HOTorNOT: Mixing Free and Premium Services

STARTUP REVIEW — Nov 12 — HOTorNOT has ~500k active users and makes $5-$10M per year revenue with very little cost since they don't spend any money on marketing. It was probably one of the most viral product launches as it serves basic human psychological needs around social validation, ego, and voyeurism. The HOTorNOT founders were very cognizant that PR would be very important to their ultimate success and made it a top priority to respond to all PR requests. Given how easy the service would be to imitate by competitors, HOTorNOT needed to establish its brand quickly and PR would play a vital role.  There's no lengthy profiles to fill-out or read. Just upload your best picture. There's no up-front subscription fee. It's free to post and browse the site. However, if you'd like to contact a "double-match" then you pay $6, per month. Given that HOTorNOT is so reliant on word of mouth for customer acquisition, they need very happy customers. So, they have not raised the price above the $6 per month subscription fee since the service launched 5 years ago. They send customers a warning e-mail that their subscription will be renewed for another month before the customer's credit card is charged – making it easy for customers to cancel. The double match system ensures that users don't waste time or money contacting someone unless minimal physical attraction has at least been confirmed between the two parties.

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

Mark Brooks: What can traditional dating sites learn from HOTorNOT?