Mark Brooks: Scott Mitchell is blazing a trail acquiring marketing companies for CGI/Think.
Month: January 2006
Friendster Philippines Gives Preview of Pre-paid Online Ads
Mark Brooks: Friendster meets Craiglist…in the Phillipines. Friendster has enormous traction in the Phillipines. Orkut is big in Brazil.
Cupid Deserves More Respect
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE REVIEW — Jan 22 — Engage.com allows members' friends and family to log on and act as matchmakers. Trish McDermott (formerly VP Romance at Match.com) calls it "intervention dating." Cupid.com, founded in 2001, acquired Predating, the nation's largest speed-dating company, in 2004. They triangulate their online dating service with radio promotions in more than 100 local markets and coordinate speed-dating events. "Our view is that dating is very much a local business," says Eric Strauss, CEO. "eHarmony is great for matching somebody up with you, but if you're in Pittsburgh and they're in L.A., what good is that?"
The full article was originally published at Pittsburgh Tribune Review, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Cupid.com/PreDating will attempt the world record for the largest simultaneous speed-dating on Feb 8th
Lawmaker Wants to Make Online Dating Safer
DAILY HERALD — Jan 22 — "It would be a benefit to the industry. You would provide a safer, more secure level of participation and entice more people to join dating services," said state Rep. John Bradley, a Marion Democrat, who's sponsoring the plan. Bradley, who's married, said he simply wants to make online dating safer. The driving force behind background checks is TRUE.com, which checks for criminal and marriage histories and threatens to go after those who lie. TRUE said checks can cost as little as $1.50. ~5% of people looking to join the site are rejected because they either fail criminal background screenings or they fail a marriage check.
Facebook Leads to Student Under-Age Drinking Bust
One of Three Charges Dropped in Serial Rape Case
DAILY HERALD CENTRAL UTAH — Jan 22 — Deputy county prosecutor David Sturgill asked the judge to dismiss one of two 2004 cases against Parkinson in which police say the man met a woman on an LDS-themed dating Web site in September 2004, took her to his home and forcibly sexually abused her. Though investigators and prosecutors said he had again used an Internet dating site to meet the woman, they said his methods had evolved as he had used alias names on more than one dating site and with the accuser. He faces 10 first-degree felony counts of rape, two of forcible sodomy and one count of aggravated kidnapping in the latest case and is being held in the Utah County Jail on $250,000 cash-only bail.
The full article was originally published at Daily Herald Central Utah, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Might background checks have caught this guy?
Verified Person Gets $12M
RED HERRING — Jan 12 — The money came from Sevin Rosen Funds and Rho Capital Partners. Verified Person has now raised a total of $14.5 million since it was founded two and a half years ago. Tal Moise seeded the New York-based company alongside John Scully, former CEO of Apple Computer and Pepsi and founded Verified Person to help restore confidence in Internet transactions. He wanted to develop a way for people to prove they were who they said they were by pointing to a third party. Just as VeriSign authenticates web sites, Mr. Moise thought he might be able to authenticate people. Verified Person found its first customer in the U.S. Department of Transportation. The department needed a way to ensure it wasn’t hiring criminals to handle baggage inside airports. The company sells a service called VP ID, which will ensure that someone you meet on the Internet doesn’t have a history of violence. It checks the data volunteered on a dating site against its own records and gives an age, marital status, and safety synopsis.
Mark Brooks: I list providers of background checks on the OPW side bar. Trufina is also worth a look in.
Thousands Seek Sexual Partners Online
THE ROYAL GAZETTE — Jan 22 — Adultfindfriends.com, an international website which boasts that it is the "world’s largest sex and swingers personals site" has 3,825 listings for Bermuda. Dr. Adhemar explained that there are two types of socio-sexual orientation: People are either ‘unrestricted’ or ‘restricted’. People surfing these sites are more likely to fall into the first group. Characteristics of the unrestricted group include "a willingness to engage in sexual interactions with partners even in the absence of closeness, commitment or emotional bonding," Dr. Adhemar said. A recent article piqued the interest of 208 men and 27 women who have since joined the site.
Mark Brooks: Here’s how the adult/casual dating sites rank against the PG sites, per ranking.websearch.com. Adultfriendfinder 32, Sexsearch 66, Match 120, TRUE 133, eHarmony 333, American Singles 335.
Online Dating: Who’s Behind the Mask?
PR WEB — Jan 20 — Honestyfirst.com has built a system that empowers its users to keep each other honest in their profiles. In addition to this technology they have partnered with a company that verifies age, location and personal histories of its members through ID verification and criminal background checks. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
New Industry Jobs Section on Online Personals Watch
Jan 21 — Links to job postings at Community Connect, Cupid, Friendfinder, Friendster, Hi5, Lavalife, Match, Mate1, MySpace, PerfectMatch, PlanetOut/Gay, Shaadi, Spark Networks, Webdate, are now listed under INDUSTRY JOBS on Online Personals Watch. See lower left. Email mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com to add your company or advise me of a better link. – Mark Brooks