HARVARD COLLEGE – May 31 – Associate Professor Mikolaj Piskorski investigates whether dating sites are helping the lonely or just making life easier for young singles who are popular already. He is documenting his findings in a book, due to come out in 2013. OkCupid provided Piskorski with information about its members, covering user demographics and usage patterns – how users learned about one another's profiles, how many profiles they viewed on average, and how many introductory messages they sent after viewing those profiles. The big finding is that men who view most profiles are least likely to message. Older, shorter, and relatively overweight men tended to view more profiles. People who expect rejection may simply refrain from writing, unless the site gives them an encouragement to do so.
Month: May 2012
MiniDates Schedules Real-Life Blind Dates
TECH CRUNCH – May 31 – MiniDates schedules dates for members based on their schedule and suitor preferences. There is no messaging and no browsing. The date is as blind as can be, with the exception of seeing a profile picture and an age. An email will be sent to a woman with a match, both in schedule and preferences, and it’s her prerogative whether or not she accepts. Subsequently, men are notified that this or that lady has accepted a date with them. Men can’t see anything about the women until the date has been accepted, and no one will be able to connect with anyone until they’re found in real life. After the date, they’re asked to rank your potential suitor.
iDate App For iPad And iPhone Now Available
WEBWIRE – May 31 - The app can be downloaded at iTunes App Store. The iDate App is for online dating execs and it provides the latest business news from Online Personals Watch and information about upcoming Internet dating conferences.
Will Anyone Pay $100 000 To Enter Secret Diamond Club?
ARCTIC STARTUP – May 30 – Secret Diamond Club is a new exclusive dating site coming out of Denmark. Men must pay between $10K and $100K, based on how wide of a network they would like to search. Women pay $10 and $50 a year based on how attractive their pictures are to a panel of men and women.
by Greg Anderson
The full article was originally published at Arctic Startup, but is no longer available.
Internet Dating Safety Bill About To Pass In Illinois
STL TODAY – May 28 – The Internet Dating Safety Bill that would add new regulations to Internet dating sites doing business in Illinois is now one floor vote from passage. The bill is requiring that Internet dating services either conduct criminal background checks on all their members, or post online warnings specifying that they don’t conduct such screenings. It has already passed the House, and today passed the Senate Judiciary Committee 6-3. The full Senate could take up the bill as early as Tuesday.
by Kevin McDermott
See full article at STL Today
In India Online Dating Takes Into Account Caste Status
PRI.ORG – May 27 – For many Indians, caste is an important factor in daily life. Caste as an indicator of commonality in terms of things such as food, tradition or culture. In Chennai, there’s a small store belonging to TamilMatrimony.com. The store is meant to draw in Indians who don’t use or can’t afford computers. Clients sign up in person and take home print-outs of the profiles they’re interested in. Find a good match, and they can set up a meeting. The founder of Tamil Matrimony is Murugavel Janakiraman, who operates a range of localized marriage sites across India, including Gujurati Matrimony and Punjabi Matrimony. He claims 20M Indians are currently using his services.
eDarling Infographic: 50 Million Euro In Revenue In 2012
DEUTSCHESTARTUPS.DE – eDarling's 2011 revenue was 36 Million Euro and is on track to hit 50 Million Euro this year according to eDarling's CEO Christian Vollmann. "eDarling is an important part of our future strategy", said Jeremy Verba, CEO of eHarmony. eHarmony acquired 30% of eDarling at the end of 2009. eDarling claims 12M registered users according to its infographic.
by Alexander Hüsing
See full article at DeutscheStartups.de
Jiayuan: First Quarter 2012 Financial Results
PR NEWSWIRE – May 23 – Jiayuan.com, operator of the largest online dating platform in China, announced its Q1 '12 financial results. Net revenues for the first quarter 2012 were RMB 87.4M ($13.9M), a YOY increase of 27.8%. Operating income was $622K. The number of registered users was over 62M, with 6.7M new users acquired during the quarter. The number of average monthly paying users 1.2M, compared to 882,471 in 2011.
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.
Mechanical Matchmaking: The Science Of Love In The 1920s
SMITHSONIAN.COM – May 24 - The April 1924 issue of Science and Invention magazine ran an article by Hugo Gernsback, which examined the different “scientific” ways to determine if a marriage will succeed or fail. There are four different tests to determine whether a marriage will work.
- Physical Attraction Test – Electrodes are attached to each person’s wrist so that an “electrical sphygmograph” can record their pulse. If the pulse rate rises while embracing or kissing this is scientific evidence of physical attraction.
- Sympathy Test – It involves one of the partners watching the other go through something mildly traumatic, like having blood drawn. If the partner's muscular contractions and sudden inhalations “due to excitement” are wild enough, then she/he is sufficiently sympathetic to the partner.
- Body Odor Test – The couple is made to smell each other by one person being placed inside a capsule with a hose coming out the top. The hose is led to the nose of the other person and if the smells aren’t found too objectionable then the romantic pairing is deemed safe.
- Nervous Disorder Test - It’s important that at least one partner can be calm under pressure.