OPW – Nov 11 – iDate Moscow took place on September 29-30, 2011. A surprising number of internet dating and social networking executives, VCs, affiliate managers and payment processors were in attendance.
Month: November 2011
From Dating To Mating And Relating: Predictors Of Initial And Long-term Out Comes Of Speed-Dating In A Community Sample
INTERNET DATING SCIENCE – Nov 11 - Internet Dating Science summarizes the best academic papers so you can improve your idating site, and help users make better connections.
Study: From Dating To Mating And Relating: Predictors Of Initial And Long-term Out Comes Of Speed-Dating In A Community Sample
Authors: Jens B. Asendorph, Humboldt University Berlin; Lars Penke, University of Edinburgh; and Mitja D. Back, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
The authors of this study observed the behaviours of 190 men and 192 women at various speed dating events. The people who made a connection at an event were then observed by the researchers over the course of the following year. The increased likelihood of a match was predicted by one factor: similar level of facial attractiveness for both people. In the more long term, dating intentions influence the outcomes of the relationships that are formed.
Dr. Brenner: Based on this information, you should:
- Keep emphasizing to your members that an accurate picture of their face is critical.
- Be direct with your members that their dating intentions (short-term vs. long-term) have significant impact on the course of a relationship.
- Educate your members that once set in motion, relationships started under one type of dating intention (e.g., short-term) do not often change to the other (e.g., long-term).
- Assist members to understand that younger women and older men will be choosier and less apt to be responsive in general.
Spark Networks Reports Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results
MARKET WIRE – Nov 11 - Revenue grew 28% YOY and 6% compared to last quarter, marking our fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth," said Greg Liberman, Spark's CEO. Revenue for the Q3 was $12.7M. Jewish Networks revenue was $6.7M, a decrease of 1% YOY. Average paying subscribers for Jewish Networks were 88,976, a decrease of 1% YOY. Average paying subscribers for Other Affinity Networks were 113,972, an increase of 84% YOY.
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.
Hispanics Are ‘Fastest Growing Community When It Comes To Infidelity’
HUFFINGTON POST – Nov 11 – According to AshleyMadison.com, the Hispanic community is "the fastest growing community when it comes to infidelity." Since launching the Spanish-language version of their website in 2009, 1.1M Latinos have signed up, accounting for 31% of their total new membership.
The Love Letter Ghostwriter
FT – Nov 11 – Kelly Hitchcock works as a virtual dating assistant. She is penning profiles and making contact with potential matches on behalf of men and women who are too inept, too strapped for time or simply unwilling to do so themselves. Ms Hitchcock is employed by Scott Valdez, who launched Virtual Dating Assistants in 2009. The US census calculates that of the nation’s 87m singles, 40m have tried online dating. Annual revenues from dating sites are $1.2bn in the US and $3.5bn worldwide, according to Courtland Brooks, an internet dating consultancy. Mark Brooks, a consultant to dating sites, believes virtual dating assistants have a future. “A significant proportion of people don’t have time to filter through online matches. They are cheaper than matchmakers, who typically charge between $5,000 and $50,000”. Virtual Dating Assistants charges $147 for a basic profile, while $600-$700 a month will buy you date selection and correspondence.
9th iDateStartup.com Event To Be Held In Hollywood
WEBWIRE – Nov 10 – The 9th iDate Startup event will take place on November 11 at 6:00 PM in Hollywood, CA. DatingHype.com is the sponsor of the dinner and the party. The networking dinner will have some of the top dating executives and internet entrepreneurs in the LA region.
