NEWSWEEK — May 31 — The wave of the future, perhaps: free internet dating. In April, Craigslist saw 2.6 million personal ads posted, up from only 970k two years ago. PlentyofFish.com, a free dating site that was launched in 2003, now brings in 200k U.S users a day – and $5 million to $10 million in advertising a year according to Markus Frind, who runs the site by himself. "I think all the paid sites are going to go away, he says" Even Match.com is offering discounts to subscribers: six months free, if you don’t find Prince (or Princess) Charming in the first six months. While the online dating industry has been enormously successful so far.
Month: May 2007
Gay Male Dating Matures
EBAR — May 31 — Increasingly, gay men are seeking out life partners and starting their own families. Call it the gay marriage effect. myPartnerPerfect launches Friday, sort of the gay version to the anti-gay eHarmony site. myPartnerPerfect claims to be the first and only dating service with a compatibility system specifically designed for gay men. Patrick H. Perrine, the founder of MyPartnerPerfect and creator of its "Partner Perfect Compatibility" test, said, "Our goal isn't necessarily to be a dating site. With most users our goal is to help gay men develop relationships," said Perrine, who earned a master's degree in human sexuality at SFSU in 2004. "We are not trying to put Gay.com out of business. There is a need for what Manhunt.net does and what Gay.com does." Perrine, 28, is marketing his site "to sophisticated, cultured, and professional gay men." Its mission is "to assist extraordinary men in finding their true love and life-partnership." The test stems from his undergraduate studies at St. Johns University where he took Darwinian evolutionary theory on mating preferences and applied them to the LGBT community. For the last three years Perrine has offered a national private gay matchmaking service. Now he plans to focus more on his new site. Some portions of the site will be free to use, while others will cost up to $2,000. It will also have a phone call service called MyCall where men can call each other using anonymous phone numbers supplied through the site. FULL ARTICLE @ EBAR
Mark Brooks: I’m handling Patrick’s media relations. Press can contact me directly at 212-444-1636, or at mark@courtlandbrooks.com to interview Patrick.
‘Userplane Money’ Program Pays Publishers
BUSINESS WIRE — May 31 — Userplane, the premier communication platform for online communities, today launched Userplane Money, a new revenue-sharing program for publishers. The Userplane™ platform serves ads in instant messaging, web chat and other widgets that more than 155,000 online communities, including MySpace, deploy. Marcien Jenckes, SVP, AOL, said, "Userplane is leading AOL's charge with feature-rich applications that increase user engagement. Paying publishers to use tools that many would gladly pay for is the icing on the cake." Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane and VP, AOL, said, "Over the last two years, just by offering Userplane tools for free, we've experienced and sustained phenomenal growth of about 5,000 new communities per week," Any Userplane-powered website using its Instant-Install community platform can sign up for Userplane Money merely by agreeing to the terms of service. Once a $25 minimum is met, publishers can request and receive their revenue share via PayPal. Userplane tools enable millions of daily users in more than 30 countries to communicate. AOL acquired Userplane last August.
The full article was originally published at Business Wire, but is no longer available.
Dominic Penaloza, WorldFriends Networks CEO – Video Interview
OPW — May 31, 2007 — I interviewed Dominic at the Asian internet Dating and Social Networking Conference. He runs a white label dating service to help existing sites launch their own dating services. The equivalent of category leaders Vintacom and WhiteLabelDating, but for Asia. – Mark Brooks
What can you do for people who are interested in starting their own Internet dating site?
We help them with the greatest challenge they will ever face, which is (getting to a) critical mass of users. There's nothing worse then an empty bar or an empty dating site. Our partners today instantly have 1.2 million users in their database by joining our network. In addition to that we provide customer service, and the technology as well.
What are your primary target customers? Do you mainly focus on Asia?
Yes we are very focused on Asia, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. We are the only private label operator in Asia operating in the Asian languages and the Asian currencies. We have almost 300 partners now. So.net, which is Sony, japan-guide.com, japanzone.com, shanghaiexpat.com. Look at worldfriendsnetwork.com to see a list of our partners.
