SYDNEY MORNING HERALD – Jan 15 – Taiwan's fertility rate, the average number of children born to its women in their lifetime, fell to 0.91 last year, far below the rate of 2.1 needed to sustain population size. Hong Kong has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and faces a population decline from 7M to about 6M by mid-century. Japan's population shrank by a record 123K people last year. From a peak of 128M in 2006, the Japanese population will shrink to under 100M by mid-century, by which time its over-65s will have grown from 25% of population to ~40%. Registered marriages last year were the fewest since 1954. In mainland China, population is still growing and will peak about 2030 at ~1.39 billion – 1.46 billion. Australians and Americans are keeping their end up in baby production, with fertility rates close to two children per woman, and high immigration rates. By mid-century we are likely to see 36M people in Australia (from the present 22.5M) and 439M in the US (from 310M). FULL ARTICLE @ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
Month: January 2011
Single Parents Dating Site Launched In The UK
PR WEB – Jan 15 - DateSingleParents.co.uk is the new online dating site for single parents in the UK. Date Single Parents, run on the Cupid (former EasyDate) plattform, has ~5M members. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
SNAP Interactive Raises $8.5 Million
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 14 - SNAP Interactive, the publicly listed company behind social dating apps and services like AreYouInterested, is to raise $8.5M in a private placement transaction. Under the terms of the transaction, SNAP has agreed to sell ~4.25Mshares of its common stock to institutional investors at $2 per share and warrants to purchase up to ~2.125M additional shares of its common stock. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
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73% Of UK Singles Are Optimistic That They Will Find Love In 2011
PRESS RELEASE – Jan 13 – Zoosk's survey showed three out of four (73%) singles are hopeful that they will find love in 2011. This poll showed that UK singles are not shy in coming forward. 51% of single women and 44% of single men admitted sending saucy pictures of themselves to others. And of those who haven’t, ~30% said they wouldn’t rule it out. The survey also discovered that we prefer text to email, IM, or Twitter, with 50% of women and 35% of men choosing this form of communication. FULL ARTICLE @ SOURCEWIRE
OKCupid Tweaks Privacy Controls
WASHINGTON POST – Jan 13 - Internet privacy is still a major obstacle for some of those who use dating sites. Last week, OKCupid launched new features giving its users more control. Sam Yagan, a spokesperson for OKCupid said the new settings address a lot of issues users have raised over the years. "Something that we have noticed for a while is that there are various people who say part of their apprehension with online dating is that elements of their personal life will be discovered," he said. In addition to members of the gay community who may want their information hidden from straight users, Yagan offered the examples of teachers wishing to hide their profiles from students or younger women who don't want to deal with advances from older men. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
Enough With The Dating Studies
COLLEGE CANDY – Jan 13 - It seems like every day there’s a new relationship study published somewhere. One day we read that guys are attracted to curvy women; the next day we read they like ‘em stick thin. One says we’re attracted to people who look like our parents. Another says we prefer someone to say something nice to us than to have sex at all. The Today Show will highlight a study saying that men love independent women while, at the same exact time, Good Morning America will share findings that men want the damsel in distress. The latest in “dating psychology” findings? Men want women who aren’t beautiful according to OKCupid. When it comes to dating, we all want clear, defined answers but they don’t exist. FULL ARTICLE @ COLLEGE CANDY
What Can Health Website Design Learn From Online Dating?
LISA GUALTIERI'S BLOG – Jan 12 – Online dating is one of the most successful online businesses. I was curious about the implications of the success of online dating sites for health website design. I contacted Mark Brooks, an analyst and consultant to the internet dating industry who runs the industry news blog, OnlinePersonalsWatch.com.
Lisa: What is the newest trend in online dating? Is there an online health parallel?
Mark: Niche dating sites are springing up. Support groups, similarly: whatever the illness, there’s a support group online.
Lisa: Online dating is trying new approaches to matching people. What works best?
Mark: Personality profiling sites like eHarmony allow people to ‘not fall in love with the wrong person.’ They do the hard work of fixing people up, and use the best information available today, on psychology, sociology, anthropology, a la matchmaking.
Lisa: Do you personally try out online dating sites?
Mark: I prefer speed dating, parties, and meeting people in real life.
Lisa: Which features do you like best in sites?
Mark: Personality profiling and webcam based dating, along with location-based services.
Lisa: Do you go online when you need health information?
Mark: When I am ill, I’m heading online to check what my doctor tells me.
Lisa: What can online health learn from online dating?
Mark: I’d love to see a search engine that matches people with other people in support groups, like them. Same illness, same geographic area.
FULL ARTICLE @ LISA GUALTIERI'S BLOG. Also read in PSYCHOLOGY TODAY.
Merv Eyes Dating Industry Ahead Of Interest Rate Decision
DATING TRAIL – Jan 12 – The most popular format of singles events remains speed dating, accounting for 80% of events held. The dating events market hasn't been untouched by the financial crisis and we've been tracking ticket prices through a tough period for organisers. When the recession hit and people were spending less, ticket prices dropped – it got cheaper to go dating in 2009. The trend continued through most of 2010 with prices continuing to fall. In Sep '10 the situation reversed and ticket prices have steadily increased, showing a rise of 5.5% in Dec on the same period last year.
The full article was originally published at Dating Trail, but is no longer available.
OKCupid Investigated Female Attractiveness
OK TRENDS – Jan 10 – A hot woman receives ~4x more messages an average-looking woman gets, and 25x as many as an ugly one according to OKCupid study. Getting swamped with messages drives users, especially women, away. Among the remarkable things OKCupid discovered is:
– The more men as group disagree about a woman's looks, the more they end up liking her
– Guys tend to ignore girls who are merely cute
– Having some men think she's ugly actually works in woman's favor (Suppose you're a man who's really into someone. If you suspect other men are uninterested, it means less competition.)
FULL ARTICLE @ OK TRENDS
Parship Acquires 12like
OPW – Jan 12 – On 1st January 2011, PARSHIP took over the entire operations of 12like GmbH, Germany. 12like.com is a specialist in social matchmaking via members’ extended social networks – for instance on Facebook.