PR WEB – Jan 19 – Dating Factory announced that Eddy Ankrett, a UK based dating expert and entrepreneur, will join the Dating Factory team. Ankrett will primarily focus on UK market development. He brings with him 20 years of experience in offline, online and white label dating experience. According to Dating Factory co-founder Mark Harrison, 2010 was a highly productive year with impressive growth. He believes Ankrett will be a driving force behind an strong 2011 as well. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Month: January 2011
FreeDating.co.uk Partners With Messmo For Mobile Messaging
PR WEB – Jan 19 – FreeDating.co.uk, one of the UK's largest free online dating sites, has integrated messmo's AnyPhone messaging system. AnyPhone mobile-enables every member of the site, regardless of the member's handset. messmo's patent pending system allows users to send and receive messages safely and seamlessly from FreeDating.co.uk's messaging system or another user's handset. Dan Winchester, CEO of FreeDating.co.uk, said, “ With messmo’s AnyPhone messaging system, we are able to let members receive and reply via text from mobile as they follow their favourite or hotlisted members.” Brendan O'Kane, CEO of messmo, said, " messmo’s patent pending AnyPhone messaging system, by assigning unique cell numbers, lets members harness the power of SMS, while hiding user’s real mobile numbers.” FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Dating Lab Loses Matthew Pitt To Global Personals
PRESS RELEASE – Jan 18 – Matthew Pitt, the former Managing Director for The Dating Lab, is now Operations Director for Global Personals (White Label Dating). Pitt brings fifteen years experience in digital media, online dating and e-commerce. Ross Williams, CEO, said “We are on a winning streak, both with our dating brands such as Singles365, DatingAgency and FlirtFix, but also through our B2B dating platform WhiteLabelDating.com that powers sites for media brands Bauer Media, The Independent, Nat Mags and Dennis Publishing. We experienced our highest revenue in company history last month.”
Badoo.com Reaches Top 10 Facebook Apps, Now Largest Facebook Dating App
SOURCEWIRE – Jan 17 – Badoo's meteoric rise to the top was fueled by an impressive 370% increase in users over the holiday season, gaining nearly 14 M users in less than 4 weeks. The 4 year old start-up based in Soho, London has surpassed Are YOU Interested? by SNAP Interactive, Pet Society by Electronics Arts and Quiz Planet by CrowdStar to claim the number 7 spot in Facebook Apps. The app is gaining 300,000 new users a day. With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, Social Media Industry analysts are suggesting 28 million monthly users and a Top 5 Facebook App rating is in the company's near future. FULL ARTICLE @ SOURCEWIRE
Snap Interactive To Target International Markets
OBSERVER – Jan 18 – Snap Interactive, creator of Facebook dating app AreYouInterested, ha seen impressive revenue growth of 230% since 2009 along with 50,000 new users a day. The company reported $2.7-2.8 million in revenue for Q4 2010. Shares of Snap Interactive rose more than 1000% after Goldman Sachs had invested in Facebook at a $50 billion valuation. Snap Interactive now has the resources to expand into international markets. "We've always had to operate very lean, so this recent funding was a real game changer for us," says Darrell Lerner, co-Founder of Snap Interactive. "We're no Zynga yet, but expect us to use this capital to expand AreYouInterested in a big way and begin to work on some new offerings as well."
The full article was originally published at Observer, but is no longer available.
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eHarmony Selects Omnicom’s OMD For Media Efforts
ADWEEK – Jan 17 – eHarmony has chosen to replace incumbent, Ocean Media, with OMD to handle its media chores. The transition will take place over the next 90 days. The 10 year old matchmaking company spends approximately $90 million a year on advertising according to ad tracker Kantar Media. Neither eHarmony, nor OMD would comment on the deal. eHarmony is estimated to have generated $250 million in revenue in 2009.
The full article was originally published at Adweek, but is no longer available.
Match.com Inks Deal With Fresh One
BROADCAST – Jan 18 – Match.com has tapped Jamie Oliver's Fresh One Productions to produce content for the dating site. Ten short films for Facebook, a TV ad and an hour long documentary are currently planned. Fresh One managing executive producer Zoe Collins said: “‘This project uses our skills as storytellers to create advertising that’s got the potential to really engage people. Moving from long-form to using content in such a dynamic and multi-platform fashion has its creative and logistical challenges, but the essential truths about film-making remain the same.” FULL ARTICLE @ BROADCAST
Julie Spira To Be Featured Speaker At iDate 2011 In Miami
PRESS RELEASE – Jan 18 – Author and online dating expert, Julie Spira, will be speaking at the 2011 Internet Dating Conference in Miami. Spira will present Web Dating 2.0: Using Social Media to Create Brand Loyalty to conference attendees. She will show online dating site owners how to develop their brand through social media marketing during her session held on January 21, 2011 at 3:30pm. Spira's coveted dating advice has appeared on eHarmony, FOX News, Glamour, Huffington Post, JDate, Match, Men's Health, PC World, WIRED, Woman's Day, Your Tango, and Zoosk. The Internet Dating Conference will be held concurrently with the Social Networking Conference. Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch will be presenting the 2010 Year in Review at both conferences. Conference organizer Marc Lesnick will be speaking about the emergence of many free online dating sites and what they mean to the industry.
