WEBWIRE – Sep 17 – The next Russian iDate (Internet Dating Conference) will be held on October 25-26, 2012 at the Radisson Belorusskaya Hotel in Moscow, Russia. Speakers include the largest dating entities in Eastern Europe such as Mamba.ru, LovePlanet.ru, eMoneyNews.ru, Dating Factory, AdWired, Qiwi, Daters.ru, WAPStart, and others. The conference also coincides with the Social Discovery Conference , also taking place also at the Belorusskaya Hotel on the same days. Those that register to one event are able to attend both.
Month: September 2012
F-Buddy: UK’s Fastest Growing Dating Site
PRESS RELEASE – Sep 17 – F-Buddy.co.uk, a dating site for people looking for ‘no strings attached’ sex is now the fastest growing dating site in the UK, according to Experian Hitwise. The number of visitors to F-Buddy increased by 480% between April and August.
Cupid’s Revenues Doubled
INDUSTRY LEADERS MAGAZINE – Sep 15 – According to half-year results, Cupid's revenue doubled to £38.6M as markets in Canada, France, Spain, Germany and Italy have been growing. Bill Dobbie, CEO at Cupid, said that the company expects ~£16M in earnings for the full year. The Cupid’s expansion in the U.S. market is a next step of the company which has a 2% share of the £800M online dating market in the US. The Cupid’s expansion in the U.S online dating market will be aimed at niche sites for older singles, parents and ethnic groups.
by Anna Domanska
The full article was originally published at Industry Leaders Magazine, but is no longer available.
Match.com Ignored Request To Cancel Payments
THISISMONEY.CO.UK – Sep 16 – Lucinda from London signed up to match.com last Dec on a 6-month contract totaling £89. In May she told Match she would not renew it – only to discover later that another £89 had been taken for six more months. The Financial Ombudsman Service says the number of complaints it has received about regular payments is rising. Last year it handled 500 complaints about regular payments – a quarter of which were for continuous payment authorities.
US Online Dating Rankings Update
OPW – Sep 17 – We have just updated Experian Hitwise online dating rankings for US. PlentyofFish.com (POF) is a top dating site in US with more than 18% of US online dating market share, followed by Match.com (9.7% of market share) and Zoosk (5.8%). You can see the top 20 list here.
Cupid Buys Uniform Dating For £7 Million
SCOTSMAN – Sep 14 – Cupid Plc has sealed a deal to buy site Uniform Dating for £7M. Cupid will pay £3.6M up front and a further £3.4M depending on Uniform Dating’s performance. Uniform Dating has recently launched in the US, Canada and Australia. The latest takeover follows July’s £2.9M acquisition of French peer Assistance Genie Logiciel, which operates sites including Amour.com. Last year Cupid snapped up a number of Portuguese-language website operators in Brazil.
by Peter Ranscombe
See full article at Scotsman
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Cheek’d: The 2.0 Version Of “Call Me”
KILLER STARTUPS – Sep 14 – Lori Cheek is behind the disrupting online and offline dating service, Cheek’d. The idea of Cheek’d was birthed several years ago, while Lori and an architect friend were having dinner. Across the table, Lori noticed him writing “Want to have dinner,” on the back of a business card. He then handed the card to a woman at a nearby table as they left the restaurant. Lori says that that was the infamous lightbulb moment.
by Eric Strait
See full article at Killer Startups
Dating Domains For Sale
OPW – Sep 14 – GlobalCupid.com and LocalCupid.com domains are for sale –
the price is $9,999 each or $17,999 for both. Contact John if you´re interested.
Vartan is also selling two online dating related domains: SexCupid.com and CougarPersonals.com, the asking price is $18K each.
Also contact Kevin J. Sinclair if you´re interested
in any of his domains: Romantically.org ($499), DatingMexicans.com
($750), FilipinaPhotos.com ($250), DatingAppstore.com ($950),
MicroDating.com ($11k), CupidsRomance.com ($18k), MobileSoulmates.com
($35k).
Cupid Media Expands Internationally With DirectTrack
GLOBE NEWSWIRE – Sep 13 – Cupid Media operates interactive dating sites focused in niche markets. With ~ 30M customers around the world, Cupid Media requires a solution that seamlessly handles multiple currencies and languages, and offers unique commission options to pay affiliates based on user engagements beyond the initial user sign-up. The currency conversion feature from DirectTrack allows clients like Cupid Media to gain more control over payments that have fluctuating exchange rates.
The full article was originally published at Virtual Strategy Magazine, but is no longer available.
This post also appears on InternetDatingAffiliates.
Grouper Expands To 10 More Cities
HUFFINGTON POST – Sep 13 – Grouper is an online "social club" that launched more than a year ago in New York City. The site expanded to 10 more cities: Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, Philadelphia and Seattle. Signing up takes about a minute because the site creates a profile for you by pulling information from your Facebook page. Then you send an email inviting two friends to be your wingmen or wingwomen. Lastly, you answer five questions on a sliding scale. Then you wait two to three weeks for an email from Grouper. There's a waiting list because matches are determined by staff members in addition to a computer algorithm, according to the company. The email sets the location for your meeting and offers various times for you and your friends to choose from. Each of the six people must pay $20, which goes to pay for the first round of drinks and the site's fee. Grouper dates are more enjoyable because when you're with your friends, you're going to behave more comfortably and naturally.