OPW – May 25 – Love Hacking is a documentary that follows the journey of Tim Heath, a robot inventor living in Silicon Valley. He met Sarita on LDS Planet, a dating site for Mormons. Sarita is from Nepal. After three months of dating, Tim proposes and finds himself on a plane to Nepal to meet Sarita in person for the first time. The next day he marries her in a traditional Hindu wedding. The film is being created by Jenni Nelson as a part of her MFA degree in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University. The film has already been taped but now they are raising funds and awareness to complete the post production of the film. Click here if you want to help back this project.
Month: May 2011
Cupid Ahead of Market Forecasts
STOCK MARKET WIRE – May 25 - Online dating company Cupid is trading strongly and ahead of market expectations. Monthly revenues now exceed £4M and continue to grow. Cupid says North America is performing exceptionally well and ahead of plan and the UK's performance remains strong.
Global Personals Ranked in European Media Momentum Top 50
GLOBAL PERSONALS – May 25 – Global Personals Ltd has been ranked 32 in the Media Momentum Top 50, the awards recognising the most innovative and fastest growing companies in the European Digital Media Economy, organised by GP Bullhound. With annualised revenues of ~£20M, Global Personals has experienced revenue growth of 4391% over the past five years. The company owns and operates its own online dating sites including Singles365.com, DatingAgency.com and JustSingleParents.com; whilst its B2B service, WhiteLabelDating.com, offers a platform for brands and individuals to power their own dating sites.
Cupid White Labels Now Have Cupid Logo on Site
OPW – May 24 – A couple of days ago we added 'powered by Courtland Brooks' on the top right of Online Personals Watch and added the Courtland Brooks logo. OPW is one of numerous services we offer to the dating industry. Seems like the idea is catching on. Cupid announced today that they are pushing a 'powered by Cupid' logo onto their white labels. Here's their changes to their T&C's. In the past they linked to Cupid/EasyDate, but now they're adding the logo of the baby as well. (Full Disclosure: I was VP at Cupid in 2004)
Cupid Terms and Conditions Changes
In clause 13 it now states:
13. USE OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
13.1 Your dating site will display a “Powered by Cupid” logo on the footer of the site.
13.2 You cannot ‘lift’ or copy text from your Cupid White Label Site for use on any other website or a dating site provided by another company.
13.3 All content on partner websites including but not limited to domain, sub-domains, logos and graphical representations, must be original and not use any of Cupid’s brand names or not infringe on any intellectual property rights belonging to Cupid and/or any third parties, including but not limited to trade marks and copyrighted material. If a partner is found to be in violation of this term, the partner’s website will be deleted without any notice and action may be taken by Cupid in respect of any infringing content.
13.4. If you are a VAT registered partner, the VAT amount will not be deducted from gross revenue. Net revenue includes the VAT amount to be transferred to the VAT office by a partner.
Please note! This scheme is only applicable if the VAT number is valid and indicated in the “Partners’ Admin Panel” in the payment options section.
These changes will take effect from May 31st 2011 If you have any questions about this update please do not hesitate to contact us at wl_partners@cupid.com
We look forward to a long and successful partnership with you.
Best regards,
Support Team Cupid White Label
Match.com Sex Lawsuit Sent Back to State Court
MY FOX LA – May 23 – In what is being billed as a victory for Carole Markin who says she was raped by a man she met on Match.com, a federal judge today sent her lawsuit against the Internet dating site back to state court. Match.com attorney Robert H. Platt said after the hearing that Markin has little chance of winning the case regardless of the venue. Officials at Match.com have said the company would begin cross-referencing members against the National Sex Offender Registry.
Zoosk Takes on Match.com and eHarmony in the UK
MARKETING WEEK – May 24 - Social dating community Zoosk aims to boost its profile in the UK by investing in marketing throughout the year in a bid to compete with Match.com and eHarmony. Zoosk will roll out multi-platform campaigns even outside dating sites’ traditional “on-peak” periods that tend to fall around the new year and Valentine’s Day.
by Lara O'Reilly
See full article at Marketing Week
See all posts on Zoosk
See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on eHarmony
iDate 2011 in Los Angeles
OPW – May 22 – According to the latest IAC earning report, Match.com subscribers logging in through mobile grew 135% YOY to 30% of total on Match.com in the US. How does Match.com do it? Robinne Burrell, Director of Mobile Products, is speaking at iDate about mobile dating at Match.com. Gay and lesbian dating is on the rise. Grindr and Manhunt have enjoyed considerable growth over the last few years. Liz James, CEO of PinkSofa, a dating site catering to lesbians, will give us an overview of lesbian dating market. The Internet Dating Conference will be in Los Angeles on June 22-24, 2011. See the agenda. Register by Friday, May 27th and save $325.
Parship Goes Mobile
PRESS RELEASE – May 23 – Parship clamis to be the first online matchmaking agency to offer a mobile website in addition to an iPhone app. With PARSHIP Mobile, members using a smartphone can read and answer messages anytime, anywhere and browse through their current list of partner suggestions. The mobile website follows the PARSHIP iPhone app launched in June 2010. Since then, ~30,000 members have used the free service enabling mobile access to all the key PARSHIP functions.
AnotherFriend.com Reaches 500,000 Members
PRESS RELEASE – May 20 – Ireland’s largest dating site, AnotherFriend.com is celebrating this week after reaching half a million members. To celebrate this milestone, AnotherFriend.com has released the findings from Love: Uncovered, the first detailed study of online dating and love in Ireland. The report reveals fascinating facts such as 45% of singles are using online dating to find ‘the one’ and quarter of single men and women have cheated on a partner in the past. AnotherFriend.com caters for single Irish people looking to meet someone for fun and friendship or love and romance.