TECH CRUNCH — Mar 6 — Jangl is finally turning on a revenue stream across its network of social calling widgets, which reach a potential 80M social networking profiles. The new advertising initiative is called Mobile Media Platform and provides a set of APIs for publishers and ad units for advertisers. Through the APIs, developers can integrate bits of Jangl's SMS and VOIP calling functionality into their applications. The monetization side is being handled in partnership with Pudding Media, and Ogilvy's Digital Innovation Group. Jangl will have several different types of ad units for advertisers, such as SMS ads tacked on to messages users send and pre-roll audio ads that play during the time you'd normally spend listening to the phone ring. Advertisers can target the ads by keyword, category, location, and demographic. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Month: March 2008
Scams Cost Canada $450M
SUN MEDIA — Mar 6 — A new survey estimates 1M Canadians are scammed out of $450 million every year. The most common scams are phoney lotteries or prizes that ask for money up front, the infamous Nigerian letter scam and work-from-home schemes. Internet dating sites have become an avenue for fraud. The scam artist may spend months cultivating a relationship before asking for money for a personal crisis or airline fare.
The full article was originally published at London Free Press, but is no longer available.
Internet Dating Conference Feedback
OPW — Mar 6 — If you attended the Miami iDate, would you please consider taking a moment to answer the following two questions?
- What did you think of the conference?
- How can we do better?
Please email your answers to mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com.
Guilt-free Dating For Single Parents
PRESS RELEASE — Mar 4 — On OmniDate users can go on a virtual date, where they can laugh, talk and flirt, all from the comfort and safety of their home. "A woman can stay home on Saturday night and still "go out" on a great date", said Ravit Abelman, co-founder of OmniDate with her husband, Igor Kotlyar, Ph.D. For single moms especially, getting to know a person before an actual meeting can add an extra layer of security. Another advantage: it's easier to say goodbye to an avatar than to a person. The beta site launched in 2008, is based in Toronto, and has members across the U.S. and Canada.
The full article was originally published at 1888 Press Release, but is no longer available.
Matchmakers In San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — Mar 2 — People in one of the most wired regions of the country are turning to an age-old method to find partners: professional matchmaking. Marsha Winer runs 'Introductions by Marsha', a 24-year-old matchmaking company. She has matched 1,500+ people. Members pay $2k/year for six introductions. Melinda Maximova is the founder of Perfect Search, a firm that helps high-earning men find serious relationships and charges $5,500 a year. While traditional matchmakers tend to pair paying clients with each other, with Perfect Search, only the men pay a fee. Jill and Amber Kelleher run 'Kelleher and Associates'. Packages start at $6,500 for a year. $25k buys membership to the dozen branches, and $45k, a nationwide search. At $100k, members work personally with a co-owner and get 40% of their money back if they are unsatisfied. And for $150k, the co-owners will conduct an international search. Carole Shattil founded Check Mates Inc 16 years ago. Prices start at $2,500 for a trial membership, $5k for 18 months of local introductions and $10k for two years of local and Los Angeles pairings. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE
Mark Brooks: The internet dating industry is leaving money on the table! Here's the best way for your dating service to make money from matchmakers… Create a special 'matchmakers membership'. Bands get a special membership on MySpace. Headhunters get a special membership on Monster.com. Matchmakers should get a special membership on dating sites. Charge matchmakers $2k a year to set up their clients profiles, access your database, see who is 'really' active and likely to respond, and send priority messages to them. Let me know if you do this.
Compete Acquired By TNS For $75 Million
MASHABLE — Mar 3 — Taylor Nelson Sofres plc (TNS) acquired web
analytics company Compete, Inc. for $75 million in cash plus deferred
cash payments in 2008-2010 of up to another $75 million. The
acquisition comes at a time when Compete announced revenue of $14.9
million for 2007 and a loss of $4.5 million for the same year, due to
investing in "building its panel and industry expertise." Along with
Alexa and Quantcast, Compete has been the only relevant, free, publicly
available metric of website traffic. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Mark Brooks: I use Compete all the time and I hear the information is pretty good.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
Another Free Dating Site: PricelessPartner.com
PR WEB — Mar 3 — PricelessPartner.com, the global dating network run from Glen Murphy's bedroom in Australia, launched a free communication system for online daters. "Priceless Group Chat" allows online daters to mingle in real time, join communal chat rooms, create their own chat rooms, and then video conference 1-on-1 or in groups. Users can directly invite people from other social networks such as Facebook and MySpace.
The full article was originally published at PR Web, but is no longer available.
Matchmaking Fair Attracts Singles In Beijing
CHINA VIEW — Mar 2 — China's biggest matchmaking website, The century love (Shijijiayuan in Chinese), held a "love-finding" fair on Saturday, attracting more than 4,000 singles in Beijing. Shijijiayuan with 12M members targets people with higher education background. By 2005, young singles made up 46% of China's total population, according to China Youth and Child Research Center and the population research center of the Renmin University of China.
The full article was originally published at China View, but is no longer available.
Microsoft Gets Into Dating Game
POCKET LINT — Mar 2 — Microsoft is developing a complex facial
recognition software application called ‘Image-Based Face Search’. A
photo could be uploaded from a mobile phone or PC and compared with
millions of other pictures to find similar matching faces. The software
also includes a HotOrNot style application. It allows users to go into
details and rate the hair color or size of the nose. Microsoft can then
take this information and find some matches that are more suited to the
user’s tastes. This image based search may be implemented as an
alternative to the textual queries used on most online dating sites, or
may be combined with such textual queries to provide an augmented
image-based face retrieval filter. FULL ARTICLE @ POCKET LINE
What Europeans Think Of Each Other
OPW — Mar 2 — Match is doing well in Europe. Meetic is the local leader. Parship is picking up market share. Dating Direct and Plentyoffish lead in the UK market. But this is not an easy market to get traction in. Europe will never be the 'United States of Europe'. There are more divides. Case in point, check out this amusing article on 'What Europeans Think Of Each Other'. (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of Courtland Brooks)