PR NEWSWIRE — May 1 — Lavalife, originally called Teleclassifieds, was founded in 1987 by five young Toronto-based entrepreneurs who had been experimenting with IVR technology. A brief timeline outlining 20 years of Lavalife:
- 1987 Teleclassifieds began with phone-based classified services that included personals, pets, furniture and apartments
- 1988 Teleclassifieds becomes Telepersonals, with only a phone-based personals service that allows singles to meet and talk via phone
- 1994 Traditional dial-up systems (CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access. The World Wide Web begins to enter private homes.
- 1997 Webpersonals launches, allowing singles to come together online in new ways.
- 1999 Telepersonals expands during the 1990s from its home in Toronto to over 40 cities in North America and Australia.
- 2001 The Lavalife brand launches across Canada, the United States and Australia.
- 2004 Lavalife Mobile debuts, allowing singles to expand their interaction to mobile devices.
- 2006 Lavalife Magazine launches, offering a new style of magazine on the internet with special content just for singles.
The full article was originally published at Free Press Release, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Webpersonals.com was started in 1994 by Dr Andrew Conru who sold it and then went on to start FriendFinder. Lavalife is strong in Canada, but it's top spot as the country's leading dating site has been supplanted by free dating site PlentyofFish.com