Month: March 2013
Cupid Plc’s Profits Rise
REUTERS – Mar 5 – Cupid Plc's profits rose 31%. Cupid Plc reported pretax profit of 9.2M pounds ($13.9M), compared to 7M in 2011. Cupid said it wooed 1.78M new subscribers to its websites last year, with particularly strong growth in France and the U.S. Revenues for 2012 increased by 51% to 80.9M pounds. Cupid's share price slid ~28% in February, the biggest monthly fall since the company was floated on London's junior AIM market in June 2010. Last month, the BBC published a report featuring claims from members who said that they suspected that fake communications had been used to encourage them to buy subscriptions. Cupid denied the claims and said that it only acted "in a legal and appropriate manner".
WorldSingles Networks Introduces Arabic Into Its White Label Dating Platform
WSN – Mar 5 – With ~72M Internet users, a population of ~400M and aggressive mobile growth, the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region is booming with opportunities for the personals industry. White label dating provider WorldSingles Networks realized that they are missing out on the majority of the addressable market due to their lack of Arabic language localization. As of today, their white label matchmaking solution and ArabLounge, the dating site for the Arab diaspora, are available in Arabic.
The full article was originally published at World Singles Networks website, but is no longer available.
See all posts on WorldSingles Networks
See all posts on ArabLounge
Let’s Date App Lets Friends Match Their Friends
BUSINESS INSIDER – Mar 5 – Let's Date, an app that launched out of beta last month, introduced a new feature called "Wingman." Everyone on Let's Date has a dater card, which features basic information like age, sex, and interest. Once you're in the app, you swipe through dating cards and if you like what you see, you can click "Let's Date." If that person hits "Let's Date" on your profile, the two of you will be able to chat and plan your first date. With the new Wingman feature, your friends can browse through the app to help find potential matches for you.
Top Internet Dating Statistics
- U.S. dating services market worth 2.14bn in 2012 (at $1.33 billion, the dating websites captured 53% of total revenues; leaders include IAC’s Match.com with $480 million, eHarmony with $270 million, and FriendFinder Networks with $233 million)
- forecast to grow 4.7% per year to $2.54 billion by 2015
- 100+ million singles used the services
- 3.924 companies / 7.939 employees in the industry (by 2015)
- 1,800+ independent matchmakers operate in the US (grossing about $200,000/year each)
- approximately 250 physical offices run by “off-line” dating service chains or franchises and speed dating firms (eLove, 56 offices; It’s Just Lunch, 150; Great Expectations, 32)
- matchmakers: $293 million market, expected to grow 6-7% per year to $352 million
- phone chat lines for singles: $350 million segment dominated by Teligence and Quest Personals
(sources: IBIS, MarketData)
Mobile Dating
- Currently, the US mobile dating industry is worth an estimated $212.6 million in revenue
- Over the three years to 2012, revenue from mobile dating has grown at an estimated average annual rate of 70.3%
- In 2012, the US mobile dating industry is projected to grow 29.0%
Mobile dating market
Year Revenue ($) Growth
2009 43.0 million
2010 108.9 million 153.0%
2011 164.8 million 51.3%
2012 212.6 million 29.0%
Forecast for the mobile dating market
- Over the next five years to 2017, revenue for the US mobile dating market is expected to nearly double
- From 2012 – 2017, revenue is projected to rise at an average annual rate of 14.3% to $415.3 million
Mobile dating rankings (source: Comscore; Nov ’12)
iovation Launches TrustScore To Identify Good Customers
PRESS RELEASE – Mar 5 – iovation, the provider of device reputation protecting businesses against online fraud, launchedTrustScore service. TrustScore identifies website visitors that are most likely to be trustworthy—even if they’ve never visited the site before. It accomplishes this by analyzing a consumer’s online activity from their collective devices and assigning a rating to those devices based on historical behavior.
Got News?
OPW – Mar 5 – We protect sources. We're looking for insider news and tips. Got something interesting? We will not share your contact information with anyone. We respect embargoes, and we absolutely will honor your privacy. Send your news directly at tips@onlinepersonalswatch.com.
What Love Means To A 4-8 Year Old…
OPW – Mar 2 – Paul at eLove.com sent this to us. Here's our favorites…
A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?'
The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined.
'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time , even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. – Rebecca, age 8
'When someone loves you , the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth' – Billy, age 4
'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired' – Terri, age 4
'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' – Danny, age 7
'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' – Bobby, age 7 (Wow!)
'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate.' – Nikka, age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)
'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday..' – Noelle, age 7
'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' – Lauren, age 4
ChristianMingle Saw 89% YOY Increase In Paid Members
BUSINESSWEEK – Feb 28 – The $30M advertising and marketing push had made ChristianMingle an unexpectedly popular dating site with 8M registered users, 154K paying subscribers at $19.99 a month. That’s almost double the 84K paying subscribers of SparkNetwork’s groundbreaking Jewish singles site, JDate. SparkNetworks.com was founded in 1997. JDate grew rapidly by word of mouth. ChristianMingle was launched in 2004 and remained small until 2010, when Spark consulted with local ministers and prominent Christian leaders about how best to serve their constituents. As a result, the company founded an advisory council of church leaders and hired ChristianMingle spokeswoman Ashley Reccord, a pastor’s daughter, to help conduct outreach. Then the company launched Believe.com, which features Christian editorials, and redesigned the site into something more devout-seeming than JDate. Spark reported the number of ChristianMingle paid subscribers grew 89% for the Q4 of 2012 vs. the period a year earlier. There are other suitors in the market for Christian romance; eHarmony and ChristianCafe.com.
by Logan Hill
See full article at BusinessWeek
See all posts on ChristianMingle See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on JDate See all posts on ChristianCafe.com
Dating Factory Introduces Indian Dating Niche
PR WEB – Feb 28 – India has the second largest diaspora in the world. The number of Indians now living abroad in search of further education and employment is estimated to reach 30M. DatingFactory.com partners are now able to launch a dating site targeting single Indians living abroad.