Month: March 2010

Online Scammers Still Using Love To Get Money

Posted on March 11, 2010

Iovationlogo IOVATION BLOG – Mar 10 – According to a recent Toronto Sun article, “Money scammers target online daters,” Durham Regional Police received several reports—all during the weeks following Valentine’s day—from women claiming they had been scammed by men they met online. In a recent Miami New Times article, “Tech Keeps Scammers Out of Your Heart and Wallet,” iovation reported the following statistics based on activity from the last 90 days alone:

    * Over 67,000 instances of spam
    * Over 30,000 scams and solicitations
    * Over 13,000 member profiles misrepresented
    * Over 5,000 cases of identity mining and phishing

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

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10 Secrets To Finding Love Online

Posted on March 11, 2010

LoveButton_article LIFESCRIPT – Feb 25 - If you’re trolling online dating sites, certain strategies work better than others. These 10 tried-and-true tips from experts and successful online daters will help you put your best foot forward.
1. Pick the right site. "Take a two-pronged approach, combining a general site with a niche site,” says Eric Resnick, founder of Profile Helper, a company that works on online dating profiles.
2. Take the compatibility test. "They’re “a wonderful little filter” to weed out men looking for casual encounters", says online dating expert Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com.
3. Pick an appropriate screen name. “Your screen name is your first impression,” says Cristy Stewart-Harfmann, a matchmaker and online dating profile consultant.
4. Stand out. “Your online dating profile should repel about 95% of the people who read it,” Resnick says. “But for the people who could be a good match, we want them to know it was written for them.”
5. Drop the purple prose. It’s better to show – not tell – what you’re all about.
6. Post pictures. And at least one has to be a full-body shot.
7. Set ground rules. Setting limits prevents from getting in too deep too fast and allows you to bail if there’s no chemistry. 
8. Play it safe. Don’t give out personal information. Always meet first in a public place. Make sure a friend knows where you are and when you’re expected home. Do a background check. 
9. Meet in person quickly. If you’re leery of meeting face to face too soon, test the waters with a video chat on Skype. Or go on a “virtual date.” PersonalQuest.com and OmniDate using this technology.
10. Complain about the weirdos.
FULL ARTICLE @ LIFESCRIPT

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Meetic/Match Joint-Venture In Latin America Completed

Posted on March 10, 2010

Meetic matchcom loga PRESS RELEASE – Mar 10 - As announced on 4th February 2010, Meetic
and Match.com, a subsidiary of IAC, signed a strategic agreement to
create a joint venture in Latin America. As foreseen by this agreement,
Meetic and Match.com have thus contributed their respective activities
on the South American continent to the new entity: Meetic’s ParPerfeito
site and Match.com’s activities in other Latin American countries.
Following the deal, Match.com and Meetic each own 50% of the new joint
venture’s equity, whilst Match.com will control the entity’s operations. Read the full press release HERE.

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Black Americans One Of The Fastest-Growing Segments In Online Dating

Posted on March 10, 2010

Blackpeople meet logo nove MARKETWATCH – Mar 10 – According to research from Packaged Facts, more than six out of ten Black Americans are unmarried, thereby making that group the most unattached in America. The solution may lie in online dating, where African-Americans now constitute one of the fastest-growing segments of that market. BlackPeopleMeet.com is operated by People Media. Launched in 2002, BlackPeopleMeet has helped introduce tens of thousands of couples, with a majority of members ages 35-45. Every month, the site reaches 4% of the total Black population in the US.

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

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How Big Is The Facebook Economy?

Posted on March 10, 2010

A-fistful-of-cash-001 GUARDIAN.CO.UK – Mar 10 - Investors are pumping more and more money into web services that are heavily reliant on Facebook. Smartdate received $2.2m from investors to try and build its idea of using Facebook data as the basis of a matchmaking service. We know from a number of reports and internal estimates that Facebook itself is due to post somewhere upwards of $1bn in revenue for 2010. How many companies rely on Facebook to keep themselves going? The conservative estimate must stretch into several billions of dollars worth of business at least. Back in November, Electronic Arts bought social gaming site Playfish, in a deal worth ~$275m, meanwhile Zynga, another developer of popular games has already taken more than $200m of venture capital. Other companies making apps include Slide, Mindjolt and FriendFeed (bought by Facebook for ~$50m). FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

