REUTERS — Feb 12 — Match.com‘s resolution for 2008 is to get out and meet more people, or in this case, potential subscribers. Match is testing an application for Facebook, and seeks growth in new vehicles for its subscription service, according to Chief Executive Thomas Enraght-Moony. "We’re extending Match to wherever people are. MySpace has announced their platform initiative, we’re exploring that.", Moony said. Moony notes that an advertising partnership with MySpace has become Match.com’s fastest-growing source of new subscribers. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Month: February 2008
HotOrNot Acquired For $20 Million
TECH CRUNCH — Feb 11 — San Francisco based HotOrNot, founded by James Hong and Jim Young in October 2000, has been acquired. The buyers are investors connected with Avid Life Media, and paid somewhere around $20 million for the site. Their annual revenue is estimated to be around $5 million, with $2 million in profit. According to Comscore, the site has around 5 million monthly unique visitors and 200 million page views. The investors are creating a new company, called HotOrNot Media, and they may be acquiring more properties as well. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Cupid.com And RegionalHelpWanted Acquired For $100 Million
MASHABLE — Feb 11 — RegionalHelpWanted.com was purchased by onTargetjobs, a portfolio company of Warburg pincus. The financial terms weren't explicitly disclosed, but according to PE Hub, Classified Intelligence "pegs the figure at $100 million". RegionalHelpWanted is also the company behind the telephone and online dating service Cupid.com, another recognizable brand name. The RegionalHelpWanted portfolio will join the onTarget portfolio that includes other sites like BioSpace.com, Hcareers.com, HEALTHeCAREERS.com, MedHunters.com, JobLoft.com and CareerBank.com. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Mark Brooks: Cupid and RHW are promoted on remnant radio advertising usually at second tier radio stations around the country. What's unusual is that the payouts are on a CPA basis to radio stations. onTargetjobs has picked up a unique marketing channel.
CrazyBlindDate In L.A., Chicago, D.C.
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 11 — Singles in Los Angeles, Chicago and the Washington, D.C. metro area have their chance to join the growing CrazyBlindDate.com. Already in New York, Boston, San Francisco and Austin, CrazyBlindDate.com is the only online dating site that encourages singles to get off their computers and into real, live dates. CrazyBlindDate.com, first launched in November 2007. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
Can This Marriage Be Matched?
NY TIMES — Feb 1 — After visiting the eHarmony Labs for my
Findings column on matchmaking, I wondered if its algorithm would match
me and my wife of 12 years, Dana. So we each registered separately with
eHarmony and answered the 258 questions. After we filled out the questions, we each were given a personality
profile. Our biggest difference was in the category of agreeableness:
Dana was rated as consistently taking care of others, while I was
consistently taking care of myself. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
Guinness World Record Speed Dating Event
PRESS RELEASE — Feb 11 — In cities around the world over 2500 singles will participate in a Guinness World Record attempt for the world's biggest speed date event, this Valentine's Day. FastLife Speed Dating will host 19 simultaneous events in cities around the globe, including London, Sydney, Toronto and New York. The event is free for the public to attend; any single night owls that would like to attend need only register on http://www.fastlife.com and pay the $1 booking fee.
The full article was originally published at FastLife website, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: FastLife charges $70 and includes free food and drink at events. Predating (part of Cupid.com) charges $39, Hurrydate charges $37, and 8 Minute Dating charges $35. People will pay $70 for speed dating events, just so they can meet other people who are able and motivated enough to pay $70.
JupiterResearch Sees Growth for Online Personals
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 11 — Online dating and personals will increase from $900M in
2007 to $1.9B in 2012, according to the recently published
JupiterResearch report, "US Paid Content Forecast, 2007 to 2012." There are no signs
that the eruption of social networks has burned the paid online
personals market. Personals remain one of the larger paid content categories online.
Only music and games are bigger, or attract more than 10% of
online users. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
Orange Partners With DatingDirect
NETIMPERATIVE — Feb 11 — DatingDirect.com partners with Orange UK to provide a converged web and mobile online dating service for the mobile network's customers. The mobile platform provides a number of features including message and alert retrieval, instant chat and allows for searching for members live online by geographical area. Orange mobile users can also register and subscribe to the mobile dating service direct from their handset.
The full article was originally published at Netimperative, but is no longer available.
myMatchPod.com Launches Free SpeedDating
PR WEB — Feb 11 – Launched in December 2007, myMatchPod.com is an online speed dating Web site that uses webcams to help people connect with potential matches. The access to the online speed dating service is free, including the ability to exchange contact information. myMatchPod.com also offers a mobile widget, allowing daters to post the interactive dating element to their own pages on social networks such as Facebook for others to use.
The full article was originally published at PR Web, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: myMatchPod.com joins online speed dating companies WooMe, Speeddate.com, CamLink.com, and Tripio.com.
eHarmony’s New Feature
EHARMONY BLOG — Feb 11 — eHarmony is introducing the "Who's Viewed Me?" feature, which allows users to see who's been viewing their profiles within the past two weeks. Users can stay incognito by switching the settings to "Anonymous" and their matches won't be able to see that they were checking them out on the sly. There has been numerous opinion of this new feature. Among them is praise because it shows which matches are active, and censure because it encourages game-playing.
The full article was originally published at eHarmony blog, but is no longer available.