MSN China Partners With Marry5.com
PR NEWSWIRE — May 30 — China’s MSN added channel partner, Marry5.com. It recently signed agreements with Eastday.com, Hexun.com, Ctrip.com and Yesky.com also to reinforce the MSN Chinese website's brand positioning of "fashionable life, white-collar portal." Marry5.com (founded October 2005, 300k monthly paying members) paid high "rental fees" to become a content provider for MSN. The high-profile promotion initiative has resulted in speculation that Marry5.com's move is an omen of accelerating its proposed IPO in 2008. According to iResearch, China's online social-networking market reached RMB175 million in 2006, up 169% from a year ago. At the same time, it is expected that the market will reach RMB1.2 billion by 2010, with a compound annual growth rate of 85%. The monthly fee of just RMB50 ($7 US) has attracted a great number of singles. Before its cooperation with MSN, Marry5.com had a monthly income of RMB 2.30 million, which now is estimated at more than RMB 5 million.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: According to Alexa, Love21cn.com is China’s leading internet dating site followed by Marry5.com, ‘serious dating’ site Baihe.com and 96333.com. I did a video interview with the CEO of Baihe.com two weeks ago. I’ll be sending a video interview with the CEO of 96333.com live shortly.
FlirtFrenzy Online Speed Dating
TECH DIGEST — May 31 — FlirtFrenzy.com aims to combine the offline speed dating format with the latest online technology. Log in, choose a 'room' based on real-world locations, and then find a flirting partner. You then have just ten minutes to impress them before both parties decide if they want to swap contact details.
Mark Brooks: Great idea. Now they just need to pour in some people. Looks like they could do with some distribution deals.
Muslim Romeos
ABC NEWS — May 29 — Marriage service, Singlemuslim.com, has been available in the U.K. since 2000 (100k users), Singlemuslim.com launched the U.S. three weeks ago by Adam Younis. "So far we have had a fantastic response with people registering from all over the U.S. It's a bigger success story than our U.K. site." FULL ARTICLE @ ABC NEWS
Mark Brooks: World Singles will be one of their main competitors with ArabLounge.com, IranianPersonals.com, etc. What do you think Said, can they catch you?
Lavalife Online Personals & Social Networking Site for Baby Boomers
PRESS RELEASE — May 30 — LavalifePRIME is exclusively for mature singles 45+ and offers a mix of online dating and social networking. FREE for a limited time while in BETA or testing mode! "There are more than 85 million Baby Boomers in the U.S. and Canada," said Marina Glogovac, Lavalife's CEO. "As we created lavalifePRIME, we did extensive research that confirmed that Boomers are tired of competing on mainstream dating sites where the overall users are much younger and the emphasis is primarily on looks. This group of mature singles is seeking a place not only to connect with other like-minded singles, but also to uncover important life information, explore new interests, exchange ideas and to maximize their busy lifestyles."
A few interesting statistics on single Boomers:
• 30% of Boomers are single
• 70% of Boomers are internet savvy*
• 70% of single Boomers are dating regularly*
• Of those, 45% of men and 48% of women have sexual intercourse more than once per week*
• Only 14% of Boomer women and 22% of Boomer men are looking to get married or live with someone.* (For the younger groups these numbers are a significantly higher, ie. ages 30-39, 60%.) FULL ARTICLE @ PR LEAP
* AARP Study – American Association of Retired People
Mark Brooks: This is an interesting turn. I’ve always associated Lavalife with a sexy young audience and now they are pursuing an older clientele that don’t emphasize looks.
Userplane User – WorldFriends Networks, Dominic Penaloza
OPW — May 29 — WorldFriends Networks is a (happy) Userplane client. Click on the link to see what Dominic Penaloza, CEO and Founder of WorldFriends Networks, has to say about Userplane's instant messaging application. I'm considering doing some reviews of dating services, SNS and tools such as Userplane's IM tools. What would you like me to review first? – Mark Brooks
Relationship/Dating Psychologists
I’m starting a list of notable relationship/online dating psychologists. Who am I missing? mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com
Prof. Hans Eysenck Breathed life into the study of the genetics of personality.
Dr Glenn Wilson The “father of compatibility testing.” Mentored by Prof. Eysenck.
Dr Mark Thompson Social psychologist, statistician. Created Y! Personals test.
Dr Jim Houran Former TRUE Chief Psychologist.
Dr Pepper Schwartz PerfectMatch.com relationship expert. Yale Sociology PhD. University of Washington Professor.
Dr Neil Clark Warren eHarmony founder. Clinical psych PhD from University of Chicago. Masters of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary.
Dr Jeff Gavin Bath University psychology professor. Multiple studies of online personals sites and relationships.