INTERFAX — May 23 — Chinese online matchmaking service provider Love21cn.com (5 million registered) will partner with Sina’s friends-making channel to integrate resources and expand businesses. Established in October 2003, Love21cn.com was one of the earliest matchmaking service providers in China and received a RMB 40 million ($5.2 million) investment last month from founders of Nasdaq-listed language school New Oriental Education and Technology Group to support its business expansion. “One of the challenges for running a Web site is to ensure the credibility of the information users provide," said Gong Haiyan, the Founder. "We have been very careful and have put a lot of effort into developing the user identity management system of our Web site. Users can file a complaint if they find someone submitting false information and we will block him or her from using our services." Revenue of China’s online matchmaking market is expected to reach RMB 653 million ($85.4 million) by 2008, with an average annual growth of 106% (iResearch).
Month: May 2007
Saïd Amin, World Singles CEO – OPW Interview
OPW INTERVIEW — May 24, 2007 — This is the fourth in a series of five interviews I recently conducted on the subject of scamming. Saïd Amin runs World Singles, which includes such sites as ArabLounge.com, EligibleGreeks.com, HyeSingles.com, IranianPersonals.com and SoulSingles.com. – Mark Brooks
What kind of scamming do you encounter on World Singles?
Most of the scammers originate from Africa and parts of the Middle East, but they are increasingly working with people in the USA/Canada. I think that scammers are a big problem for the entire industry. They pose as someone they are not, usually as a very attractive male or female and prey on unsuspecting members This is usually done by showing interest in those members via a flirt/email or by waiting for someone to contact them first. The more aggressive scammers will buy memberships and usually proceed to send a bevy of emails.
Scammer networks have since become more sophisticated. Two years ago it was a lot easier to review profiles and detect them. They have become more sophisticated with how they cover up their profiles. For example, we identify blocks of IP addresses originating from certain countries as high risk and take a second hard look at those profiles. Nowadays we are seeing an increasing number of profiles from USA/Canada based members that are also being logged in from IP addresses in other countries. So it’s essentially someone overseas working with someone in the States who, let’s say, has an AOL or Comcast account, and are working in tandem. It makes it more difficult for us to detect them. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are overseas scammer conferences or published books available on the black market that cover scamming 101 tips and strategies.
How serious is this scamming issue?
How serious? Every dating site is plagued by scammer activity; some sites and niches attract more scammers than others. I think one scammer is one too many. Singles are bravely taking ownership for their journey, posting a dating profile and putting themselves out there in the hopes of increasing their chances for finding a romantic partner. Members who join dating sites are trusting us to help them find a partner in a safe environment. Scammers, work to undermine this trust with our brand and the dating industry as a whole.
I agree and that’s my next question actually, what kind of effect do you think it has on the industry for the long term?
It hurts the industry but it is also an opportunity because it increases the value of the companies who diligently invest time and energy to ensure a safe space for singles to meet. I think that a lot of sites in the dating sector are not responsible enough in how they address scammers as far as educating their members and being transparent when scammer emails are sent and read by unsuspecting members.
When catching a scammer we suspend their profile, remove the messages that they sent and replace them with a message explaining that they have received an email from a person/scammer who is posing as someone he/she is not. There’s certainly a PR hit when this occurs; a member may have invested time emailing back and forth and now the site is recommending that they cease all communication with this individual whom we suspect to be scammer. Talk about taking the air out of a balloon of someone who may have been really excited at his or her initial communiqué with a member. Some members appreciate our proactive nature, but generally speaking there’s still a PR hit. Nevertheless, I feel that this is a responsible way to address such cases. I rather be up front with our members rather than brushing it under the rug and let our members continue emailing back forth on or off the site and risk getting scammed out of money, time, and emotions.
What else are you doing right now to combat scammers?
We double check every membership sold and review screened profiles with high risk IP addresses a second time. The same applies to profiles that have been accessed by multiple IP addresses. There are some internal tools that we use to help us and are looking to companies like Iovation for additional measures to assist us in eliminating scammer activity.
What time does scamming take from your day?
It takes up time and resources. From dealing with charge backs, reviewing IP addresses, profiles, double checking the profile/billing details for sold memberships etc., we spend a few hours each day on this.
How do you think the industry can work together to combat scammers?
The idea has been floated around by others, but it would be great to have one company that specializes in cleaning out databases or one place where all dating site operators can share banned IP addresses, email addresses, pictures, nicknames, etc. Doing so would behoove dating operators, the dating industry as a whole and most importantly, help protect our members.
What do you think the industry would pay?
I can’t speak for others but we are open to spending a good chunk of money for a service that would help fight scammer activity. The price points for such services should be determined by their value, as defined by a decrease in charge backs and overall effectiveness in catching paid/non paid scammers. Preventing scammers from joining our niche dating sites is of utmost importance and something we take pride in addressing on a daily basis. I have a responsibility to protect our members from scammers and while I’m probably not going to bat 100%, I’m striving for 100% nonetheless.
