Month: May 2007

eHarmony Agenda Gets Called Out

Posted on May 3, 2007

UntitledHUFFINGTON POST — May 3 — eHarmony is run by someone with an unabashed religious and social mission? A company that by its own admission has rejected over a million people for reasons that range from not being "happy enough" (on a happy-meter they handily provide) to being divorced too many times, to being gay. eHarmony isn’t just a brand; it’s an ideological vessel, a brandologue. A Christian-founded, marriage-oriented matchmaking website. It’s legitimate for a competitor to call eHarmony out on its agenda. This week, Chemistry.com launched an advertising campaign that takes on eHarmony boldly and directly. TV commercials and print ads challenge eHarmony’s agenda and invite women and men who are seeking a relationship on their own terms to join Chemistry.com (View them on YouTube). FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST

Mark Brooks: eHarmony is getting beaten up for being discrimantory. However, they have a brand to build and a brand needs to be focused to be successful. I’m surprised they haven’t tried to launch new sites under new domains to cover the market more thoroughly, like Spark Networks, or FriendFinder or Zencon Technologies. This strategic blunder points towards their underlying mantra. They’ve left wide open areas of the market up for grabs.

Online Dating Gets Competition From Local Matchmakers

Posted on May 2, 2007

MEDILL REPORTS — May 1 — Reasons for choosing an offline matchmaking service

  • Singles work one-on-one with a relationship expert to assess goals and tactics for conquering the dating world.
  • Staff members can vouch for his or her credibility. No more knights in rusted armor.
  • Someone else does the preliminary work for you.  All you have to do is show up.
  • A number of matchmaking services only select commitment-minded men and women, so it's easier to avoid those singles only looking for a fling.
  • Many companies also have image and fashion consultants in addition to relationship and life coaches.
  • You can avoid the bar scene. Period.

Selective Search (Chicago) focuses on a high-end clientele but the service is pricey: men pay $10,000.

The full article was originally published at Medill Reports, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Together Dating / The Right One, Great Expectations, and It's Just Lunch all offer different spins on offline matchmaking. MyPartnerPerfect is headed by Patrick Perrine, a gay matchmaker and human sexuality expert.

Online Dating Gets Competition From Local Matchmakers

Posted on May 2, 2007

MEDILL REPORTS — May 1 — Reasons for choosing an offline matchmaking service

  • Singles work one-on-one with a relationship expert to assess goals and tactics for conquering the dating world.
  • Staff members can vouch for his or her credibility. No more knights in rusted armor.
  • Someone else does the preliminary work for you.  All you have to do is show up.
  • A number of matchmaking services only select commitment-minded men and women, so it's easier to avoid those singles only looking for a fling.
  • Many companies also have image and fashion consultants in addition to relationship and life coaches.
  • You can avoid the bar scene. Period.

Selective Search (Chicago) focuses on a high-end clientele but the service is pricey: men pay $10,000.

The full article was originally published at Medill Reports, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Together Dating / The Right One, Great Expectations, and It's Just Lunch all offer different spins on offline matchmaking. MyPartnerPerfect is headed by Patrick Perrine, a gay matchmaker and human sexuality expert.

Iovation Risk Management

Posted on May 2, 2007

IovationPRESS RELEASE — Apr 30 — Iovation, the device reputation authority for online fraud management and authentication, announced that Red Planet Gaming software will embed iovation’s fraud management solution. iovation pioneered the use of reputation technology for online fraud management and multi-factor authentication in online gaming, financial services and e-commerce industries. Iovation Reputation Services, a Software as a Service (SaaS) family of solutions, links user accounts with devices and utilizes the reputation of those devices to guard against online fraud. The fraud management tool includes a new proprietary geolocation technology that allows customers to meet new compliance requirements such as validating player country codes.

Mark Brooks: Meir Strahlberg, CEO of Date.com, called on dating companies to share IP addresses of scammers at the internet dating conference in 2006 and 2007. iovation id’s devices using a lot more than IP addresses and allows companies to share the reputation of those devices across multiple industries and many companies. iovation is targeting the internet dating industry now.

Iovation Risk Management

Posted on May 2, 2007

IovationPRESS RELEASE — Apr 30 — Iovation, the device reputation authority for online fraud management and authentication, announced that Red Planet Gaming software will embed iovation’s fraud management solution. iovation pioneered the use of reputation technology for online fraud management and multi-factor authentication in online gaming, financial services and e-commerce industries. Iovation Reputation Services, a Software as a Service (SaaS) family of solutions, links user accounts with devices and utilizes the reputation of those devices to guard against online fraud. The fraud management tool includes a new proprietary geolocation technology that allows customers to meet new compliance requirements such as validating player country codes.