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Online Video-dating Cuts Guesswork

Posted on March 10, 2010

Skyecandy logo NEWS.COM.AU – Mar 10 – New internet services are killing the blind date and
banishing the uncertainty that comes with meeting a mate online. An
Australian service called Skyecandy leading the charge. Skyecandy users
can sign up for up to 10 five-minute online speed dates in a row, with
partners chosen on their age, basic details and location. Skyecandy
works with Skype. The service had attracted ~18,000 users so far, with
online daters in Australia and the US the fastest adopters. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWS.COM.AU

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Sex.com: The Most Expensive Domain Name In History

Posted on March 10, 2010

Sexcom picture TELEGRAPH.CO.UK – Mar 10 - Sex.com is up for auction with bidding starting at $1M. The
website name was last bought in 2006 for a reported record $14M backed
by DOM Partners LLC. Sex.com's record title has been broken by
Insure.com, which sold for $16M last year. But the lender is now
foreclosing the Internet property after the owner Escom failed to pay
its loan. It was originally purchased by Gary Kremen, the entrepreneur
who founded Match.com in 1994. Two years later, through a scam, the
ownership was transferred to Stephen Cohen, resulting in a five-year
legal battle over ownership. A Californian judge awarded $65 million in
damages to Mr Kremen and returned him the rights to sex.com. He put the site on the market in 2006, and Escom reportedly paid $14M. FULL ARTICLE @ TELEGRAPH.CO.UK

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The Cold Hard Facts About Internet Dating

Posted on March 10, 2010

Zhenai logo CHINA DAILY – Mar 10 – Dr Li Song is the CEO and co-founder of the world's largest matchmaking website for Chinese speakers, www.zhenai.com. It
boasts 23M registered users – and new ones are signing up at a rate of
30,000 a day. The size of Dr Li's database enables his team of 400
call-center matchmakers to input the data for each new seeker of love,
and out pops the most likely suitor for his or her profile. "There are
two approaches to matchmaking," says Dr Li. "One is that you come up
with a psychological theory and predict the results based on your
theory, but because my background is more mathematically inclined, what
I do is based on statistical results. "We operate on two matrices: how
many of our callers get at least one date (we aim at 93%) and the time
it takes between establishing contact and the actual date. This should
be within two and a half weeks." FULL ARTICLE @ CHINA DAILY

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Interview With Fabrice Le Parc, Founder Of Smartdate

Posted on March 9, 2010

Fabrice leparc DATING WATCH – Mar 8 – After launching Be2 in France and Benelux, Fabrice Le Parc started a new adventure with SmartDate.com, a Facebook-connected dating site. Smartdate has just announced 2M Eur funding.

Q: What is your background?
A: After graduating from HEC (School of Management) in 1999 I was working for start-ups such as Nameplanet, which was sold in 2000, and later for Lycos. I took part in 2 reality dating shows in France and USA. Then my path crossed with Be2. I led the launch of Be2 in France and Benelux. When I turned 30 I told myself that it's time to launch my own site.

Q: Can you tell us more about Smartdate? What are its specifics?
A: Mainly it's the integration with Facebook. Smartdate uses Facebook Friends as a criteria for your dating search.

Q: How are you different from the likes of Zoosk?
A: Smartdate goes further with the matching in relation to Facebook. The matching is the element that users pay for.

Q: What value does Facebook brings in general to dating?
A: It is more addictive and playful and the dates are more authentic.

Q: Do you believe in personality profiling?

A: The approach of "psychological tests" remains an interesting marketing angle, but I think that the effectiveness of these famous tests has not been shown yet.

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

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Double Your Success With Virtual Gifts

Posted on March 9, 2010

DATEHOOKUP BLOG – Mar 8 – Not sending virtual gifts is a huge mistake. According to stats from DateHookup people who sent a gift with their message were nearly twice as likely to receive a reply than those who did not send a gift. 26% of messages that include a gift get a reply vs. only 14% of messages that don’t include a gift. A gift stands out a lot more than a regular old message. And those who stand out always get more attention. Another reason they work is because people appreciate a nice gesture.

Chart_GiftReplyPercentage

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

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