OPW – Jan 8 – The Online Personals Watch pre-conference session at iDate Vegas is now oversold and is being moved to a larger room to accommodate demand. Clearly we see the industry voting
with its feet! We’ve been doing this session for 4 years now and we (Irena and I) strive
to make it better each year. This year’s OPW session, ‘Developing an
online dating business strategy’ will feature interviews with industry
luminaries, insights on how to start-up, avoiding pitfalls, and getting
it right, right from the start. A big thank you to all of our sponsors
and supporters.
Month: January 2013
Mark Brooks On NPR’s On Point: Monogamy And Online Dating
OPW – Jan 9 – I'm interviewing for an hour on NPR's On Point with Tim Ashbrook starting 4pm EST. You can listen here. I'm on with Dr Eli Finkel, a professor of psychology at Northwestern University who's disputed the effectiveness of iDating, and Amanda Hess, a writer for Slate.
I'll be discussing this white paper where I asked the iDating industry executive 'How Has Internet Dating Changed Society.' Dan Slater (former Wall Street Journal reporter) wrote 'A Million First Dates' for The Atlantic for Jan 3, and quoted “Internet dating has made people more disposable, and may be partly responsible for a rise in the divorce rates,” from the white paper.
Watch out for Dan's new book out January 24th. He spent 2 years embedded and focused on the iDating industry to write 'Love In The Time Of Algorithms.'
eHarmony Ventures Into The Job Market
US NEWS – Jan 8 – eHarmony is ready to venture into new territory: the job market. The company plans to launch a new product that will match jobseekers and employers, allowing them to create lasting, meaningful working relationships with each other. "We know that it's 50 – 75% of all people say they're not really happy with the jobs they currently have," says Neil Clark Warren, the founder and CEO of eHarmony. "We're trying to bring to bear some of the algorithms that we've already understood from all of the work we've done on matching people for marriage." Warren says that the company hopes to launch the job-matching site in June.
by Danielle Kurtzleben
The full article was originally published at US News, but is no longer available.
A Foreign Affair Partners With National Geographic For A Reality Show
PRESS RELEASE – Jan 8 – A Foreign Affair, the international dating agency, is the focus of a new reality show on The National Geographic Channel that will premiere on Saturday, January 12th, 2013 at 11:00 pm EST (9:00 pm MST). The show is entitled “Bachelors Abroad” and follows A Foreign Affair tour clients as they participate in the company’s international romance tours.
The full article was originally published at National Geographic Channel, but is no longer available.
Gaydar Closes Profile Bar And Club In Soho
GAYSTARNEWS – Jan 7 – Just days after closing its radio station, Gaydar pulls out of the nightlife business. Profile and Lo Profile, in the heart of the British capital’s gay district on Wardour Street, will shut today (7 January). They said that was so they could focus on their core digital dating brands – Gaydar and Gaydar Girls.
Trends In 21st Century China
KNOWLEDGE WHARTON – Jan 2 – Chinese online dating has taken off and is expected to break two billion RMB ($318M) in total annual revenue by 2014, according to a recent report by Analysys International. China's One-child Policy, rapid urbanization, and the widening gender imbalance have all played major roles in increasing the online-matchmaking market size. The primary players in this space — Jiayuan, Zhenai and Baihe — advertise themselves explicitly as marriage websites. Zhenai, a subscription-based dating service, has ~30M users. Despite the impressive size of its user base, Zhenai is maintaining a 40% annual growth rate. Jiayuan's growth is even more staggering. Established in 2003, it acquired 63M subscribers by 2012. Earning more than 44% of the Chinese online dating sector's revenue, the NASDAQ-listed Jiayuan is the only one to have gone public. Despite their impressive growth they face two major business challenges. First, the online dating service industry in China is fragmented. The second challenge is building trust with users.
See full article at Knowledge Wharton
See all posts on Jiayuan.com
See all posts on Zhenai
See all posts on Baihe
Debate: Has Facebook Ruined Love?
NEW YORK TIMES – Jan 5 – "Most social media tools don’t provide a human bonding experience. Meeting someone new in-person is arguably the genesis of any romance. Traditional dating sites help you find somebody new. But it isn't spontaneous or romantic. It feels like shopping online. The location-based mobile meetup app, however, offers a solution to social media that actually involves meeting people." – Joel Simkhai, Grindr.
"Online dating sites are great. But once someone else’s interests have piqued your interest, do your research. After all, you could be letting this person into your heart … not to mention your home." - Sandy Heart, founder CheckOutaDate.com, which conducts background checks on potential romantic partners.
"Social media is what I'd call a romance contraceptive. It prevents romance from happening every single day. For every moment that you're checking your Twitter feed, or your so-called friends' updates on Facebook, you're missing another opportunity to connect with somebody in real life." - David Wygant, a dating and relationship coach.
Questions For Dr Warren, CEO/Founder, eHarmony.com
OPW – Jan 4 – We're honored to have Dr Neil Clark Warren, CEO/Founder of eHarmony, speaking on the first day of the Internet Dating Conference
on Thursday 17th January. I'll be hosting a fireside chat with Dr
Warren. I'd love to get your thoughts on questions for Dr Warren.
Please email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com. Thanks for your input and consideration.
POF Takes 67% Of Mobile Dating Market Share
POF BLOG – Jan 6 – comScore has a new report out that tracks companies mobile APPS. POF has 67.5% of time spent on all dating apps and 50% market share in terms of daily visitors for the month of November 2012 in the US.
The full article was originally published at POF Blog, but is no longer available.
So There !
OPW – Jan 4 – Sometimes it's good to peer inside the hearts of your users. For a quick glimpse, go to SoThere.com. Jenifer Jourdanne has been running the site and posting every day for the past 12 years.