PRESS RELEASE — June 30 — Spark Networks announced today ChristianMingle, a Christian dating site that launched in 2001, has crossed the 2 million member mark.
The full article was originally published at Earth Times, but is no longer available.
Month: June 2009
Kris Covino Wins Scammer Email Competition
OPW — June 29 — After receiving an email on this post from a scammer, we launched a scammer email competition to see who could come up with a better scammer email. Kris Covino of Date.com wins the competition and we've donated $200 to his favorite charity, the Sick Kids Foundation.
Internet Dating Unplugged
GUARDIAN.CO.UK — June 27 – 15m people in the UK are single, and almost 5m are shopping for love online. According to Markus Frind, the CEO of Plentyoffish, 1/3 of POF users form a relationship, 1/3 do not and 1/3 give up. One in five married people between the ages of 19 and 25 met their partner online, in a YouGov poll of more than 2,000. 15% of couples met online. Research at Bath University found that internet relationships lasted, on average, seven months. Clyde Baldo, a psychologist who works with disillusioned internet daters, said "Many people are addicted to online dating. The problems lie in the fact that it is not a real relationship, but one in cyberspace. When you meet people conventionally, friends or colleagues introduce you. These factors create boundaries, so you tend to behave better. This doesn't exist on the internet. Dr Paige Padgett of the University of Texas has conducted a survey of the personal and sexual safety of women who internet date. 30% of women who meet men on the internet have sex on the first date. Of those, 77% do not use condoms. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK
New Mobile Apps Make Adultery Easier
TIME — June 29 — AshleyMadison.com, a personals site designed to facilitate extra-marital affairs, has released an iPhone and Blackberry app. AshleyMadison's membership has doubled over the past year to 4m. Over the past month alone, 679,000 men and women have used the service to contact a cheating partner. FULL ARTICLE @ TIME
Startups Smell Userplane Blood
TECH CRUNCH — June 29 – There has been no shortage of talk about the apparent demise of Userplane, the text, voice and video chat software provider that was acquired by AOL in August 2006 for around $40m. Darin Ohlandt, General Manager of Userplane, responded to the rumors saying they are definitely not shutting down. A recent thread on OnlinePersonalsWatch suggested that the site would be deadpooled by its owner soon. A developer commented on the thread claiming he had tried to contact Userplane for weeks through e-mails, voice calls and social networks and received no response. Many startups with competing solutions are taking advantage of the rumors about Userplane's impending shut-down. Toksta is the most outspoken one, having set up a special page for Userplane clients who are looking to switch to an alternative provider. Other competitors include Meebo and ekkoTV. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
Mark Brooks: I had two high trust sources that I've known for several years confirm that Userplane was to be retired. Not sold, just quietly retired. Userplane is having life breathed back into it. Good. It would be a shame to lose the company to the deadpool.
As Seniors Live Longer They Find ‘Love Expectancy’ Also Grows
MC CLATCHY NEWSPAPERS — June 26 — Seniors are the fastest-growing users of Internet dating services and the fastest growing group of cohabiters. Longer healthy life expectancy is part of the explanation. According to Mark Brooks, a consultant and newsletter writer who tracks the Internet-dating industry, the number of seniors joining online dating services has risen at double-digit rates annually since 2003, the most of any age group. According to Susan Brown, a demographer at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, cohabiting among older people increased 50% from 2000 to 2006. The older they get, the more senior men favor younger women, according to researchers. Good men are hard to find. Unmarried women aged 65 to 74 outnumber men of that age by more than two to one. Mark Brooks said seniors' personal ads often were deceptive about sex and commitment: "Women lie about wanting casual relationships. Men lie about wanting long-term ones." FULL ARTICLE @ THE STATE
People Media Launches New Niche Online Dating Sites
PRWEB — June 25 — People Media, a provider of niche online dating communities, launched six new targeted dating sites for AOL Personals and re-launched all of its existing sites. The new People Media-powered AOL Personals communities are designed expressly for niche audiences, such as BlackPeopleMeet.com for black singles. Additional sites are for singles seeking Jews, Catholics, Christians, single parents and seniors. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
See all posts on AOL Personals
See all posts on BlackPeopleMeet
Attivio Partners With FriendScout24
PR NEWSWIRE — June 25 – Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine (AIE) has been selected to power Deutsche Telekom's FriendScout24. Using Attivio's Active Intelligence Engine, FriendScout24 was able to create a more user-friendly site with real-time field updates that lets visitors know which members best match their dating criteria and are actually present online at that moment.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
World-class Rapper Partners With PlentyofFish.com
PRWEB — June 25 – PlentyOfFish.com, the largest online dating site in
the USA, and world-class rapper, Flo Rida, are teaming up to unveil his
latest video, ‘Available’. The music video can be found at http://www.
dating sites have often been featured in movies and TV shows,
‘Available’ marks the first time that the online dating industry and
the world of hip-hop have partnered up to spread their messages across
both platforms. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB