4TRADERS – Sep 30 – Meetic today announces changes in the composition of its Board of Directors. Gregory R. Blatt, CEO of the IAC group, Meetic's majority shareholder, has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, thus replacing Marc Simoncini, who remains a member of the Board. At the same time, Philippe Chainieux was promoted to CEO of Meetic and becomes a member of the Board.
Month: September 2011
Miami Hosts Internet Dating Conference 2012
EXAMIER – Sep 30 - The 9th annual Internet Dating Conference will take place in Miami on January 23-25, 2012. Business professionals interested in learning more about how to make their online dating sites successful will benefit from attending the conference.
by Belky Perez Schwartz
The full article was originally published at Examiner, but is no longer available.
The World of Niche Online Dating
VANCOUVER SUN – Sep 30 – Specialized dating sites such as JDate.com, SeniorPeopleMeet.com, VeggieDate.org and even PiratesPassions.com allow users to meet their match based on factors including ethnicity, age, religion and lifestyle. There’s even AshleyMadison.com, a site for cheaters. Niche dating may sound unromantic, but details matter when it comes to love, says relationship expert Dr. Terri Orbuch. Orbuch is a psychologist and relationship expert for PeopleMedia, which operates more than 20 niche dating sites, including BlackPeopleMeet.com, RepublicanPeopleMeet.com and SingleParentMeet.com. Over 105K Canadians used dating sites run by PeopleMedia last year. Not all niche dating is done online. FastLife organizes speed dating events in Vancouver such as East Asian Dating, Tall Men Dating and Executive Dating. Justin Parfitt, the company founder and CEO, says speed dating is more fun and efficient than its online equivalent. “You’re instantly evaluating people and figuring out if there’s chemistry. There’s no hiding behind a fake photograph or fake profile,” he said.
by Laura Kane
The full article was originally published at Vancouver Sun, but is no longer available.
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Mobile Dating Apps Show Who’s Single Without the Mingle
THE JAKARTA GLOBE – Sep 29 - The phone apps, from Match.com or newcomers such as howaboutwe.com, pack in the features, from IM and video profiles to "check-ins" at hot nightlife spots. "It's all about getting people off-line", says Aaron Schildkrout, touting howaboutwe.com, the app he co-created. Users post specific date ideas such as attending a baseball game or having drinks on a rooftop bar. In the service's first month live, there were ~60K downloads; the user base was 60% female, ages 22 to 40. Andrea Martinez, 24 found her new boyfriend on plentyoffish.com's mobile app version. She preferred the app over the computer version because uploading photos from her phone was easier. Grindr founder and CEO Joel Simkhai says company surveys show that 85% of members used the app for making new friends, especially when they were new to town. That's why Simkhai believes the next evolution of apps won't be about dating but will focus on friendships.
by Sheba R. Wheeler
The full article was originally published at Jakarta Globe, but is no longer available.
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Matchmaking with Money in Mind
GLOBE AND MAIL – Sep 29 – Gloria MacDonald, founder of Perfect Partners, says both men and women equally want a partner who shares the same financial values. Asking about finances on the first, second, or third date is tacky, according to Ms. MacDonald. By your fifth date though, you’re okay. Money and sex are two of the early-stage conflicts.
by Angela Self
The full article was originally published at Globe and Mail, but is no longer available.
CEO Interview: Seda Berber, CEO of PembePanjur, “Turkish Version of eHarmony”
OPW INTERVIEW – Sep 29 – Seda lives in L.A. and operates PembePanjur, which is the nearest thing to eHarmony in Turkey. – Mark Brooks
PembePanjur translates to “pink shutters”. What does it mean?
People say that when they grow up they want to get married and live in a house with pink shutters. It’s a cultural and traditional terminology in Turkey. You can find the term in the movies, etc. We grabbed the cultural term and used it as the name of our company, which is based on serious relationships and marriage.
You’re based in LA and you’re UCLA educated. You’re an interactive marketer and designer. Why are you interested in matchmaking?
I have a degree in Sociology. I got into interactive design and marketing just before I came to the USA and got more education in marketing. My partner is a developer and we were working on a project. We were talking about starting an online dating site.
What is your target demographic?
Our target is 30-40 year old young professionals.
Do you like eHarmony?
Yes. We looked into the serious dating sites in more depth and then adopted the model to the Turkish culture and traditions and that’s how we came up with Pembepanjur two years ago. eHarmony was a major site that we looked into.
How many questions do you have and what line of questioning do you use on the site?
We have a combination of about 130 questions. 64 cover social and economic background and 64 are personality analysis. Our service is based upon compatibility, basically character analysis.
Did you pull on your background in Sociology or more of a Psychological profile?
It’s Sociology but the questions are not done by us. We hired a psychologist and she prepared the questions based on other worldwide known questionnaires then it was adapted into Turkish.
There are some challenges working with the Turkish market in terms of billing and regulatory issues. Can you tell us more about some of the challenges you had to overcome?
We didn’t have many regulatory problems. The biggest problems we had were the merchant accounts with the banks. Turkey still has a pretty conservative society which is reflected in the banking system. It took a while to open a merchant account. Trusting a dating site service was not on the top of their list.
You are two years in, how many members do you have?
We are 1 year and 9 months in and we have over 350, 000 active members.
How do you market the service?
We have been doing online marketing so far i.e. facebook. In the last two months we did our first public relations campaign such as TV/radio and we were also in the Sunday paper in Turkey. This is just the beginning for us; we believe doing PR is the best way to promote.
Did you see an immediate jump or was it more over a period of time?
It was an immediate jump. The day after the article in the Sunday paper our revenue went up quite a bit.
What did you do to get the attention?
We had been building relationships with a big funding company in Turkey created by the top 18 online giants. They selected us as one of the top 3 Internet projects of 2011 so that’s how we started to get the press attention.
Gleeden.com Launches in USA
EON – Sep 28 - Gleeden.com, the extramarital dating site, launches in the US. The site claims to have 1M members in 100+ countries. Officially launched 18 months ago in Europe by US-based venture capital fund, BlackDivine, Gleeden caters to people seeking affairs outside their relationships.
The full article was originally published at EON, but is no longer available.
Karl Gregory, U.K. MD, Match.com
NEW MEDIA AGE – Sep 28 - Following a relaunch earlier this month, Match.com UK MD Karl Gregory spoke to new media age about the new site and what digital media can learn from a successful online subscription-based business.
Q: What are the major changes for the user following the relaunch?
A: The new Match.com site has been developed based on customer feedback. Features include new cultural data to give more insight into a member’s personality, more security controls, updates to search functionality and a new Daily 6 feature.
Q: How did the relaunch impact your ad offering?
A: Our ad technology now works to determine the most relevant audience for the ads that appear on the site, based on gender, age, location and interests.
Q: How important is customer and behavioural data and how do you use it?
A: Data is at the heart of our business. Our technology learns from people’s search behaviours.
Q: As a paid-for site service, how do you make sure advertising fits your business model?
A: We are able to be selective when it comes to our advertising partners.
Q: What for you are the most important innovations and trends this year?
A: New technologies, such as mobile apps.
by Charlotte McEleny
The full article was originally published at New Media Age, but is no longer available.
JDate Declares Itself Obvious Leader in Jewish Weddings
JEZEBEL – Sep 29 - According to JDate survey, 52% of Jewish married couples who met online met on JDate (compared to 17% on Match and 10% on eHarmony). 63% percent of the online dates the users went on were set up through JDate. And 76% of Jewish online daters used JDate at some point, even if they didn't find a spouse on it.
by Anna North
See full article at Jezebel
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