GUARDIAN.CO.UK – July 25 – The internet is changing the way society communicates, processes information and knowledge, and configures its relationship towards authority. Today, internet dating has become more or less accepted as a way of forming relationships.There has been little thought or comment on why matchmaking websites might be a bad thing per se. Online matchmaking is premised on the notion of making rational choices. Furthermore, the way dating websites calculate matches distorts the very core of interpersonal relations. Online seekers of partners and friends rely on computer calculations of a set of hard questions. There is little room (if any) for subtlety, deviance, or exploration.
Month: July 2011
Clean Up Your Industry!
OPW – July 26 – I just received this email….
"You guys need to band together and get rid of sites that are just scams full of scammers and con men and women the likes of Flirt, Rudester cupid and all affiliated sites they give the good ones a bad name people don't pay money to have to put up with that &^%$#$^ its a disgrace and only make legitimate sites look bad please get on them and check it out it is truly criminal nothing works on these sites and they basically take peoples money and give them nothing in return the sites are full of scammers and cam girls harrasing and trying to rob people constantly on and off the site and I believe it is organized by those who run the sites its just way too obvious.
Thanks Neil"
What should we do? Your comments please…
Re: Looking for Someone
THE NEW YORKER – July 26 – A letter in response to Nick Paumgarten’s article from Anne Holland, Publisher of Subscription Site Insider’s Dating Site Benchmark Report.
Nick Paumgarten, in his piece on Internet dating, mentions the two business models that make up the online dating industry: free sites that generate ad revenue and subscription sites that offer fee-based services. But a fascinating fact is that the paid-content sites are thriving more than their free counterparts. Most of the industry’s $1.4 billion in yearly revenues comes from subscription fees, even though most of the highest-traffic sites are free. A new study shows that 88% per cent of the free sites are considering launching paid offerings.
The full article was originally published at The New Yorker, but is no longer available.
Post-Divorce Dating Club Launches Nationally
PR WEB – July 25 - The Post-Divorce Dating Club (PDDC) launched today for divorced, separated or people who have been in a long term committed relationship. PDDC combines both online dating with offline Miixzee's, seminars, coaching, matchmaking, and post-divorce resources and services to help build a comprehensive support network around individuals looking to move past their divorce. The PDDC was founded by Lee Block, a divorced mom of two, after she discovered the difficulty divorcees encountered when seeking out quality dating partners.
Match.com Launches New Campaign
CREAM – July 24 – Check out Match.com new TV ad. Two Match.com subscribers were picked to sell themselves live on air to the British public.
The full article was originally published at Cream, but is no longer available.
What It’s Like Running a Public Company That Relies on Facebook
BUSINESS INSIDER – July 22 - Until Zynga hits the public markets, there's only one Facebook app company you can invest in: SNAP Interactive. SNAP Interactive makes "Are You Interested," one of the most popular dating apps. SNAP's CEO Cliff Lerner talks about what it's like to run a business that resides entirely inside Facebook.
Q: Why did you decide to put your company on Facebook?
A: It was a very challenging decision. Iamfreetonight.com was getting significant traction. But in May 2007, Facebook launched their platform, we spent a couple of days building a basic application that got several thousand users in a few hours of work. We transitioned the business entirely to Facebook and shut down Iamfreetonight on the spot in 2007.
Q: In 2007, you're already a public company. Why so early?
A: A company called Udate had just been sold as a public company for a significant amount of money. So we thought that the market opportunity was there. We’ve never actually raised any VC funding, which is pretty unique for the industry.
Q: Why not?
A: I wanted to make sure we didn’t go the VC route because we thought we had ideas that could really disrupt the industry, and I wanted to maintain a very long-term view. A lot of our competitors that have raised venture capital money are long gone, mostly because of that.
Q: What have you learned through the years from relying on Facebook for all of your business?
A: Well, I’ve learned that timing is very important.
A: Well, I’ve learned that timing is very important.
Q: How is your relationship with Facebook? Do have any concerns about depending on their platform?
A: You always have some concern in the back of your mind, being dependent on the platform, but for us it’s been nothing but a home run. We have ~50M installs.
Q: What do you think of Google+ ?
A: We’re always looking at new and exciting opportunities.
Q: Have you heard anything about Facebook doing their own HTML5 mobile app market?
A: No. Only what we’ve all read on the web.
Q: Is that something that would appeal to you?
A: That would be very interesting because if anything, it would provide easy discovery of application.
Q: Have you noticed any big differences between Apple's mobile app market and the Facebook's app market?
A: Yeah, what we’ve noticed on mobile is people are most interested in interacting with friends or new people who are nearby and online. So what that means is having the critical mass of users who are online in a specific area is very important.
Q: What's the best method for acquiring new users on Facebook?
A: We have a pretty sophisticated system in-house that will put all our users into various categories based on their age range, their sexuality, their location, even their religion or ethnicities, and we know how much it costs to acquire a certain user. And we can build out a model on how much they’re worth to us.
by Jay Yarow
See full article at Business Insider
See all posts on SNAP Interactive
See all posts on AreYouInterested
eHarmony Holds Agency Talks over £8 Million Ad Business
CAMPAIGN LIVE – July 21 – eHarmony has called a review of its £8M UK advertising business. Agencies have been approached and pitches are expected to take place over the next few weeks. eHarmony officially launched in the UK in 2009, and has now ~1.5M members in the UK.
by Matt Williams
The full article was originally published at Campaign Live, but is no longer available.
Nominations Open for the 3rd Annual iDate Awards
PRESS RELEASE – July 20 – Nominations are now being accepted for the 3rd annual iDate Awards. The iDate Awards highlight the individuals and companies who exemplify the best, most innovative aspects of the Internet Dating and Matchmaking Industry. The Award ceremony will take place on the night of January 24, 2012 in Miami, as part of the 9th annual iDate (Internet Dating Conference). The twelve categories are:
Best Dating Site
Best Matchmaker
Best Software Provider
Best Mobile Dating Site
Best Dating Site Design
Best Dating Coach
Most Innovative Company
Best New Technology
Best Payment System
Best Affiliate Program
Best Marketing Campaign
Best Up and Coming Dating Site
The schedule for the nomination/voting process is as follows:
– Now through October 28, 2011 – Nominations Accepted
– November 10, 2011 through January 4, 2012 – Voting
– Jan 24, 2012 – Awards ceremony and winners announced.
AreYouInterested.com iPhone Dating App Update
MARKETWATCH – July 20 - SNAP Interactive has introduced a number of advances for its flagship AreYouInterested.com social dating app. Below are some of the new key features available in version 3.2:
- Real-Time Notifications: Singles are alerted on their iPhone via push notification when a compatible match is nearby
– Spotlight: Users can purchase a slot to be featured in the Spotlight, where users are prominently displayed across the entire application.
– Front-Facing Camera
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.
See all posts on SNAP Interactive
See all posts on AreYouInterested
LouisvilleMojo.com Local Dating Site for Sale
OPW – July 20 – LouisvilleMojo.com, a local dating site serving Louisville, is for sale. The site was established in 2003, 28K profiles, 17K premium accounts ($20/month or $45/year), ~20 unique visitors a month, $96K revenue last year. The asking price is $120K. Contact Chuck Burke for more details if you are interested.