Mark Brooks: Meir Strahlberg, CEO of Date.com, called on dating companies to share IP addresses of scammers at the internet dating conference in 2006 and 2007. iovation id’s devices using a lot more than IP addresses and allows companies to share the reputation of those devices across multiple industries and many companies. iovation is targeting the internet dating industry now.

Slim 1Q Growth for IAC

Posted on May 1, 2007

IacAP — May 1 — In the quarter that ended March 31, IAC/InterActive, which owns brands like Ask.com , HSN and Match.com, saw many of its businesses expand both on- and offline. IAC/InterActive chief executive Barry Diller said in February it would invest a couple hundred million dollars on generating new content over the next several years. Also in February, IAC/InterActive said its Match.com dating Web site completed the buyout of personals sites Netclub in France and eDodo in China. Analysts expect to post earnings of 33 cents per share on sales of $1.58 billion. In an April 16 note, Stifle Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt wrote the company’s HSN, LendingTree and entertainment publications units will keep showing weakness this quarter. The analyst thinks IAC/InterActive’s Ticketmaster and Ask.com arms had a strong quarter. Devitt rates the company "Hold." In a March 27 note to investors, AG Edwards analyst Denise Garcia initiated coverage of the stock with a "Hold/Aggressive" rating. The analyst wrote that the company’s non-retail businesses should see 20% sales growth on average, but that growth won’t be able to offset HSN’s sluggish sales and margin declines. Shares rose 1.4% during the quarter, closing at $37.71 on March 30. In the past 52 weeks, the company’s stock has traded between $23.54 and $40.99.

Mark Brooks: Golden boy, former Match.com CEO Jim Safka has trekked off to San Francisco to help a new fold of IAC companies add gold to IAC’s coffers. During his watch Match.com refocused and grew steadily to $300+ million annual revenues.

Slim 1Q Growth for IAC

Posted on May 1, 2007

IacAP — May 1 — In the quarter that ended March 31, IAC/InterActive, which owns brands like Ask.com , HSN and Match.com, saw many of its businesses expand both on- and offline. IAC/InterActive chief executive Barry Diller said in February it would invest a couple hundred million dollars on generating new content over the next several years. Also in February, IAC/InterActive said its Match.com dating Web site completed the buyout of personals sites Netclub in France and eDodo in China. Analysts expect to post earnings of 33 cents per share on sales of $1.58 billion. In an April 16 note, Stifle Nicolaus analyst Scott Devitt wrote the company’s HSN, LendingTree and entertainment publications units will keep showing weakness this quarter. The analyst thinks IAC/InterActive’s Ticketmaster and Ask.com arms had a strong quarter. Devitt rates the company "Hold." In a March 27 note to investors, AG Edwards analyst Denise Garcia initiated coverage of the stock with a "Hold/Aggressive" rating. The analyst wrote that the company’s non-retail businesses should see 20% sales growth on average, but that growth won’t be able to offset HSN’s sluggish sales and margin declines. Shares rose 1.4% during the quarter, closing at $37.71 on March 30. In the past 52 weeks, the company’s stock has traded between $23.54 and $40.99.

Mark Brooks: Golden boy, former Match.com CEO Jim Safka has trekked off to San Francisco to help a new fold of IAC companies add gold to IAC’s coffers. During his watch Match.com refocused and grew steadily to $300+ million annual revenues.

Lavalife Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Posted on May 1, 2007

Lavalife_logoPR 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

Lavalife Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Posted on May 1, 2007

Lavalife_logoPR 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

Muslim, Traditional, but Finding Love on the Web

Posted on May 1, 2007

SinglemuslimREUTERS — May 1 — Over the past two years there has been a boom in the use of Web sites that introduce Muslim men and women for marriage. Singlemuslim.com , which calls itself Britain's largest Muslim introductions agency, has seen registered users double over the past year to 100,000 and is opening sites in the U.S., Canada and Australia. On some sites, more than half the registered users are professional women with above-average incomes who use the service to save time and broaden the scope of their search. They are direct and demanding about what they are looking for. Shaadi.com, 'the world's largest matrimonial service,' has 10 million users, most in South Asia — in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. In Britain, 700,000 are registered, 40% average annual income of 40,000 pounds.

The full article was originally published at NY Times, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: BharatMatrimony.com is Shaadi's leading competitor, and WorldSingles.com runs a number of niche dating sites focused on Muslims.