the online personals category.
PRWEB — June 5 — AOL and meetic, Europe’s leading singles forum, have joined forces to help lonely hearts on their quest for a soul mate. On June 1, 2005, as part of a long-term strategic collaboration, a personals/matchmaking channel will be launched on AOL.
Mark Brooks: Match also claims to be largest Euro dating site. Depends on whose numbers you look at. Nielsen numbers favors Meetic. Comscore numbers favor Match. While I was at FriendFinder I looked at both sets of numbers for FriendFinder. They were waaaaay different. Alarmingly so. At the end of 2003 Comscore was pulling from a 110,000 strong panel whereas Nielsen Netratings was pulling from 55,000. I bet on Comscore at the time. Hitwise pulls from a panel of millions (via ISP’s) but they don’t give extrapolated ‘uniques’ numbers, just rankings.
June 13, 2005 — When Taek Kwon (formerly City Search) takes the reins today as CEO of Friendster, he'll have his work cut out for him. The social networking Web site was a media industry darling, while being named one of Time magazine's 50 Coolest Web sites in 2004. "Friendster used to be the only game in town, and a lot of people copied off of that success," Kwon said. "The landscape now is that there are a lot more options, which has really changed the competitive landscape." Friendster now boasts 16 million users. "There was a lot of investment into this segment that was eerily similar to the late '90s boom. They figured, 'We'll get a big audience and then figure out how to make money later,'" said David Card, media analyst with Jupiter Research. "But they might be realizing that just signing up users is useless." Says Kwon, "when Friendster launched it wasn't really so much of a service as it was a platform. Now some of the other players have really taken that platform in some different directions, some interesting directions." The evolution into topic-specific destinations left some Friendster subscribers, and possibly Friendster management, wondering: What, exactly, does Friendster do to differentiate itself? The company is non-committal on the exact direction that will lead Friendster to big profits, or the exact group to target. Kwon listed music, education and business networking as proven themes for drawing in an audience, and noted that in the future music and video services might be a way to offer users more options. "We haven't formally made a bet on any of these strategies, but we know that's a decision that needs to be made in short order," Kwon said. FULL ARTICLE @ ABCNEWS
Mark Brooks: Some critical decisions ahead. I'd like to see an introduction of evite-esque functionality to Friendster. That's the direction I was working in with Jonathan in 2003.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — June 12 — The Money Talks PR stunt of the week goes to…the Society of Single Professionals for a speech by dating expert Rich Gosse, the Marin PR guy who you may remember ran for governor on the singles platform. Gosse is headlining the "Singles Extravaganza" at the Marriott Hotel and says, despite San Francisco's reputation as a gay mecca, Baghdad by the Bay is a "straight singles' paradise." In his winning press release, Gosse says it is not true that all San Francisco men are married, gay or dead. "Even after you subtract the 24% of single men in San Francisco who are gay, there are still more heterosexual bachelors to meet, per capita, than in most large cities in America. If San Francisco women think it's tough to meet a man, they should try New York City, where there is a surplus of over 700,000 single women over single men!" FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE
Mark Brooks: Rich has been running singles events for years. He started American Singles and sold it to Matchnet (now Spark). He still runs the 'Society of American Singles,' as a non-profit, and runs events and flirting conventions in the Bay Area and as far afield as Australia.
INDEPENDENT ONLINE — June 10 — Travel Buzz specialises in activity-based group travel where single people get to meet other singles. It was developed in partnership with DatingBuzz, South Africa's largest online dating service, and caters for the growing number of solo travellers in South Africa. Tours are based on 16 people travelling together.
The full article was originally published at Independent Online, but is no longer available.
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD — June 10 — Australia is singles heaven with 4.7 million singles according to the 2001 census. Marriage rates are at their lowest in 100 years and Aussies are marrying later, divorcing more and have less time on our hands. Nearly 1.5 million Australians (14% of people online) visited dating sites in April, a rise of 102% in two years according to Nielsen Net Ratings. Jupiter Research estimates that U.S. singles will spend $US516 million on online dating this year. RSVP, the largest Australian website, with 580,000 members, boasts that in five years it has "facilitated" nearly 900 weddings and about 8000 dates a week. New members can put up their profile for free but must pay $6 for a "stamp" to initiate contact by email with another member. Fast Impressions, is positioned as a great night out for busy professionals. FULL ARTICLE @ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
PRWEB — June 8 — Online Personals Watch today announced a working relationship with Ticonderoga Ventures/Internet Dating Conference. Editor/blogger, Mark Brooks will act as media relations manager for Ticonderoga’s Internet Dating Conferences and write the twice monthly "iDate/OPW Insider" which currently reaches over 3,200 online personals industry executives and associates. Additionally, Mr. Brooks will present an overview of top wireless and mobile enabled online dating companies, along with a white paper, at the next Internet Dating Conference, July 21-22, at the Hilton San Francisco. Press who are interested in attending this event should contact Mark Brooks directly at 408-828-6886. Future Internet Dating Conferences are scheduled in Prague, Miami and Beijing.
REUTERS — June 8 — IAC/Interactive Corp (owns Match.com) has agreed to sell its 5.4% stake in Vivendi Universal Entertainment to NBC Universal for $3.4 billion. They have been haggling in courtrooms and boardrooms for five years. IAC said it would result in an after-tax gain of $330 million.
Mark Brooks: Where will the peripatetic Diller turn his attention now he is freed of this dispute. In their Q1 report…’personals revenue grew by 11% to $54.2 million, driven primarily by a 6% increase in paid subscribers and higher average revenue per subscriber.’ Things are looking up for the online personals industry. Spark just acquired Minglematch and announced similarly rosy Q1 numbers.
OPW — June 8 — The new Hitwise rankings are out. Webdate has moved up yet another spot and is now in the top 5. Perfect Match and Black Planet have moved up one spot each, displacing True.com. Hotornot and Mate1 have pushed up one spot displacing MSN Match and Cupid, respectively. – Mark Brooks