The full article was originally published at Conntact, but is no longer available.
Chris Walker, Founder Of Datingstartshere.com
OPW INTERVIEW – Jan 18 – Yale educated Chris Walker was one of the founding members of Operation Match in the 60’s. Now, after 40 years, he’s turned his attention back to the dating industry. He was frustrated with the user experience for people new to internet dating. DatingStartsHere is his answer.
For travel you use Kayak.com. For internet dating… DatingStartsHere.com. Datingstartshere.com’s mission is to be a starting point for singles. An introductory service for introductory services, if you like. Dating websites can work with DSH and get traffic. (FD: Chris Walker is a client of Courtland Brooks) – Mark Brooks
How did you become involved in the online dating industry?
I was involved in the early stages of computer dating in the 1960’s. As a psychology major at Yale I was always interested on what attracted two people to one another. I’ve been following the online dating field since then to see when technology would mature to the point where powerful but easy to use technology would enable better introductions.
Why did you create Datingstartshere.com?
Datingstartshere.com is not a dating site; it is a profile search engine. We aggregate profiles from multiple dating sites. It is designed to put the universe of people looking for new friends, dates and companions in one place.
Current sites do not provide the quantity or quality of contacts within a geographically convenient area. What sense does it make to have a relationship with someone distant? Our search engine allows for both a simple and an advanced set of filters. The simple set is age, geography, and height. The advanced filter deals with interests.
We also provide a guide to existing dating services as a help to those who wish to take advantage of the particular functionality of individual host sites.
Datingstartshere.com is for all ages over 18 who want to broaden their circle of friends and acquaintances with the goal of more successful personal relationships.
If it is not a dating site…then how does Datingstartshere.com work?
It’s very simple; a minimal registration is optional. Just browse the profiles and click thru the ones you find appealing. Actual contact will depend on the procedures of the host dating site where the actual profile is stored.
We envision that users will learn a substantial amount of information about each other prior to any type of electronic interchange. With the advent of front facing cameras on smartphones, many first dates will consist of a smartphone videochat for example. This new technology will reduce time and expense barriers to new introductions. We will enable contact with those who have put profiles on all current dating sites. In addition, we will enable exposure, for example, to those Facebook users who have given permission for access to their data.
Datingstartshere.com also features a dating site guide. The online dating experience can be confusing since end sites have so many different approaches to registration and subscription. With well over 1,000 active dating sites just in the US alone, we want to provide a user’s guide to help place the user with the right specialized host site.
Can you mention a few of the benefits for online Daters?
The key benefit for daters is the centralization of profiles and dating site information. Datingstartshere.com will enable users to access more desirable people that live close to them, quickly and for free. Why go to many different sites when the important information is collected in one place?
How about the benefits for online dating sites or Host sites?
Datingstartshere.com is an indispensable marketing resource for existing host sites (dating sites). We allow host sites to republish the member profile information that has already been collected in their database. Uploading the essence of each profile to Datingstartshere.com is simple and fast. Datingstartshere.com is the ultimate affiliate site, collecting a referral fee for each user that registers on the host site or converts to a paying member.
Accordingly, DSH can be considered a marketing ally which will provide additional revenues that are almost 100% profit. It is the dream of every marketer to have a revenue source that is variably cost based with no fixed overhead component. We have developed that.
Are there any future development plans for Datingstartshere.com?
Anyone who collects information on people who want to broaden their circle of new friends are potential allies. MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, and the many new types of social media are among those who will find our affiliation profitable and helpful to their user base. We want to make meeting your new best friend or date as easy as selecting a travel package. This is similar to the travel aggregators such as Expedia, Travelocity, Sidestep/Kayak, or Orbitz.
Datingstartshere.com will also research new technologies such as face matching. Since we are based in Washington, DC. we are familiar with this technology for face matching that has been developed for the security world. As this technology is brought forward to the private sector, we will adopt it to image searching for our users.
IntroAnalytics Launches Predictive Matchmaking For Online Dating
PR NEWSWIRE – Jan 17 – IntroAnalytics will be showcasing its improved matchmaking and discovery software for dating sites at iDate. The company has been around since 2008 and now serves ~100M recommendations a month to mid-tier US dating sites and some major top 10 UK sites like: Smooch.com; the WhiteLabelDating group of over 100 large UK sites; and FriendsreunitedDating.co.uk. Gavin Potter, CTO of Introanalytics explains: "Most people are consistent in what they do which is invaluable data to a dating site. We can show men and women more of what they like and less of what they don't like purely based on what they do and not what they say in their profile."
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.