ELECTRIC NEWS — Mar 23 — Bharat Matrimony offers registered users a special 'facial search' software that scans the features of its 15m users. You can't search for an Indian version of Julia Roberts or Brad Pitt. Instead, users are restricted to the site's gallery of leading Indian celebrities to pick from. The face of Aishwarya, a former Miss World winner, is the most requested.
The full article was originally published at Electric News, but is no longer available.
WALLETPOP — Mar 22 — Individuals on the dating scene are starting to check out their date's assets before getting serious. A recent Match.com survey found that over 80% of singles are more selective about who they date now that the economy has gone south. There are even websites devoted to matching people with others in a select credit score range! One such site, CreditScoreDating.com with the tagline "Credit Scores Are Sexy," claims to help thousands of people a day meet others with good credit.
The full article was originally published at WalletPop, but is no longer available.
JAMIE SCHEU — Mar 18 – I announced the Worst Ad of 2009 not long ago, but I thought it would be a while before I could name a contender for the title of Best Ad of ‘09. But here it is. These are currently running all over Boston, mostly in and around public transportation. Not a bad way to set yourself apart in a sea of competition.
The full article was originally published at Jamie Scheu, but is no longer available.
KOREA TIMES — Mar 23 — Sunoo, the country's 2nd largest matchmaking
firm, kicked off a matchmaking site for foreigners. Members of couple.net ($20 fee) can access Sunoo's client database of
15,000 men and women. No.1 market player Duo labels the business as "too
risky.'' "Matchmaking agencies need to take responsibility in verifying
subscribers' identification and background,'' said Kim Sun-ah, a Duo
spokeswoman. Sunoo agency, however, requires applicants to
accept a personal information verification agreement, which holds
members legally responsible for the information they provided. If the
information is proven to be false, she said violators may have to pay
more than 100m won ($7000) in compensation. FULL ARTICLE @ KOREA TIMES
Mark
Brooks: The Western world has fallen in love with internet dating.
Asia, on the other hand, is in love with traditional matchmakers. India has its matrimonial services. China has tens of thousands of
matchmakers and hybrid services suh as Baihe.com and Zhenai.com.
OPW INTERVIEW — Mar 21 — Messmo does mobile and now serves the personals industry by extending dating sites onto all mobile phones.
What is your background?
20+ years at large UK and US software companies in senior roles, particularly in sales and marketing. For 7 years I've been an active Angel investor, based out of Australia, in both the mobile and social networking space: Blue Sky Frog, Australia's first multi-million user mobile property, and KidSpot.com.au, Australia's #1 parenting and social networking site.
Tell us more about Messmo
A couple of colleagues and I made an investment in some interesting technology for mobile. The easiest way to think of it is SMS Version 2; if you have mobile Internet, SMS should be free.
Messmo did an 8 month beta test, in the consumer market and picked up over half a million users. We also started a dialogue with one very large global personals player based out of Australia, and we realized there were some significant opportunities in the personals space. We created Messmo Media to help personals sites extend their experience to mobile in a very simple, elegant way.
What functionalities have you built into Messmo so far?
It's very much like SMS. It's highly interactive; messages can contain pictures and all things you would expect if you were using an Internet backbone.
Messmo has built a very closed environment. Using Messmo with personals, members can't see each other except when they come through the personals site. It's a no-spam environment, no external advertising.
How can you help Internet dating companies make more money?
In three ways. Firstly Messmo has patented technology that can trigger a mobile transaction which means the user gets billed on their mobile bill. This opens the door to tempt all those non paying members, when they receive a new message, to make a quick impulse transaction, such as a day pass, via a single click. Secondly increased interaction – most members spend 20 or more hours away from a PC each day, but usually their mobile is with them night and day. Delivering messages and replies at zero cost, increases interaction and the likelihood of the member quickly returning to the site. Thirdly Messmo has very sophisticated viral and recommendation technologies (all you friends are in your contact list on your mobile) that were proven in the test period. These have enormous potential to help drive down the cost of new member acquisition for sites.
Who would you say in reality are the end users in mobile dating in your experience?
Mobile dating can mean two different things. To a mobile operator, any on-deck solution that makes them money is mobile dating. But to an existing site owner, with their own membership, mobile dating should simply mean extending their existing communication to their member's mobiles, when the member is not at a PC. We think the second definition is what mobile dating is about.
What countries do you serve?
Messmo is global; in any country that supports mobile data you could reach a Messmo user. This is significant because let's imagine that there was a personals site we'll call "Cupid Make Friends". If they were visible on Messmo, a user anywhere in the world could, when running Messmo, see Cupid Make Friends straightaway. Their interaction with the site would be identical, whether they were in the UK, Italy, Thailand or Australia.
How would you differentiate the Messmo offerings from a company like Trilibis?
The most popular experience in the world on mobile is of course SMS. We replicate that experience and add extras like much richer messages, but the interface and integration is very very simple. think days, not weeks or months compared to alternative approaches.
PRESS RELEASE — Mar 19 — Dr Helen Fisher, the chief scientific advisor to match.com has revealed the science behind successful relationships after testing the romantic chemistry of nearly 30,000 singles.
Chemicals such as dopamine, oestrogen, serotonin or testosterone are most dominant in the brain. The balance of these chemicals helps create four different personality types which can then be used to determine how compatible people are.
The four personality types are explorers, builders, negotiators and directors.
Explorers, ruled by dopamine, tend to be novelty seeking, risk-taking and spontaneous and tend to work well with other explorers.
Serotonin is the dominant chemical in builders, people who are calm, conscientious, loyal and cautious. Negotiators (oestrogen) are imaginative, intuitive and compassionate and they have good people skills while directors, who are ruled by testosterone, are more direct, decisive, competitive and often musical. Directors and Negotiators are better with each other than with a person sharing the same characteristics. FULL ARTICLE @ RESPONSE SOURCE
PRESS RELEASE — Mar 19 – 'Are You Interested?' app is now available for download in iPhone app store. The SNAP mobile app is an extension and evolution of SNAP's popular Facebook Platform dating app 'Are You Interested?', which presently has more than 12m users.
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.
OPW — Mar 18 — The Platinum service is Dateline’s premium brand. New members are interviewed by professionally trained relationship consultants, who work with them to produce an accurate individual profile and offer advice and information on selecting, meeting and dating potential partners. Brands currently working with Dateline Platinum include SpeedDater, Laterlife, Solos Holidays, SPICE UK, Midsummers Eve and Nexus, with talks ongoing with other major leisure brands.
PR NEWSWIRE — Mar 18 – More than one million people are affected by divorce each year. DivorceNetwork.com – a worldwide support community – launches today to provide a social networking platform for those affected by, contemplating or going through a divorce.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO — Mar 17 — With people cutting back you'd think the dating industry would be hurting. But it's not. Janis Spindel, a matchmaker in Manhattan, says she is busy. Depending on the client, her rates can zip right up to $250,000. Match.com had over 20% more members this Dec than last. "Now we have a recession, we're seeing double-digit growth in many of the leading companies", said Mark Brooks, a consultant to the online dating industry. If the economy was doing well the numbers would be flat, he thinks. When people are going through tough times they look to be with people who care about them, who will understand their concerns", said Dr. Michael Cunningham, a psychologist who has been studying relationships for decades.
The show was originally published at Marketplace, but is no longer available.