Month: August 2011

IAC Wins Control of Meetic

Posted on August 19, 2011

Meetic matchcom loga REUTERS – Aug 19 – IAC/InterActiveCorp has won control of French dating site Meetic, boosting its stake to 77.6%, after most shareholders agreed to IAC's 15 euros per share offer price. IAC, through two arms of its Match.com unit, had gained 73.7% of voting shares and 77.6% of Meetic's capital. Match.com has said it did not plan to delist Meetic after completion of the offer, which expired on Tuesday and valued the French company at 347M euros ($489M).

by Christian Plumb
See full article at Reuters

Mark Brooks: If you can't beat 'em join 'em.  Match's European business was folded under Meetic's wing in June 2009 when Meetic swapped 27% of its share's and 5 million Euro for Match Europe.  That was the first step in Match acquiring Meetic. 

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Will Black Online Dating Result in More Marriages?

Posted on August 19, 2011

Blackpeople meet logo nove HUFFINGTON POST – Aug 19 – The U.S. Census says African Americans are the ethnic group least likely to marry. BlackPeopleMeet.com, is the number one personals site among African Americans, according to Nielsen. The site had 410K African-American visitors during June 2011. African Americans also made up 12% of the Match.com audience, BlackPeopleMeet's parent site. "African-American penetration in the online personals category has more than doubled in the last four to five years," says Ron Worthy from BlackPeopleMeet.com.

by Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson
See full article at Huffington Post

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International Marriage Broker Promises Men Love and Women Escape

Posted on August 19, 2011

Aforeignaffair logo ABC NEWS – Aug 19 – After using A Foreign Affair to strike up online dialogs with a few dozen women, Bob Wray, 66, will pay the company ~$4,000 to fly to Odessa, Ukraine, and meet them and other potential brides. The promise offered by A Foreign Affair’s website is bolstered by the experience of the company’s founder. Seventeen years ago, John Adams saw that the rise of the Internet and the fall of the Soviet Union created a rich matchmaking opportunity. He set up a mixer in Kiev where he himself met his Mrs. Right.

by Victoria Thompson
See full article at ABC News

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New Dating Site Promises Accurate Profiles and Professional Videos

Posted on August 19, 2011

Informeddating logo PR WEB – Aug 19 – informeddating.com guarantees 99% of members' information are true and up-to-date. Informed Dating performs comprehensive verification on all important objective information people use to select their partners to ensure a no fraud, HIV free, clear criminal background environment. These verifications include criminal background, HIV test result, race, legal status, marital status/history, highest degree, occupation, height, weight, skin color, children status, personal asset/debt, credit score, personal photos and videos on all members.

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

Gary Krane on Relationship Technologies

Posted on August 19, 2011

QUANTIFIEDSELF – Aug 19 – Can you quantify love? Gary Krane wants to help couples have happier, stronger relationships. He is starting CoupleSpace as a lightweight version of couples therapy. He has identified 26 needs for long, happy relationships, which are quantified as you use the app. In the video below, Gary points out, "Love is an action, not a feeling."

by Alexandra Carmichael
See full article at QuantifiedSelf

Data Matches Daters

Posted on August 18, 2011

Data matches daters MARKETING WEEK – Aug 17 - As the internet dating market continues to grow, dating sites are employing increasingly sophisticated data analysis techniques to find the perfect partner for their users. OKCupid believes there's no such thing as one algorithm that works for everybody, putting its emphasis instead on a set of predictive questions. Plentyoffish claims it was the first dating site to introduce behavioral matchmaking. Markus Frind, CEO of Plentyoffish, explains: “We look at what you say when you complete your profile but, more importantly, we also look at what you do on the site.”Sometimes the elements that people are not looking for in a date turn out to be their partners’ most endearing features. This is why Mysinglefriend puts the onus on users to find matches on the site themselves. Lovestruck has two types of algorithm. When users first join the site, they will be matched with potential partners using Lovestruck’s in-house algorithm based on interests, what they are looking for, age, location and so on. But when they start to use the site, that data is overridden by an IntroAnalytics matching algorithm which learns from the user’s behaviour.

by Maeve Hosea
See full article at Marketing Week

See all posts on OkCupid        See all posts on Mysinglefriend
See all posts on Plentyoffish   See all posts on Lovestruck

JustAussies.com Launches

Posted on August 18, 2011

JustAussies Logo PRESS RELEASE – Aug 17 – JustAussies.com focuses on Australian singles and launches today. Its powered by White Label Dating and includes chat, dating diaries, and video profiles. Also, a “mature site” for members 40+ (www.JustAussies.com/Mature).

The full article was originally published at PR-Inside, but is no longer available.

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Jiayuan.com Slammed as “China’s Largest One-Night Stand Site”

Posted on August 18, 2011

Jiayuan logo new PENN OLSON – Aug 17 - Jiayuan was attacked by state media’s People’s Daily for not really being a “wedding” site, as Jiayuan’s tagline suggests, but more like an organizer of over-expensive group date nights that result in lots of inappropriate touching and other malarkey. The People’s Daily recounts the story of one 30-year old man who was annoyed at being – he felt – tricked into buying virtual credits. The newspaper is more concerned with the pricier products that Jiayuan sells, such as its hand-curated match-making service for 40,000 RMB (US$6,300), and maxes out at 200,000 RMB. A lack of a real name policy on Jiayuan is also called out.

by Steven Millward
See full article at Penn Olson

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Zoosk Looks to Attract Investors for New Financing

Posted on August 18, 2011

Zoosk logo new REUTERS – Aug 17 – Zoosk recently hired Deutsche Bank to help it raise $50 – $75M. The new financing will help Zoosk pay for more marketing and international expansion. Zoosk operates a dating community of more than 50M users in 60 countries and it recently extended a TV ad campaign from the US into the UK and Canada. Zoosk closed a $30M round of funding in late 2009, bringing total financing at that time to $40.5M.

by Alistair Barr
See full article at Reuters

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The Psychology of Online Dating

Posted on August 18, 2011

Eharmony-logo WSJ – Aug 17 – Online dating can expand the pool of prospects and the technology itself can be used in ways to find better relationships, according to Gian Gonzaga, the senior director of R&D at eHarmony. Previous research has shown that when there are endless choices, it is more likely that people get overwhelmed and pick nothing at all. So eHarmony doesn’t match you with every single potential compatible person, but rather the ideal number of right matches that will get you to talk to the greatest number of them, says Gonzaga.

by Shirley S. Wang
See full article at WSJ

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