Nordic Dating Sites Get 2 Million Uniques a Month
PR INSIDE — May 23 — Dating sites attracted an average of 2.2 million Nordic visitors per month during Q1 2007, an increase of 3% versus one year ago. Match.com led the category attracting 573,000 uniques per month, followed by Danish site Dating.dk with 309,000 Nordic visitors per month. MeetIC averaged of 241,000 uniques per month. DKBN.DK had 235k, E-Kontakt.se had 164k.
The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.
Spark Network’s New CIO
PR INSIDE — May 21 — Spark Networks hired Greg Franchina as its CIO, effective June 1. Mr. Franchina has 21 years of technical and operational experience. He was formerly CIO & VP Operations with Spot Runner. Before that, CIO & VP Operations for WeddingChannel.com. He graduated from The College of William and Mary with a B.S. in Computer Science.
The full article was originally published at PR Inside, but is no longer available.
OKCupid Opinion Poll
PR WEB — May 22 — 49% of all Internet users have partaken of an online dating Web site in one form or another. Of the 49%, 20% were committed users, either by paying for a subscription or using a free service. Another 29% admit to at least browsing profiles, even if they don't take that final step of signing up and making a connection. Those who do commit tend to stick around – 62% trying their luck for two months or longer. 68% of respondents prefer services that provide personality questionnaires, analyze compatibility and offer matchmaking recommendations. And users want that service for free. Free sites are preferred over subscription services at a ratio of five-to-one. 72% still feel there is a social stigma to online dating. Nearly two-thirds will admit that, upon meeting their significant other online, they would tell the truth if asked about how they met. Online daters are highly selective. 58% rely primarily on photographs to quickly filter matches. Deal breakers that tend to cause prospects to be rejected include smoking, 23% say no, and having children, 32% aren't interested. 45% will reject someone because of their weight. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Mark Brooks: PlentyofFish has introduced a personality profiling system, btw. See the PlentyofFish Compatiblity Predictor here.
Welch Exits Match.com
MARKETING WEEK — May 22 — Upheaval is continuing at the marketing department of online dating site Match.com with the departure of its European CMO Mathew Welch after 15 months, shortly after the resignation of UK senior manager Sarah Drew, who is leaving the company to join online recruitment firm TheLadders.com as managing director. Welch was appointed in the new marketing role in March last year following a nine month search by Match.com. He is believed to have a job in the telecoms sector. Earlier this year former Travelocity managing director Jason Stockwood joined UK managing director Match.com, succeeding former Travelocity marketing director Charlotte Harper who also only held the role for about a year.
The full article was originally published at Marketing Week, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: I've also noticed some turnover in the Match.com PR department of late. But nothing untoward. They are a big company with tough growth goals that push people to their limit. It's a rosy job market right now, so people are bound to be getting headhunted for higher level positions elsewhere.
PlentyOfFish Owner Has the Perfect Bait For a Huge Success
WSJ — May 23 — The headquarters of what may be, on a per-capita basis, the busiest, most profitable site on the entire World Wide Web is on the 16th floor of a brand-new Vancouver building with panoramic views of the nearby Canadian Rockies. It happens to be the apartment of Markus Frind, the owner and sole employee of PlentyOfFish.com, a free online dating site and a model for the next generation of Web entrepreneurship.
- For the week ended April 28, PlentyOfFish.com was the 96th-busiest Web site in the U.S. (HitWise)
- Busy Web sites like these usually require scores of people. Mr. Frind says people often don't believe him when he says PlentyOfFish is all his.
- Nielsen/NetRatings says that by some measures, such as the time its members spend on the site, it ranks second after eHarmony.
- A few months back, he posted on his blog a picture of a check from Google for nearly $1 million for a two-month period. Google confirmed the check was for real.
- Mr. Frind says the site brings in between $5 million and $10 million a year.
- Many companies would respond to competitive pressure by hiring someone. Mr. Frind says he has no plans to do so.
PlanetOut Hopes to Stave Off Bankruptcy
PAID CONTENT — May 22 — The owners of PlanetOut hope to raise $15 million+ in new equity or subordinated debt as it tries to dig out from $26.5 million in debt. The trouble began two years ago when PlanetOut went on a shopping spree, acquiring the RSVP Vacations cruise business and LPI Publications, publishers of Out, OutTraveler, and The Advocate, as well as several pornographic magazines under the Specialty Publications brand. Several senior executives have resigned. Some of the problems besetting the company may be due to the migration of gay people to sites such as MySpace.
The full article was originally published at PaidContent, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Advice to PlanetOut: Divest the magazines and travel companies and stick to your knitting, online content and memberships and advertising. PlanetOut has been too busy trying to fill cruise ships and sell magazine subscriptions to focus on the future. Manhunt.net (casual adult) and MyPartnerPerfect.com (about to be launched, serious dating) are biting at PlanetOut's heels.
