OPW — Jan 8 — iDate now has an official Facebook group. Click here. Membership is open. – Mark Brooks
Month: January 2009
Free Dating Sites Give Paid Sites A Run For Their Money
TECH CRUNCH — Jan 7 — Earlier this week IAC (owns Match & Chemistry) launched a completely free dating site called DownToEarth.com. This move is IAC/Match.com's answer to Plentyoffish.com. Apparently IAC believes if someone is going to put Match out of business, it might as well be Match. But Markus Frind fancies his chances with Plentyoffish.com.The top free dating sites in the USA are currently:
#1 Plentyoffish
#2 Adam4Adam
#3 Date Hookup
#4 OKCupid
#5 Mingle2
And in the UK:
#1 Plentyoffish
#2 Person
#3 FriendsReunitedDating.co.uk
#4 Smooch
#5 Freedating.co.uk
Apple iPhone Flirting App Announced By Viximo
PHONES REVIEW — Jan 7 — Viximo announced their TrueFlirt application for the Apple iPhone at Macworld 2009. TrueFlirt allows users to send virtual "flirts" which combine social messages with animation.
The full article was originally published at Phones Review, but is no longer available.
Going Bust, Again
NY TIMES — Jan 7 — Friendfinder Networks (formerly Penthouse Media Group) is trying to go public in this market and plans to list on NYSE if it does find buyers. Penthouse went bankrupt in 2003. It was taken over by Pet Capital Partners, which gained control by buying up Penthouse bonds that received stock in the reorganization. If investors will not put up enough money, Bankruptcy No. 2 looms again. The big investment banks seem to be shying away from the deal, even though at $460m it would generate badly needed fees. The only underwriter is a Cyprus-based subsidiary of a Russian bank. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
Metrodate.com Now 100% Free
PR WEB — Jan 7 — Previously Metrodate was dependent on premium
membership revenue (~$19.95 per month).
The decision to make the site free came from
reviewing the needs of the consumers. Feedback from users indicated
that they were growing accustomed to the trend of web sites being free.
Instead, Metrodate.com's focus for revenue will be local, targeted
advertising. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Mark
Brooks: POF makes 30c CPM from Adsense these days. Far more is
possible with direct ad sales. But Metrodate would need to build to
millions of page views to justify hiring an ad sales person. Looks
like they're running 35k visits a month right now. That should bring
in about $15.
Online Dating Sites Flirt With Record Growth
FORBES — Jan 6 — With the current downturn in the economy, singles are turning away from traditional methods of meeting people casually in bars and instead are flocking to online dating. Easydate.biz has gone from making a pretax profit of £180k in 2006 to a projected £6m this year. Parship claims it has grown by 400% in sales terms from 2005 to 2007. In Britain alone, 8m active singles went on 24m first dates in 2008, with 69% of these arranged online. FULL ARTICLE @ FORBES
Meetic: 2009 Target: 20-25% EBITDA Margin
PR NEWSWIRE — Jan 5 — Meetic will focus on profitability in 2009. Meetic allocated ~15m Euros exceptional ad expenditure in 2008, mainly for offline branding to increase the profile DatingDirect, Neu.de and the matchmaking service MeeticAffinity. The Group is confident that it will gain a significant share of the European matchmaking market in 2009 and generate EBITDA margin of 20% to 25%. In '08 the Group disposed of its Chinese operations (eFriendsNet, Yeeyoo). Investments in Latin America, which are currently marginal, will be maintained.
The full article was originally published at MSN Money, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Search and communication features are not enough for paid dating services now. You need to differentiate by improving and branding your 'matchmaking' technologies. That's how you can differentiate and charge a premium. Create a black box with magical matchmaking services. Find a camera friendly spokesperson.
Recession Boosts Online Dating
TELEGRAPH.CO.UK — Jan 5 — Match.com reported pre-tax profit of £3.67m in the year to 12/31/07, compared with a loss of £2.19m a year before. Last year, total revenue for Match worldwide rose 12% to $348.7m (£240m) and operating income rose 13% to $65.8m. The international growth was driven by the UK and Scandinavia. British dating sites in general are seeing a rise in members despite the credit crunch. Nielsen Online indicate a 15% rise in unique users visiting online dating sites in Nov compared with the same month last year. Match and EasyDate, which owns the SpeedDater, DatetheUK and BeNaughty brands, say they have seen some of their best days of trading since the collapse of Lehman Brothers ramped up global financial turmoil in September. Ross Williams, founder and chairman of WhiteLabelDating.com, says its database of members has grown by 250% to over 1m in the UK, and overall annualised revenues have increased by 450% to over £12m in the past 12 months as the dating sector booms in the economic gloom. Mark Brooks, an internet dating analyst, says: "The entire industry, with the exception of more marginal traditional matchmakers, is doing better despite the downturn." FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
See all posts on Match.com See all posts on DatetheUK
See all posts on SpeedDater See all posts on WhiteLabelDating
Web Video Captures The Truth
STAR LEDGER — Jan 5 — When she hit 40, Neenah Pickett decided to find a husband by 2010. She created 52Weeks2FindHim.com so she can post self-descriptive videos and speed-date with email responders from her home via webcam. Online dating took off in the early 1990s, with users posting detailed personality profiles and flattering photos. More recently, sites like webdate.com and speeddate.com began to feature video dating, said Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com, an industry site for online personals. "Sometimes, you go out on a date with somebody and find out they don't have a full head of hair, or are 20 pounds heavier than that photo taken years ago," Brooks said. "With a video date, you see what you're going to get. It's very compelling."
The full article was originally published at NJ.com, but is no longer available.
Agenda Finalized For IDate, Jan 21-23, 2009 In Miami
PRESS RELEASE — Jan 4 — The 5th Annual Internet Dating Industry and Matchmaking Industry event will focus on generating revenue and adapting to the current market. Ticonderoga Ventures, retained Courtland Brooks, a boutique marketing consulting that focuses on the internet dating industry, to recruit an almost all-CEO cast at this years conference and handle media relations for the event. In addition, the agenda contains two separate pre-event sessions; an Introduction to the Online Dating Industry provided by Mark Brooks, publisher of Online Personals Watch and principal of Courtland Brooks, and a Matchmaker Event provided by Julie Ferman, CEO of Cupid's Coach.
The full article was originally published at 1888PressRelease, but is no longer available.