BUSINESS WIRE — Apr 29 – WhiteLabelDating.com's dating site, Singles365.com, utilises mobile platform mDate. This will enable its members to access their online dating services via their mobile for the first time. WhiteLabelDating.com will roll out its mobile services to all partners free of charge, allowing them to run their own mobile dating services alongside their regular online dating site, providing new revenue streams with no extra running costs. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE
Month: April 2008
Wanted: Very Smart Partner With High IQ
REUTERS — Apr 29 — IntelligentPeople.com, directed towards highly intelligent people, started in Denmark and has now expanded to Canada and the United States. Potential candidates have to pass an online test to prove they have an IQ of 115 or higher. The score places them in the top 15% of the population for intelligence, said Copenhagen-based Trine Jensen, the founder of IntelligentPeople.com. "I believe that intelligent people communicate better with other intelligent people and, of course, love happens more easily if you communicate well," she said. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
JDate Sparks Romance In The UK
MARKET WIRE — Apr 29 — JDate, the online community for Jewish singles, launched a sister-site in the UK. Already available in Hebrew, English, and French, JDate.co.uk is designed specifically for the UK market. With nearly 300,000 Jewish residents, the UK is home to the fifth largest Jewish population in the world.
The full article was originally published at CNN Money, but is no longer available.
Facebook + Personality = Perfect Match
PR NEWSWIRE — Apr 29 – New Facebook application 'What's Your Personality Type?' gives members their own 'personality type' results to share with friends and find out who they are compatible with. The application provides an access to a special customized version of Perfectmatch.com's Duet test, a personality assessment co-developed by Dr. Pepper Schwartz.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
DNA Dating Comes To iPhone And iPod Touch
PR WEB — Apr 29 — Dating DNA is now available on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch Internet devices. iPhone and iPod Touch users can immediately start browsing photos and compatibility scores by visiting http://www.datingdna.com/iphone from the devices. Dating DNA started in August 2007 and provides free and open Web Services which bring 1-click compatibility scoring and other dating features to sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Craigslist, as well as to Internet devices such as Apple's iPhone and the Chumby web appliance. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Inside A Man’s Mind
BUSINESS WIRE — Apr 28 — DontDateHimGirl.com, one of the hottest women's websites on the Internet, kicks off its weeklong series 'Inside a Man's Mind ' What Guys Really Think About Love, Lust and Being Loyal'. 'Men and women speak totally different languages when it comes to love, dating and relationships,' said Tasha Cunningham, creator of DontDateHimGirl.com.
DontDateHimGirl.com found out that:
73% of men keep secrets from their significant others
21% visit sexually-oriented websites at least once a day while in a relationship
56% fantasize about other women while in a relationship
8% have virtual sex online with a person they don't know personally at least once a week while in a relationship
The full article was originally published at AdHoc News, but is no longer available.
3 Million Brits Looking Across Europe For Romance
PR NEWSWIRE — Apr 27 — According to new research by PARSHIP, 3 million UK singles are looking for a serious long distance relationship (LDR). That's 20% of Britain's 15m singles. British women would most like to date Irish (11%), French (11%) and Italians (11%), followed by the Danes (10%), Dutch (10%) and Swiss (10%). British men favored the Nordic touch with Swedes (14%) and Germans (14%), closely followed by the Swiss (13%), Dutch (12%) and Danish (12%).
The full article was originally published at IT News, but is no longer available.
Let’s Say You Want To Date A Hog Farmer
NY TIMES — Apr 27 — A growing number of people have found love on dating sites that pair members based on a specific shared interest or background, like Nerdsatheart.com, DateMyPet.com, STDmatch.net and Veggielove.com. "Singles are increasingly eager to narrow the audience and really target their needs," said Mark Brooks, a consultant who keeps his own blog, OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. "It's the same reason why Procter&Gamble makes so many detergents. We are all drawn to things that cater to our very specific desires." According to Hitwise there are now 1,378 U.S. dating sites, up from 876 three years ago. Mr. Brooks estimates that 44% of those sites in the U.S. are niche sites, up from 35% in 2006. Large companies like Match.com, eHarmony, Yahoo Personals and SinglesNet.com have the general market cornered, Mr. Brooks said, "the only real entrepreneurial opportunities left in the online dating world lie in the niche market." FarmersOnly.com has attracted 90,000 members so far, 50,000 in the last year alone. One month's membership costs $15.95. Mr. Brooks said the most successful niche sites pair people by race, sexual orientation or religion. The 20 most popular dating sites this year as ranked by Hitwise include JDate, Christian Mingle and ChristianCafe.com, Manhunt, Love From India, Amigos, Asian People Meet, and Shaadi. "A few years ago, a company called Spark Networks was putting major funding into its general dating site, American Singles," Mr. Brooks said. "But when executives saw that the Jewish market was huge and relatively untouched, they switched gears and ratcheted up JDate." FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES. Also in THE LEDGER
White Label Dating Or Software
OPW — Apr 28 — Think of a dating site as a shop, with people on the shelves. Dating
sites sell people to people. So the first thing a new site must do, is
build their stock of people and spend seven figures to build their
sites to critical mass so it converts, and is viable. They also have to
overcome the operational costs of running customer service, and their
sites, and site development. The entrepreneur can choose between
developing their own software from scratch, or using an off the shelf
package, or using a white label provider.
The majority of people I talk to who have tried to develop software
have run into serious problems. If you’re going to use software, make
sure its with a development group that has developed community/social
networking/dating sites in the past. If you have more generic needs you
could use an off the shelf package. Off the shelf dating site software
is a better bet than developing from scratch in most cases but most
packages tend to be buggy and the support costs can add up. My money
has always been on using white label services. You can find a list here.
White labeling services help negate operational costs, and help
entrepreneurs build a profitable businesses extremely quickly by
granting them access to an existing base of users. Rather than start
one generic site, I’d recommend starting a number of niches. Niche
dating sites tend to convert better than generic sites and tend to
garner more word-of-mouth exposure amongst their target audiences
because of their more focused approach. Let me know how it goes, mark@courtlandbrooks.com.
This post also appears on FrequentFlirters.
Improving Online Dating With Virtual Dates
HARVARD STUDY — Online dating is an undoubtedly popular way to meet potential partners. 11% of Internet users (16 million Americans) have used an online dating website. Online dating websites are highly successful in allowing people to connect with others outside of their existing social circles.
Most online dating sites use a "shopping" interface like that used by other commercial sites, in which commodities – users – are classified by different attributes (e.g., height, weight, income) which can be parsed and sorted in any way the shopper desires. Choosing partners online by sorting them on various attributes lacks the crucial component of real-time interaction so crucial to the acquaintanceship process. We sought to more closely mirror face-to-face interaction, where people get a sense of others – in real time – that is simply not available through standard online dating websites.
In an attempt to bridge this key difference between online and offline dating, we created Virtual Dates, online interactions designed to improve online dating by allowing daters to interact in a virtual environment that mirrors first dates in the real world.
Our research has demonstrated the benefits of adding image content to stimulate conversation. Individuals can like each other more if they are given an opportunity to chat online before chatting in person.
Our results suggest that Virtual Dates cause individuals to develop greater affinity toward one another when they actually meet, in line with other research showing the positive impact of real-time online rapport.
READ THE FULL STUDY