EDGE — June 12 — myPartnerPerfect.com launched recently. Its the first dating service with a compatibility system specifically designed for gay men. The man behind the "love engine" is Patrick H.Perrine, creator of the Partner Perfect Compatibility test. In similar fashion to eHarmony, members use guided communication tools and begin conversations with other members, whilst learning the secrets of developing a successful relationship through Patrick's Dating Advice column, e-newsletters and articles. In addition, Private Matchmaking services are available. FULL ARTICLE @ EDGE
Month: June 2007
Half of Brits Regularly Use Online Dating Sites
TECH DIGEST — June 14 — A new 3000-people survey claims that over half of Brits have registered at two dating websites, while 83 % of people have been on a dating site at some point. A third of them found a long-term relationship and 6% got married. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH DIGEST
Match.com World Record Kissfest
UTALK MARKETING — June 14 — Match.com is roping in Glastonbury festivalgoers to help them in a bid to break a world record and and grab high profile press exposure. Match is encouraging 30,000 people attending Glastonbury to pucker-up at 1.30am on Sunday, June 24, to break the Guinness World Record for the most people kissing at once. The bid will be prompted by the band ‘Madness’ who will be playing as ‘The Big Kiss’ takes place. The current World Record of 6,400 couples was set in Hungary this year. FULL ARTICLE @ U TALK MARKETING
Bharat, Shaadi and Orkut
TECHTREE — June 14 — Internet research company, JuxtConsult, has 'India Online 2007.' From April 2006 to April 2007, India's overall Internet population has grown by 28% to 30.3 million. 25 million are 'regulars' who log on to the Internet at least once a month. On average, about 20 million Internet users log on to the Internet daily. Orkut infiltrates the young (urban) Indian consciousness with a 64% usage preference in the social networking category, and 36% usage in the dating/friendship category. Meanwhile, the online matrimonial space doesn't seem to be doing too well with rivals Shaadi and Bharatmatrimony continuing to fight it out among themselves – but with little success, as compared to last year.
The full article was originally published at TechTree, but is no longer available.
Feedback Is the Breakfast of Champions
OPW — June 15 — What would make Online Personals Watch more useful for you? What would make it so useful for you that you would feel compelled to make it your home page on your browser? Your feedback is most appreciated. How can we do better? – Mark Brooks
Start Your Own Internet Dating Service – White Labels Analysis
OPW — June 15 — If you want to start your own internet dating service you have two choices:
1. Build your own software and start from zero members, in which case your site won’t convert and you’ll need to spend a lot of money building your database to critical mass.
2. Or, use a white label service to set up your brand on an existing network. Low up front costs and headaches, and your site converts from the getgo, but you get typically 50% of the revenues. Not bad when you consider how much software development and customer service would cost you. Some services will even allow you to copy over your members (the members that you have generated) from their network once you reach a critical mass of users. But you’ll have to negotiate this up front.
White label services make sense if you’re a mega-affiliate wanting to build some brand quity, or are a newspaper or radio station, or entrepreneur wanting to try something new, etc.
Not all white label networks are created equal. WorldFriends Networks is strong in Asia only. Others are focused mainly on the UK. Some pay 30%, some 60%. I interviewed the C-levels and/or senior managers at DatingCentral, DIY Dating, EasyDate, LoveAccess, White Label Dating and WorldFriends Networks. Infinity Personals and Vintacom will join in later. Seven companies, 56 questions, in 11 areas of interest; Company Overview, Userbase, Product Offerings, Customization, Payouts, User Account Portability, Application, Implementation, Partner Support, End User Customer Support, and End User Features. I asked them the questions that YOU should ask, as a prospective user/entrepreneur/mega-affiliate.
Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch and I’ll get the spreadsheet to you. Here’s the way to use it. Mouse-over the boxes that have a little red triangle in the corner to see the notes. Then, look at the importance field and rank the items that are most important to you. 10 is most important, 0 is irrelevant. Then look at the scoring at the bottom of the spreadsheet. You can use the spreadsheet as a decision analysis tool.
I have already added in importance rankings to get you started. With my starter rankings White Label Dating came out at 224 and EasyDate came had 165. But don’t use my rankings, create your own. Let me know how it goes, and any suggestions for improving/adding to the spreadsheet. – Mark Brooks
comScore Video Metrix
OPW — June 14 — Apparently 70% of internet users streamed video in march 2007 according to the comScore Video Metrix rankings for March 2007. YouTube's the top U.S. streaming video property with 53.5 million unique people streaming ("streamers") in March.
Mark Brooks: Pictures never lie. Ok, well maybe they do. Scratch that. Video never lies. Recorded video is good, webcam video is better. But, video takes longer to approve and police, site owners argue. What to do? Your comments please.
Internet Dating Conference Power Players Agenda
OPW — June 14 — Check out the Agenda and Speaker list for the upcoming Internet Dating Conference. Both Draper Fisher Jurgetson and Norwest Venture Partners, two of the largest VC firms in the world, are speaking. Nice. As I was saying, this is the strongest conference I’ve seen yet. Anyone registering saves $150 if they register by Friday, btw. See you there. – Mark Brooks
Class Action Suit Against TRUE.com
PR NEWSWIRE — June 13 — A lawsuit has been filed against TrueBeginnings, LLC, the owner and operator of the TRUE.com online dating website. The lawsuit seeks certification of a class action on behalf of TRUE customers who were charged service fees by TRUE after cancelling their subscriptions.
Allegedly TRUE bills its former subscribers service fees after they have attempted to cancel their subscriptions over the phone. TRUE charges fees in excess of $50 per month and advertises on its website that memberships can be cancelled at any time. However, only over the phone. The lawsuit also seeks an injunction prohibiting the enforcement of a provision in TRUE's terms granting it a perpetual, world-wide license to use, distribute or display all information – including photographs – submitted by subscribers. Wong v. True Beginnings, LLC, has been filed in the District Court of Dallas County, Texas and the Plaintiff is represented by Tycko & Zavareei LLP and Crews, Shepherd & McCarty LLP. Contact: Jonathan Tycko, 202-973-0900. FULL ARTICLE @ EARTHTIMES
Mark Brooks: Users of internet dating sites should be able to quit a membership within three clicks, or three minutes, if they so decide. I'll be investigating the top dating sites on this point shortly.
New SkaDate Release
PRESS RELEASE — June 13 — SkaDate Unity is version 6 and introduces features of social networking sites for a hybrid dating and social networking site and chuPPo webcam software. Many businesses use the Hosted Community Site Solution.
The full article was originally published at eMedia Wire, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Apparently this version is more stable. However, I'm still put off by the lack of grammar editing in these press releases. It shows an inattention to detail. And where's Userplane? chuPPo? Userplane is the standard these days.