Month: April 2011

More Chinese Singles Are Looking For Love Online

Posted on April 26, 2011

Zhenai logo TIME – Apr 25 – Chinese parents commonly expect their sons or daughters to be married by the time they're 30. The pressure has been blamed for rocketing divorce rates, which reached a new peak in 2010. ~2M couples registered for divorce last year. Dating pressure is also driving a major boom in online dating. China currently has 180M bachelors, up to half of whom are thought to be looking for love online. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, by 2020 there will be 24M more men of marriage age than women. Those numbers mean big business. It's estimated that online dating sites attracted 3M paying customers last year, who collectively spent ~$150M. "Revenues are rising fast. We expect to take in 200 to 300M RMB ($30 to $45M) this year," says Li Song, founder of Zhenai.com, one of China's three largest dating sites.

by Chengcheng Jiang
The full article was originally published at Time, but is no longer available.

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92% Live Together Before Marriage

Posted on April 26, 2011

Eharmony-logo UKPA – Apr 25 – Nine in 10 British newlyweds have lived together before their wedding day, a new survey has suggested. The survey by eHarmony.co.uk polled 505 married adults of 25 years or more, and 530 married adults of one year or less. It found it was more common today for couples to separate at some point during their relationship, then get back together at a later stage and marry.

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

See all posts on eHarmony

Match/Meetic CEO For Latin America Interview

Posted on April 26, 2011

Claudio Gandelman BREAKING THE ONLINE DATING SOUND BARRIER – Apr 24 - Mr. Claudio Gandelman is the Match Meetic 50%-50% joint venture CEO for Latin American countries. He was recently interviewed at Diario Clarín saying "To find a partner, the Internet is more successful than going to a disco". He speaks about cultural differences in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico on how the daters reach the meet in person stage. "In Brazil daters easily meet in a bar after a virtual meeting, in Argentina daters think a bit before meeting in person, if the dater will be compatible in advance or not. In Chile it is not customary to post photos. In Mexico, women rarely send messages to men."

Fernando Ardenghi estimates that match.com revenue in Latin America is $29M. More here.

by Fernando Ardenghi
See full article at Breaking the Online Dating Sound Barrier

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My Secret Crush: New Dating Application

Posted on April 26, 2011

Mysecretcrush logo PRESS RELEASE – Apr 25 – My Secret Crush is a new app that allows users to scroll though their Facebook friends list and then secretly pick one person who they have a crush on. The app then cross-references their friends list to see if their crush is also using the app. If their crush has likewise chosen them, they'll both get a notification of the match. "If the object of their desire doesn't have a crush on them, he or she will never find out.

Dear Match.com, Why Make Me Create A Fake Profile?

Posted on April 26, 2011

Match logo new OPW – Apr 26 – IDEA is building a panel of internet dating power users.  Here's feedback from one of our friendly internet dating power users.
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I should be able to turn "off" letting someone know I "viewed" their profile or "saved it" as a favorite so I don't have to have an alternative "fake" profile to do my searching and favoriting. Maybe I don't want someone to know I looked at their profile or saved it.  Me (and my friends)  browse and "look" with fake profiles.  Then when I'm interested I email them with my real profile.  No wonder there's so many fake profiles, a lot of people figured out this is the only way to do it. 

I thought it was supposed to be 'ok to look.'

I need anonymous browsing. People would PAY EXTRA for features like this. I know women that won't even look at or read a guys profile if they don't like the headshot because they think if the guy sees they looked at their profile, they'll think it shows interest, when all she did was LOOK.

See all posts on Match.com

Stop Dating Strangers: LinkedIn Meets OkCupid

Posted on April 25, 2011

Clique logo MASHABLE – Apr 24 - Clique is a new private dating site which launched on Valentine’s Day. On the invite-only site, only you, your friends and people connected to you by fewer than three degrees are visible. When you’re browsing profiles, you can see how you’re connected to each person, and your friends can make match suggestions for you.

by Sarah Kessler
See full article at Mashable

eLove Matchmaking Comments On Background Checks & Profile Authentication

Posted on April 25, 2011

Elove logo NEWSWIRE TODAY – Apr 22 – Recently, Match.com announced they are going to start screening new members against the national sex offender registry in response to a lawsuit brought by a woman who says she was attacked by a man who had been charged with sex crimes. Paul A. Falzone, CEO of eLove Matchmaking, weighs in, “Screening new members against the national sex offender registry may give a false sense of security.” He continued,“Profile authentication is a challenge for internet dating sites as there is no way to confirm that a person is who he/she claims to be and that they do not have a criminal record. The human element is necessary for member authentication.” eLove Matchmaking has been conducting mandatory criminal background checks for over a decade and, because they meet each and every member, require positive identification and get to know their members, they are better able to authenticate member profiles. Those who don't pass the checks aren't granted membership.

See full article at Newswire Today

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More Magazine Coverage Thanks To Zinio

Posted on April 25, 2011

Zinio logo OPW – Apr 25 – Thanks to the wonderful magazine reading app, Zinio, we'll be providing more coverage and summaries and links to relevant articles in Harvard Business Review, The Economist, New Scientist and Bloomberg Businessweek moving forward. Beyond that, we rely on you to forward us links to stories you think are interesting and thought provoking. Please send links to tips@onlinepersonalswatch.com. We're interested in anything relevant to the business of internet dating. Every day we try and condense 3 hours of research and reading into 3 minutes of reading for you. So you can cut to the chase, and soak up the most important bits of the most important news out there. We're also working on InternetDatingScience.com to help you connect with academics.

Love And The Law: Online Dating Lawsuits

Posted on April 21, 2011

Lawyer-2-lawyer LEGAL TALK NETWORK – Apr 21 – Some estimates say 20M Americans use internet dating services. But when things don’t work out, should the dating service be held accountable and to what extent? Attorneys and co-hosts Bob Ambrogi and J. Craig Williams welcome Mark Brooks, an authority on the business of internet dating and Principal Consultant at Courtland Brooks and Brian Carver, Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley’s School of Information, to discuss recent litigation against dating sites. Mark and Brian take a look at a recent lawsuits, background checks and online dating sites legal responsibility.

Listen to the interview