PRESS RELEASE — June 28 — Online dating site IamFreeTonight.com announces an online dating application built on Facebook Platform. 13,000 Facebook users have added the application. Users can post when they are free to date and can select an activity to do on the date ranging from coffee to cocktails.
The full article was originally published at Marketwired, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Check out wannago.com (formerly named matchactivity) also.
FINANCIAL MIRROR — June 29 — Following a number of years of cooperation, meetic and Orange are strengthening their partnership in internet, matchmaking, advertising and mobile venues. They aim to create more bridges between the Internet and Mobile segments and enrich Orange Advertising's ad offer.
The full article was originally published at Financial Mirror, but is no longer available.
SAID AMIN BLOG — June 28 — Generalist sites overlap users, making their member lists less valuable than niche sites, according to Saïd Amin of WorldSingles. Most ethnic niche sites, due to less competition, enjoy a higher % of unique members. However, with many new competitors jumping into niches, newcomers will struggle to reach critical mass. Niches thrive on word of mouth. Money alone is not enough. Look at ChristianCafe.com. It is so entrenched in the community. It has the pulse of the community it serves. Ditto with Jdate.
The full article was originally published at Said Amin blog, but is no longer available.
SOCAL TECH — June 28 — L.A. based online dating site MatchActivity has become wannago.com, and is now focusing on creating a social networking site focused on sharing activities and events. The angel funded startup, which raised a small round in January and is still fundraising, is planning to relaunch its site towards the end of July.
The full article was originally published at SocalTech, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Match killed Matchlive.com a couple of years ago. On the positive side, PreDating was acquired by Cupid and Hurrydate was just acquired by Spark. Some day dating sites will take more interest in events.
Wannago.com – Activity based dating site
YesNoMayB.com – HotorNot wirh a facelift
BUSINESS WIRE — June 28 — Mobestar, a specialist provider of mobile community applications (LSE:MOBS) (GER:M6V) announces implementation of their mobile social networking application to Qsoft Consulting, owners of the dating brand Gaydar. Powered by Mobestar, GaydarMobile is will allow 1.1 million users in the UK and 4 million users world-wide access to profiles, messages and contact members with text, picture and video messaging using just their mobile phone. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
GIGA OM — June 27 — Three months ago, HotorNot dropped its subscription-based model for a free-ad supported model. In his latest blog post HotorNot founder James Hong says HotorNot's traffic has doubled to about 20 million page views per day. The revenues tanked from over $5 million per annum, but the company still remains profitable, with most of its sales coming from Google Ads. Hong claims a new sales force will replace the lost revenue.
The full article was originally published at GigaOm, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Here's the one month page views comparison with PlentyofFish courtesy of Alexa.
SPRINGWISE NEWSLETTER — June 27 — Bucking the online first meeting, now you can meet in person, and then go hunting the profile. Canadian Admit an Attraction prints Attraction Tickets members can hand out to invite someone they meet to check out their profile. If they approve, they can meet again later. Hitchoo, recently launched in Singapore, works on the same principle, sending members cards with a friendly "You made my day" on the front, and access details on the back. It brings in more non-service users and saves face for those too shy to ask for the phone number.
The full article was originally published at SpringWise Newsleter, but is no longer available.
PRESS RELEASE — June 27 — Now 4ppl (Boonex) users can see the location of other members on a Google Map. They can even search for singles around them with an unmatched precision. A member can keep his/her location secret, by telling 4ppl about his/her city only. But, when they feel adventurous – they just go ahead and pinpoint their very specific location, up to a house they live in.
Mark Brooks: That's handy for stalkers.
AHN — June 26 — In a bid to attract only the best people, an online dating site in Arizona has decided to publish the pictures of only attractive people. The decision, says site owner Allena Brown, was prompted by pictures by a man in flannel underwear holding an axe. The Beautiful People Arizona, has about 300 vetted members who pay $9.99 a month. The us.beautifulpeople.net site used the same method to phase out inappropriate people and pictures.
The full article was originally published at AHN, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Hotenough.org has a similar model also.