Company Profile – POF
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| PlentyofFish is a free online dating site, popular primarily in Canada, the UK, Australia and the United States. The service, based in Canada, generates revenue through advertising. While it is free to use, the site recently started charging for some services, such as message tracking. Members pay for credits, which allow them to use these higher tiered services. The site also offers a paid version (eVow). | |||
| Website: | http://www.pof.com | ||
| Owned by: | Match Group (POF was acquired by Match group in July 2015) | ||
| CEO: | Markus Frind | ||
| Business address: | Vancouver, Canada | ||
| Email / Contact form: | csr@pof.com | ||
| Number of employees: | 66 (Wikipedia, 2012) | ||
| Blog: | http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/ | ||
| Wikipedia page: | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plentyoffish | ||
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/#!/Plentyoffish | ||
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/pages/PlentyofFish/108606549163003 | ||
| LinkedIn: | http://www.facebook.com/pages/PlentyofFish/108606549163003 | ||
| Date Started: | 2003 | ||
| Founders: | Markus Frind | ||
| Subsidiaries | eVow.com – paid dating site – closed in May 2015 Offercon.com – daily deals site |
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| Financial results | $10 million revenue (2008 estimated, Wikipedia) | ||
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| Countries served: | Canada, US, UK, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, France, Italy, Germany | ||
| Business model: | free dating site with an option of paid membership for people who want more services – $7/month (annual commitment) – $12/month (quarterly) |
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| Category: | general | ||
| Traffic: | 3 737 105 unique visitors (Compete, June 2015) | ||
| Courtland Brooks clients can access the top 20 company profiles. | |||
Company Profile – Badoo
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| Badoo is a multi-lingual social networking website. The company was launched in 2006, by a small international group of young, forward thinking programmers and tech entrepreneurs. Their vision was to use the most advanced technologies available to create an elegantly modern, fast and easy way for people to meet new people in their area – and have fun doing it. Although available in most of the world, the site is most active in Latin America, Spain, Italy and France. | |||
| Website: | http://www.badoo.com | ||
| Owned by: | Badoo Trading Ltd. | ||
| CEO: | Andrey Andreev | ||
| Business address: |
Media Village
131-151 Great Titchfield Street
London
W1W 5BB
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| Email / Contact form: | press@corp.badoo.com | ||
| Number of employees: | 200 (Crunchbase, October 2011) | ||
| Blog: | http://blog.badoo.com/ | ||
| Wikipedia page: | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badoo | ||
| Twitter: | http://twitter.com/#!/Badoo | ||
| Facebook: | http://www.facebook.com/Badoo/ | ||
| LinkedIn: | http://www.linkedin.com/company/167101 | ||
| Date Started: | 2006 | ||
| Founders: | Andrey Andreev | ||
| Investments: | Series A, January 2008, $30M, by Finam Capital | ||
| Countries served: |
worldwide |
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| Business model: | freemium | ||
| Category: | general | ||
| Affiliate program: | http://corp.eu1.badoo.com/affiliates/ | ||
| Traffic: | 473 062 unique visitors (Compete, June 2015) | ||
| Courtland Brooks clients can access the top 20 company profiles. | |||
eHarmony Won’t Settle Down With Just One Business Intelligence Tool
COMPUTERWORLD – Nov 8 - The system that powers eHarmony's matchmaking operation relies on four products: Oracle Corp.'s database, the open-source MySQL database, an open-source data-crunching app called Hadoop, and Netezza Corp. data warehousing appliances. Joseph Essas is VP of engineering and operations at eHarmony. 236 of its 20M members get married every day, the site claims. That's just one of "hundreds of metrics" that we "deeply care about," Essas said. eHarmony uses Oracle's database software to do much of the initial matching. But for hard-core data processing, the company relies on a speedy 50-node Hadoop cluster. Speed is important, because eHarmony updates the scores of its relationship matches whenever new members sign up, as well as when existing members update their profiles.
Internet Dating SuperConference In January 23-30, 2012 In Miami
PRESS RELEASE – Nov 8 – The 9th annual Miami iDate SuperConference will be held in Miami Beach on January 23-30, 2012. 66% of the event attendance consists of dating industry owners and operators. The remainder includes: software companies, social networking owners, consultants, payment processors, background screening services, mobile app providers and others.