Abe Smilowitz, Webdate COO – OPW Interview
OPW INTERVIEW — May 21, 2007 — This is the third of five feature interviews on the topic of scamming. Abe Smilowitz is COO of WealthyMen.com, Fling.com and Webdate. – Mark Brooks
What kind of scamming do you encounter across Fling.com and WebDate.com and WealthyMen.com?
Like with every other dating site, it’s an issue that we’re always combating. The two types of scamming that occur are end user scamming and webmaster scamming.
The end user scamming is usually individuals that are coming in primarily from foreign countries pretending to be either attractive women, primarily, or attractive men. They chat and email back and forth with individuals and gain their trust. Then they ask for money or favors or any sort of particulars, but it’s primarily money that they’re looking for.
We obviously try to combat those fraudulent users by having several self reporting tools on the site where other users can report scammers with fake pictures, people that have solicited them for money or solicited them to go to other sites and that sort of thing. We feel that the best method is having the users self report because when you’re doing thousands of sign ups a day it becomes very difficult to manually scan every single sign up and follow what they’re doing.
Some of them are actually quite good. They use authentic photos and they write a full profile or copy someone else’s profile and it seems like a real person. We have users also that work for us that are surfing the site and use the site themselves and chat with other users and kind of get a feel for it and some of them have actually been duped by some of the scammers. They’re chatting and they think that it’s an attractive young woman and they’re talking back and forth for a week and then she comes out with, “Oh I need $200 for my mother’s operation.”
I don’t know if there’s a fool proof way to get rid of them 100%. I think the best way to do it obviously is to have people actively monitor the site, use the site, have the users self report and have a no tolerance policy where if someone’s doing that, a moderator will go and check out the profile, check out the series of emails or chats that they’ve sent back and forth and if it’s found that they are partaking in that kind of activity, they’re automatically disabled and we disable their IP address if possible.
Have you noticed that the number of incidents of scamming increasing or is it level or declining?
I know that it has actually decreased on our site because once we figured out that this kind of activity was going on we’ve actively been pursuing it and monitoring it. We do various types of IP monitoring. We banned several countries from using the site. That’s really the best way to try and get rid of these guys. That in conjunction with moderators and active users reporting back to our customer service and letting them know, “Hey this particular person is a scammer,” or, ”this profile is a bad profile,“ and we go in and police it.
How serious of a problem do you think it is for the industry as a whole?
I don’t think it’s a problem that’s going to destroy the industry but I think that it’s definitely a problem and I think it’s going to continue to be a problem. The only real way to prevent it 100%, I guess, would be to set up some kind of police state where you would have the government run some kind of check on you to make sure you are who you are.
I think that it’s going to be a problem and I think the industry needs to do the best that they can to combat it. It would be good to have obviously some kind of sharing of information because I’m sure there’s other sites and other executives at sites that have figured out different methods of combating it. I’m sure I’ve thought of things that other people haven’t.
The pooling of ideas is always a good thing and would help the industry as a whole but I think it’s always going to exist on the sites and the best you can do is try to educate the users about it.
Anyone that’s asking you for money, you should really obviously never give them money unless you’ve met the person, you know the person and you feel comfortable doing that. But someone you don’t even know, you never met and you’ve just been chatting with them online for a week or so, I don’t think it would be a good idea to send them cash. I think a lot of this really comes down to the users level of responsibility and common sense about what they’re doing. I understand that some of these users are lonely and at weak points where they’re looking for someone to talk to.
It’s a difficult problem and I think the users need to be more aware of it and need to be a little more standoffish and never divulge financial information or give any money to anyone on a community site.
What can the industry do as a whole? Have you tried reaching out to other sites to share the IP addresses of scammers, for example?
No, I personally haven’t but I think that would be a good idea. I think it would need to come from an independent source. I don’t know that it would necessarily make sense for me as a site owner to go ahead and contact some of my competitors and go through that. I think that it would probably be more credible if it came from a third party independent source.
Do you know of any providers of such a service?
No, I don’t know of anyone that actually does that.
How high on the priority list should it be for the industry to try and eradicate scammers?
I think that it’s something that should be high on the priority list to heighten the credibility of our sites. You want to obviously give your users the best experience possible and you want the site to work for them. I mean, what are they going to your site for? They’re going there to meet another person and have either some kind of friendship or romantic relationship with another individual that meets the criteria of what they’re looking for. Your end goal is to achieve that for users. Obviously, when someone is tricked and cheated at their most vulnerable time, that’s not a good experience for users, and that’s not the type of reputation site owners want to have amongst users. So I think it’s a very important issue.
Yahoo to Acquire Bebo for $1 Billion?
SEEKING ALPHA — May 20 — The Telegraph said Saturday night that Yahoo is working to buy U.K.-based social network Bebo for $1-billion. Bebo has around 25m users worldwide, compared with MySpace's 100m or so registered users. Birch is rumoured to have turned down an offer from BT worth about £300m last summer. Viacom, the US media giant which was outbid for MySpace, is also believed to have made an offer last year. Bebo is backed by Benchmark Capital, the private equity firm.