FOX NEWS – Feb 13 – The fastest growing trend in social networking is location-based iPhone and Android apps, which tell the online world exactly which restaurant you're eating at or driveway you're parked in. Apps like FourSquare and Gowalla profess to better connect us with our friends. But more and more apps use them to let people hook up. "Mobile dating is different," explained Andrew Weinreich, founder of a mobile-dating app MeetMoi. "You’re literally dating as you go. You have less time to be discriminating and can easily meet up with someone nearby.” Juniper Research predicts that by next year, over a quarter of a billion people will be using mobile services to date. Weinreich agrees, saying romance simply has to keep up with our fast-paced society. FULL ARTICLE @ FOX NEWS
Month: February 2011
Shanghai’s Ultimate Matchmaker: Gong Haiyan
CNN GO – Feb 14 – Matchmaking has always played an important part in love and marriage here in China. But its method has changed in recent years, with online dating playing an increasingly important role. Gong Haiyan has been the person most instrumental in this revolution, founding China's first major online dating service, now called Jiayuan. Gong says her business wasn't an instant hit, but after a shaky start, Jiayuan has gone from strength to strength and retains a 50% market share in China. Last year the company was expected to top RMB 100M in revenue and according to the Jiayuan site, their customer base now includes 30M users, and 4.5M people have so far found a match. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN GO
Meetic To Launch iPhone App
WSJ – Feb 14 – Marc Simoncini, Meetic's founder, aims to extend his European online-dating empire to smartphones—and get more users to pay. Marc worries that only one in 10 people who sign up to his sites pays to meet someone. Dating sites don't lock customers in for long periods of time, so it's important to keep them coming back for more, says Patrick Jousseaume, an analyst at French bank Société Générale. Faced with competition from the likes of eHarmony and free dating sites such Badoo.com, Meetic wants to buck the trend. At present, subscribers spend two hours a day on the site. "With a smartphone this could go up to five hours a day," says Simoncini. In March, Meetic plans to launch its iPhone app, and it hopes to dominate the smartphone dating market within the next three years. FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ
Cupid Takes Over IndianDating.com
STOCK MARKET WIRE – Feb 14 – Online dating company Cupid has taken over IndianDating.com and several related domains for $200,000. IndianDating.com's activity is mainly focussed on the Indian community in North America. The sites have ~600K dating and matrimonial site members with the potential for significant expansion. According to the American Community Survey of the US Census Bureau, the Asian Indian population in the US was 2,570,000 in 2007 and had grown at 53% since 2000.
The full article was originally published at Stock Market Wire, but is no longer available.
A Dating Site Thrives In Delhi
INC – Feb 14 – Along with partners Dan Osit and Kevin Owocki, Adam Sachs started a dating website called Ignighter.com in 2008. The premise was simple: Online dating was weird, but less weird if you did it as a group. The company was becoming incredibly popular in India. About 90% of our their users are overseas, and of that the majority are in India. The market there is huge: ~65% of India's 1.1 billion people are under the age of 35. In March, Sachs will be setting up Ignighter’s official Indian outpost. FULL ARTICLE @ INC
Ashley Madison: Lessons In Promoting A Sleazy Business
FORBES – Feb 11 – Ashley Madison, the Match.com for adulterers with 8.5M users globally, is owned by Avid Life. Avid Life had $60M in revenue this year and $20M in profit, almost all of it from Ashley Madison. The site made a stink this year about its ads being banned during the Superbowl, as it has in previous years. One way the company may have gotten around this in the past is through guerilla advertising: slyly placing ads inside anti-Ashley Madison campaigns, like MyMarriageMatters.org — a marriage promotion website run by a divorce lawyer. One monogamy-supporting blogger traced an email address affiliated with the site back to Avid Life. This Marriage Matters ad arguably does more to show off Ashley Madison than to promote the sanctity of marriage. FULL ARTICLE @ FORBES
Dating Factory Launched Disabled Dating Niche In French Speaking Market
PRESS RELEASE – Feb 12 – Tanya Fathers, CEO of Dating Factory says: “The Disabled Dating niche for the English speaking market has been a huge success last year and now we have expanded into French speaking market thanks to our partners and affiliates such as Ann Robbins with her site edateability.com; Simon McCall who runs his various disabled dating sites including whispers4u.com, as well as Lionel Horn who launched his site handicapeo.fr.
The full article was originally published at American Banking Market News, but is no longer available.
Match Point For Internet Dating Sites
SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY – Feb 13 – According to Experian Hitwise, the UK's most popular dating site is PlentyofFish, whose founder last week accused an alleged hacker of trying to extort money from PlentyofFish. Globally, PlentyofFish has ~28N users, so last week's supposed theft amounts to only the tiniest fraction of the site's total population. However, this is an industry where trust is paramount. Bill Dobbie, CEO Cupid, says: "I am investigating how we can inject more trust into our websites," referring to the technical security issues that are coming into increasing focus throughout the industry. Cupid covers a string of niche sites such as Flirt.com, Cupid.com, PlanetSappho.com and BeNaughty.com, and has more than 9M members in 29 countries. BeNaughty is the UK's 8th most popular site, accounting for 2.62% of all visits in this category. PlentyOfFish has a 19.27%t share, followed by Match.com on 7.82% and Gaydar on 6.4%. Such figures, however, do not reflect a site's "success rate" in pairing up happy new couples. FULL ARTICLE @ SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY
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Dating The Second Time Around
CNN – Feb 11 - Gonzaga is the senior director of research and development at eHarmony.com. His book, "Dating the Second Time Around: Finding Love That Lasts," is packed with practical advice for people eager to give dating another shot.
Q: How do you define second-time love in your book?
A: Most of the people we talked to are divorced, but we think it's any significant relationship.
Q: What are some of the obstacles to dating after a long-term relationship or divorce?
A: Simply access. Where can you find single people who are also looking for relationships?
Q: What about the emotions that may still be lingering from a previous relationship?
A: That's the other really big challenge. People feel like they aren't good at it because a relationship of theirs hasn't worked out.
A: That's the other really big challenge. People feel like they aren't good at it because a relationship of theirs hasn't worked out.
Q: Can there be lessons learned from the previous relationships?
A: They know the things they absolutely have to have in a partner.
Q: Do you have any advice on how to approach a new relationship?
A: The first part is assessing yourself.
Q: How can you get over the stigma of the internet?
A: There are a lot of people who have met their spouses and partners online and you will find them all around you.
Q: What are the dos and don'ts of a first date?
A: Make sure you're comfortable with wherever the meeting is going to be. Spend more time getting to know the other person rather than trying to get them to know you. Don't share too much about yourself and don't try to sell yourself.
The full article was originally published at CNN, but is no longer available.
Online Dating Appears Nowhere Near Saturation
ARIZONA REPUBLIC – Feb 13 – Sites are more and more tailored, to the point where it's possible to look for matches among cancer survivors and people who like the same car makes. Online-dating sites are growing. Match.com reported 1.8M subscribers during the Q4, an increase of 30% YOY. eHarmony.com claims 33M+ registered users in 192 countries. Online matchmaking has become one of the most profitable online industries. Revenue grew an average of 2.6% annually to $2 billion in 2010. There are ~13,800 companies engaged in online dating and matchmaking, and they hauled in $394M in profits in 2010, IBSWorld said. FULL ARTICLE @ ARIZONA REPUBLIC