MARKETWIRE – Mar 2 – "2011 was a year of many 'firsts' for us. Most notably, we demonstrated Spark is more than just Jewish Networks with our Other Affinity Networks subscriber base cresting 100K and surpassing that of our Jewish Networks segment," said Greg Liberman, Spark's CEO. "The 78% increase in Other Affinity Networks revenue drove company-wide revenue up 19%".
Q4 2011 revenue was $12.9 million, an increase of 27% YOY. Full year 2011 revenue was $48.5M, a 19% increase compared to $40.9M for full year 2010. Full year 2011 net loss was $1.6M compared to net income of $3.7M in 2010. Average paying subscribers were 212,850, an increase of 32% YOY.
Q4 Jewish revenue was $6.7M, a YOY decrease of 3%, Other Affinity Networks revenue was $5.9M (114% increase), General Market Networks revenue was $107K (55% decrease).
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.
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Shouldn’t the title of this post be, “Spark Networks Reports Net Loss Again”? Anyone can grow their revenue if they are prepared to spend enough to get it. In an industry where the successful dating companies consistently make 30-50% net profit, it is telling that Spark Networks consistently loses money.
What makes this more pronounced is that their JDate site makes well over $20M in profit every year. So, if they are in a net loss position, it means that that $20M+ is subsidizing everything else.
This is not something new, either. For its entire 15 year history, Spark has lost money. Sure, it has $15M on its balance sheet, but given that $20M+ in cash from JDate every year, it should have $300M on its balance sheet, not $15M (less any acquisitions)!
This company almost went bankrupt wasting money on its AmericanSingles site before it came to its senses in the mid 2000’s. Its current management is now doing the same with AmericanSingles2, aka ChristianMingle.
If it wasn’t for JDate, this company would collapse. How do you think they are paying for all those ChristianMingle commercials on CNN? Basically, they are a one-trick pony that thinks they are a multi-niche company.
What I don’t get it how the investors in this company put up with this management (and its predecessors) squandering their cash year after year after year. “But, we are in growth mode” management will say. Except, they’ve been in “growth mode” for 15 years now!
Again, let’s put this in perspective: the successful dating companies out there make 30-50% net profit and have done so for many years. This company makes little or nothing – or loses money. But, they have such great revenue growth. 27% last quarter!
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the investment companies that own Spark’s stock. Maybe they view this as a charitable cause? How could they view it as an actual investment?
Shouldn’t the title of this post be, “Spark Networks Reports Net Loss Again”? Anyone can grow their revenue if they are prepared to spend enough to get it. In an industry where the successful dating companies consistently make 30-50% net profit, it is telling that Spark Networks consistently loses money.
What makes this more pronounced is that their JDate site makes well over $20M in profit every year. So, if they are in a net loss position, it means that that $20M+ is subsidizing everything else.
This is not something new, either. For its entire 15 year history, Spark has lost money. Sure, it has $15M on its balance sheet, but given that $20M+ in cash from JDate every year, it should have $300M on its balance sheet, not $15M (less any acquisitions)!
This company almost went bankrupt wasting money on its AmericanSingles site before it came to its senses in the mid 2000’s. Its current management is now doing the same with AmericanSingles2, aka ChristianMingle.
If it wasn’t for JDate, this company would collapse. How do you think they are paying for all those ChristianMingle commercials on CNN? Basically, they are a one-trick pony that thinks they are a multi-niche company.
What I don’t get it how the investors in this company put up with this management (and its predecessors) squandering their cash year after year after year. “But, we are in growth mode” management will say. Except, they’ve been in “growth mode” for 15 years now!
Again, let’s put this in perspective: the successful dating companies out there make 30-50% net profit and have done so for many years. This company makes little or nothing – or loses money. But, they have such great revenue growth. 27% last quarter!
I’d love to be a fly on the wall at the investment companies that own Spark’s stock. Maybe they view this as a charitable cause? How could they view it as an actual investment?
Here you go:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=LOV+Major+Holders
Look them up and call them. I’ve spoken with a few over the years who said they bought it for the “cash flow” which honestly made no sense to me.
If you’re going to start with someone, you could always start with John Lewis over at Osmium Partners. He filed with the SEC last month to show that he’s bought more stock I believe.
If you’ve followed the stock price, you’ll see it has increased steadily leading up to the earnings announcement. Frankly, I think it’s based more on supply and demand as opposed to anything positive in the stock itself.
And I agree — unless they can find a way to stabilize the sales to marketing ratio for their “other affinity networks” brands, they’ve going to have some trouble.
American Singles though was different. They cut their ad spend years back, and started losing customers faster than a snowball melting in the desert. The real question was why they continued to “only” spend $1mm on ads during that period. Either go big or go home.
(All opinions are solely my own based on public information that I’ve been able to cobble together. This should not be taken as investment advice of any sort.
Here you go:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=LOV+Major+Holders
Look them up and call them. I’ve spoken with a few over the years who said they bought it for the “cash flow” which honestly made no sense to me.
If you’re going to start with someone, you could always start with John Lewis over at Osmium Partners. He filed with the SEC last month to show that he’s bought more stock I believe.
If you’ve followed the stock price, you’ll see it has increased steadily leading up to the earnings announcement. Frankly, I think it’s based more on supply and demand as opposed to anything positive in the stock itself.
And I agree — unless they can find a way to stabilize the sales to marketing ratio for their “other affinity networks” brands, they’ve going to have some trouble.
American Singles though was different. They cut their ad spend years back, and started losing customers faster than a snowball melting in the desert. The real question was why they continued to “only” spend $1mm on ads during that period. Either go big or go home.
(All opinions are solely my own based on public information that I’ve been able to cobble together. This should not be taken as investment advice of any sort.