OPW – Mar 22 – Meetic's 2010 consolidated annual revenue came to €186M, up +17.8% compared to 2009. The Group had a total of 858,197 subscribers at 31st Dec '10. Meetic manages two services in Europe: online dating and matchmaking, mainly under the meetic and meetic affinity brands. By acquiring the European activities of Match.com in June 2009, Meetic Group has strengthened its first place on the continent. The Group is currently established in 16 European countries and is available in 13 languages.
Month: March 2011
43% Of 55 To 74 Year Olds Use The Web Frequently
PC ADVISOR – Mar 22 - More than two in five (43%) of Brits aged 55 to 74 use the internet frequently, says Age UK. Research by the charity, in conjunction with Eurostat, revealed that Luxembourg is number one when it comes to older generations using the web, with 58% of its residents aged 55 to 74 online. The UK ranks seventh and is also behind Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland.
by Carrie-Ann Skinner
The full article was originally published at PC Advisor, but is no longer available.
TangoWire Partners With Messmo
PR WEB – Mar 10 – TangoWire, a community of online dating sites, has mobile-enabled its entire member base, to use sms with other members while never revealing the users actual mobile number. Using Messmo's patent pending iFollowText messaging system, new messages and alerts are sent as a regular SMS to members, while allowing members to reply as if they were normal texts from a friend. Members are assigned an anonymous mobile number to communicate with other members.
Why Advertising Won’t Save Online Dating Sites
AD AGE – Mar 21 – Match historically spends about half its revenue on advertising to bring new users. They added 5.4M paying members in 2009 and 6.9M in 2010. Usernames are why dating sites can't grow on their own, like social networks. They have to grow by advertising. So where does Match go to buy ads? – Facebook. A social network. The Social Network. Barry Diller says Match just can't get enough of Facebook ads. To Match's credit, it's not like they haven't tried to grow "organically." Notable experiments include a mobile dating service called MatchMobile and a 2007 attempt to integrate with Facebook, called it Little Black Book.
by Julie Ruvolo
See full article at Ad Age
Mark Brooks: Zoosk did pretty well growing by word of mouth, and Facebook, for a while. Check out Badoo for a case study in massive massive growth without advertising. 110 million users and counting.
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Badoo: Fastest Growing App On Facebook
FINANCIAL TIMES – Mar 20 – Badoo, a “social dating” service that helps people to meet new friends online, has become one of the fastest-growing apps on Facebook, this week overtaking Zynga’s popular Farmville game in terms of user numbers. The service is little-known in English-speaking countries, but has become very popular in continental Europe and Latin America, where millions of people use it for online flirting, often leading to offline encounters. “Facebook is about my friends. Badoo is about meeting and discovering other people,” says Bart Swanson, a former Amazon executive who joined Badoo as its COO in September. Badoo, founded in Spain in 2006 by Andrei Andreyev, a Russian entrepreneur, now has its headquarters in London. Badoo's Facebook app now has ~50M monthly active users, according to AppData, adding 1M people every day.
Online Dating Sites Cater To Virgins
CHARISMA MAG – Mar 18 – WeWaited.com and WeAbstain.com are catering to singles that are looking for someone of the opposite sex that holds the same values. While WeWaited.com targets virgins looking for other virgins to date, WeAbstain.com focuses on singles who decide not to have sex before tying the knot. “Single virgins view our site as a safe place to meet other like-minded singles,” says Lety Colin, who founded WeWaited.com with her husband, Jose. Jose says, there is no social stigma attached to being abstinent. Instead, it’s a big plus.
by Jennifer LeClaire
The full article was originally published at Charisma Mag, but is no longer available.
FriendFinder Revisits Plans To Go Public
TECH CRUNCH – Mar 17 – More than a year after cancelling its IPO, citing terrible market conditions, FriendFinder has filed an amendment to the Registration Statement on Form S-1 with the SEC in connection with a re-launch of its proposed IPO. The company says it intends to use the net proceeds of the public offering to repay a portion of its existing indebtedness.
New Group Dating Site Launched
PRESS RELEASE – Mar 16 – GroupeeLove allows its members to organize themselves into groups into which entry is restricted based on custom-selected criteria, anything from physical features to locations.