Listen to the interview here
According to a recent survey people looking for love would rather meet online than in a bar.
Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch says: “Worldwide the online dating industry stands at over $3.5 billion. But when you consider it in terms of the social impact online dating has, there’s an incredible impact and potential for the future.”
Ross Williams is the CEO of the biggest dating company in Europe.
“I run Global Personals, based in Windsor, we have 100 staff and we run the dating site operation for most of the dating sites in the UK. The company now has 14 websites including Justwidoweddating and Justdivorcedsingles, catering for very specific markets.
But 80% of Global Personal’s income is from White Label sites. They provide the technology, customer care and database for other brands to put their label on the site and
market it to consumers.
“In the last 8 years we have gone from nothing to 30M pounds revenue a year”, Ross says.
Global Personals now hosts more than 6,000 white label sites and has won 3 awards in the industry equivalent of the Oscars. iDate awards nominations for next year’s awards which will be held in January have just been announced. Marc Lesnick organizes the event.
The winners are chosen by the public and the executive alliance which is made up of 450 CEO’s of dating companies. Some of them are now offering free online dating. Sites like Badoo which has 129M members in more than 80 countries.
Mark Brooks from OPW thinks that there is a place for both but believes that you will get more from a paid site:
“There’s kind of a filtering affect in terms of seriousness when someone puts down their credit card. It demonstrates that they are not only single but they are motivated, it shows commitment to the process and that they are active.”
“You can search our sites for free but you have to pay to send/receive messages”, says Ross Williams:
“The actions we take to protect our consumers against scammers, people are willing to pay 50p/1pound a day for that.”
The company has computer programmes that scan every message for signs it could be send from a fraudster.
For those still searching the online dating world is about to change again. Some sites are already offering an App. From your location it can tell you if anyone is single, available and suitable nearby.
Mark Brooks from Online Personals Watch explains:
“Singles can have it all. They can be sitting in a coffee shop on a Friday afternoon and decide they want to go on a date and they can see who’s around them. I believe it is the next stage for online dating.”
Ross Williams:
“The importance of mobile isn’t so much on the location/where element. Whilst that is important its simply that instead of sending messages from your computer you can do them from your phone.”
INTOMOBILE – Dec 8 - IceBreak is a new app for Couples that helps couples discovering new things about their relationship, and going out and doing activities together. For instance, it will present couples with personality-type questions to answer like “What’s your ideal Sunday morning together?” Moreover, couples will be prompted to privately snap and share pictures of their day with each other, so that they get a glimpse into each other’s days even when they are apart. In addition, IceBreak will also help its users remember important information like clothing sizes, anniversaries, ring sizes and birthdays.
