OPW – Oct 21 – Match hearts Oodle.com, that's for sure. Have a look at Oodle now and its chock full of Match profiles. Match has done a distribution deal with Oodle and loaded the site up with several hundred thousand profiles. If you want to beat out the Match.com deal be prepared to pay North of 10c CPC, but don't expect more than a 5% conversion of clicks to registrants.
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This post also appears on FrequentFlirters.
PRESS RELEASE – Oct 15 - Swissmatch AG, providers of the anonymous mobile solution, IcallU, have partnered with the online dating service, SugarDaddyForMe.com, to offer the fully integrated voice and SMS service to its members. IcallU allows dating sites to offer secure communication between members. With IcallU, dating sites are able to earn a revenue share from the mobile to mobile calls.
The full article was originally published at ICallU website, but is no longer available.
PRESS RELEASE – Oct 20 - Lovetropolis.com, a dating site, and Couturemoda.com are partnering to make available Lovetropolis.com’s full range of dating and social networking services to Couturemoda.com’s shoppers.
The full article was originally published at Official Wire, but is no longer available.
TECH CRUNCH – Oct 20 - Zoosk, a social dating site, sees an ~12M unique users a month, and has a member base totaling over 40M. Based on last month’s performance, the company says it has a $30M run rate, and expects to close out this year with $18-$20M in revenue. Zoosk launched back in 2007, and has been showing some strong growth recently, particularly on social networks. The site has a strong presence across Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Friendster. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
PRESS RELEASE – Oct 20 - People Media, the leader in targeted online dating communities, ranked #359 on Technology Fast 500, Deloitte LLP`s ranking of 500 of the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on percentage of fiscal year revenue growth during the five year period from 2004-2008. People Media grew 342% during this period.
The full article was originally published at Reuters, but is no longer available.
PR NEWSWIRE – Oct 20 - AARP, the world's largest organization for people 50+, has announced that one of the industry's leading relationship experts, Dr. Pepper Schwartz, will be the organization's new Love & Relationshipsexpert. In her new role, Dr. Schwartz will guide AARP's members through the emotional, physical and practical sides of love, dating and sexuality as you age. Schwartz is the author of 16 books and over 50 academic articles. She is presently also the relationship expert for Perfectmatch.com.
The full article was originally published at Reuters, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Its about time AARP teamed up with a personality profiling dating site. I wonder when the AARP PerfectMatch cobrand will be launched?
DIGITAL MEDIA – Oct 20 - ninemsn and Match.com today announced a renewal to their exclusive agreement for dating services on the ninemsn network. The relationship, which began in May 2008, has been extended for three years. The announcement comes hot on the heels of Fairfax digital's latest attempt to jazz up the dating market with the soft launch of MyType, an extension of the RSVP brand. The service hopes to create more specific matches by asking users to submit to advanced personality based tests. According to Hitwise, RSVP is still the market leading dating site in Australia, with over 15% of the dating market share.
The full article was originally published at Digital Spy, but is no longer available.
READ WRITE WEB – Oct 19 – Loopt is introducing a new iPhone app called Loopt Mix. The new app is actually a spin-off of Loopt’s “Mix” feature, which lets you browse the Loopt profiles of those around you within its original mobile social networking app. Although the company is not specifically marketing Mix as a dating app, it’s clearly designed for mobile singles.
The full article was originally published at ReadWriteWeb, but is no longer available.
Website: http://www.friendfinder.com
Company profile: The FriendFinder Network is the leading global online relationship network, allowing over 100 million registered members to meet people with similar interests and mindsets in a fun environment. Founded in 1996 and privately owned, The FriendFinder Network operates with a staff of more than 200 from its corporate headquarters in sunny Palo Alto, California.
FriendFinder, Inc. may plan to make acquisitions. The company filed for a $460 million initial public offering (IPO) in December 2008. The firm plans to use the IPO proceeds to pay down debt as well as in funding future possible acquisitions.
Date started: 1996
Current CEO: Andrew Conru (since Dec 2012, also founder of the company)
Past CEOs: Marc H. Bell (2004-2012)
Traffic: 50,651 unique visitors (friendfinder.com; Compete June 15)
Revenue: most recent numbers available under this link
Users: 600,000,000 (all the FF Networks sites)
Owners: FriendFinder Networks
Acquisitions: FriendFinder owner Various was acquired by FriendFinderNetworks (formerly Penthouse Media) for $500M in 12/07
Blog: http://friendfinder.com/blog/index.html?site=ff
Number of employees: 420+
Based in: Palo Alto, CA, USA
Telephone: +1 650 847 3100
Email: sales@friendfinderinc.com (advertising sales)
pr@friendfinderinc.com (PR)
bd@friendfinderinc.com (business development)
affiliate@friendfinder.com (affiliate webmaster program)
Profitable?: no
September 2013 – FriendFinder Networks Files For Bankruptcy, Andrew Conru And Lars Mapstead To Take Control Of FriendFinder
December 2013 – FriendFinder Networks has announced a plan of reorganization that takes effect three months after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Annual advertising budget: $60 million annual online advertising budget
Ad agency: The Kluger Agency (Facebook, July 09)
Promotion channels used: affiliate programs
FriendFinder sites:
(all numbers from Oct 09, from FF websites)
FriendFinder news on OnlinePersonalsWatch
Courtland Brooks clients can access the top 20 company profiles.