Month: June 2008

Parship’s Romantic Rich List

Posted on June 30, 2008

Minogue_branson_pictures
PRESS RELEASE — July 1 — Half
of Britain’s men would choose Kylie Minogue for a Romantic Rich List
date, according to a new poll of British singles by Parship. Virgin-al Richard Branson flies away with a third
of the female vote.

Topping Women’s Romantic Rich List
1. Richard Branson – 35%
2. Paul McCartney – 25%
3. Roman Abramovich – 19%
4. Alan Sugar – 13%          
5. Andrew Lloyd Webber – 5%
6. Mohamed al-Fayed – 2%

Topping Men’s Romantic Rich List
1. Kylie Minogue – 49%
2. J.K. Rowling – 23%
3. Madonna  – 12%
4. Kate Moss  – 10%
5. Jackie Collins – 3%
6. The Queen  – 3%

Surveys asking people
what they find attractive in others have shown that personality factors
and looks are cited as being far more important than wealth by the vast
majority of people.

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More Singles Finding Love After Age 45

Posted on June 30, 2008

Oldercouple USA TODAY — June 27 — A USA Today analysis of Census records of Americans ages 45-55 shows that the percentage of those who said they had never been married in 2006 had doubled since 1990, and the percentage of those who were currently married had dropped by 9%. According to the most recent data from the federal Survey of Income and Program Participation, which includes marriage, 13% of those who wed in 2003 were 45 and older. Internet dating has largely made it possible for many of these later-life first marriages. Yahoo Personals reports a 33% increase from January 2006 to November 2007 among users ages 45 and over who say they have never been married. Match.com reports an increase of almost 10%.

The full article was originally published at APP, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Things are looking up for the internet dating industry, and singles are getting more choosy. Jupiter Research predicts the internet dating industry to grow to $1.9B revenues in 2012, up from $900 million in 2007.

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Sparkbliss, CEO Joel Blatt Interview

Posted on June 28, 2008

Headshot_joel1 OPW INTERVIEW — June 28 — Sparkbliss is a tiny upstart startup dating site.  Here's our interview with the Joel Blatt, the CEO and Founder. – Mark Brooks

Listen To The Interview.mp3

What is your founding story?
I started Sparkbliss because I had a personal need to meet eligible people myself and I also saw a growing market opportunity in terms of what I deemed the conventional online dating approach as being flawed, not providing the results that we expect in typical business models.

What makes Sparkbliss different?
It's a private online dating site. We understand the the importance of protecting and controlling your personal information and not broadcasting it over the internet and not exposing it where it could compromise you. With Sparkbliss you truly control that information. So unlike every other social networking and online dating site, which enables you to search a database of photos and profiles, Sparkbliss doesn't allow that. The only way you can view Sparkbliss members is if you are invited by an existing member to view their bios. You can also forward the bios to your friends who you think would be interested in that person.

So it sounds like you are encouraging people to become matchmakers. Is that correct?
Yes. And I see incredible benefits to that approach. We hear about romance scams and sweetheart swindles, so I truly wanted to provide that truly safe and private forum for dating and meeting people. And by having the matchmaking model, people that you know, people you trust, are going to be doing your bidding and they will not make an introduction if you have outdated photos or plagiarized descriptions of your likes and dislikes. The matchmakers not only provide the introductions but they also add a testimonial or reference.

How do you motivate and reward the matchmakers?
For them, the motivation is the satisfaction that they're helping people they care about.

How do you make money? Is it free?
It is an advertising based model. It's a free online dating and matchmaking site.

How are you priming the pumps?
I've just been doing a lot of PR and conducting a lot of interviews. As of today, for example, I was interviewed by ABC radio.

I'm very confident now, especially from the reaction from the investment community. The need for protecting private information is emerging and Sparkbliss just fits nicely in saying 'look you do need to consider your personal privacy and here's how to do so without taking a whole lot of risk.'

FriendFinder IPO Delayed As Developers Mutiny

Posted on June 27, 2008

Friendfinder_inc_logo VALLEYWAG — June 27 — The effort to migrate into an online publishing and social networking powerhouse is being hampered by developers dissatisfied with working conditions and an inability to hire new staff.  An internal email obtained by Valleywag features Anthony Previte scolding the mutineers for disappearing from work early and being insubordinate. This news might put off the investors necessary to bankroll the company taking itself public — assuming the rumor that the big money has already demurred, delaying the planned $250m IPO, isn't true.

The full article was originally published at ValleyMag, but is no longer available.

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HIV+ Dating Sites Offer An Alternative

Posted on June 27, 2008

Aids_logo EDGE BOSTON — June 27 –  "Poz-only" dating site owners are hoping they help people infected with HIV meet others without the fear and exclusion they might encounter on other gay dating sites. The sites also give the men a forum to talk about it. The sites include BeOneCity, launched recently in Los Angeles, PositiveSingles, PozitiveLiving, PozMatch.com, PositivePersonals – all personals web sites for HIV+ people. Many organizations and HIV experts have not embraced serosorting. Although serosorting is entirely based on the foundation of trust, it is still a good way to reduce the spread of HIV to negative men, argues Robert Brandon Sandor, founder of  Poz4Poz, a series of parties for pozzers. FULL ARTICLE@ EDGE BOSTON
 

Growth In Live Video Chat Dating

Posted on June 27, 2008

Vdate_online BUSINESS WIRE — June 27 — Increased activity in live video chat dating is supported by the PEW Internet Study from January 2008 showing a 45% increase in online video audience interaction during the prior 12 month period. The membership growth in totally free online dating communities has accelerated to approximately 16% as projected by Jupiter Research's February 2008 report. VdateOnline's live webcam video chat interactions have increased by 28% during the second quarter of this year. VdateOnline offers its members free video or photo profiles, instant live webcam dating, video profile sharing, and virtual video dating. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: Webdate has been offering video dating since 2004 and was one of the pioneers in the dating category. Mobestar has extended video dating onto the cell phone. (Disclosure: Webdate is a client of Courtland Brooks)

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Meeta.com Launched

Posted on June 27, 2008

Meeta PR WEB — June 26 — Meeta.com, a free social dating site, is scheduled to launch today. Meeta.com offers members free unlimited communication with others, the opportunity to join and create interest groups and host events in their area, free search tools and a free matching system.  Meeta.com was founded by Brian Rauschenbach, Norman Clarke and Jason Llorin–all Internet dating pioneers with experience from online dating companies including Match.com, uDate.com, Perfectmatch.com, Kiss.com and ePersonals.com. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

More Isn’t Always Better

Posted on June 27, 2008

PHYSORG — June 27 — People are enticed by Match.com's offer of "millions of possibilities." But, as a team of researchers has shown in a recent study, this abundance of options may not make the chooser feel or choose any better than a pool of just a half dozen or so options. Researchers asked 88 participants what they thought was the ideal number of potential mates to choose from (range of 1-5,000). They said they would be most satisfied with 20-50 mate options. According to the study, people aren't paying very close attention to all of the various information provided in the profiles when they have many profiles to sift through and, thus, they might be missing out on interesting/suitable potential mates in this choice context.

The full article was originally published at PhysOrg, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: Most dating sites offer up match options in this sort of quantity. Its when the users search that they quickly become inundated. Younger women can often feel overwhelmed with attention. The best option for them is to remove their photo and do the searching themselves.

Globetech Ventures Is Launching A Global Dating Portal

Posted on June 27, 2008

Globetech_logo1 PRESS RELEASE — June 26 –  Globetech Ventures is launching a new global dating portal. This software product includes site branding, design implementation, special dating features, and innovative live and real-time voice chat rooms. Real-time video chat rooms are planned for the future. Other features include SMS interactivity with mobile phones and video conferencing.

The full article was originally published at CNN Money, but is no longer available.

Online Dating’s New Face

Posted on June 26, 2008

Eyealike_logo_2 INTERNET NEWS — June 26 — Facial recognition technology could help the lovelorn find a better match. Eyealike offers facial recognition systems for enterprises customers and online dating and social network sites. The idea is, users will be able to upload an image, or even choose from a selection of celebrity faces, and click on screen levers to adjust that image to their personal tastes. Mark Brooks, a consultant to the online dating industry, said facial recognition is the latest in series of technical advances with more to follow. He notes the advent of online "speed dating" sites like WooMe and ratings sites like Hot or Not. There are also already sites like MyDouble if you want to just see what celebrities you most resemble and perhaps use that info in a dating profile. Brooks agrees, the facial recognition and editing is better-suited to would be casual daters. "A site like eHarmony is slow to let users share photographs because it's more about getting to know the other person," he said. "A lot of this is about trying to fix the real world which is broken. In the real world, you see pretty girls and hunky men on magazine covers who are largely unattainable." FULL ARTICLE @ INTERNET NEWS

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