Month: May 2013

Parents Play Matchmakers

Posted on May 13, 2013

Thejmomlogo new May 13NY TIMES – May 9 – “It’s almost like outsourcing your online dating to your mom,” said Kevin Leland, CEO of TheJMom.com, a Jewish matchmaking site. Mothers, fathers and even grandmothers share online profiles of their ready-to-wed children. Duo is a traditional matchmaking service based in South Korea. 80% of the members are mothers inquiring on behalf of their sons. Annual fees can range from $2K – $5K, and include 7-9 introductions and parents monitor the dating progress of their children. Posting and browsing on TheJMom.com is free, and a six-month subscription package, which provides contacts and connections, starts at $78. The $199 premium service, the Personal Profile Concierge, provides mothers with a makeover of their own profile and their child’s online profile and one-on-one attention from someone at the company. Indian families are known to begin the matchmaking process by collecting a prospect’s “bio-data,” which is a résumé of someone’s marital qualifications — from the basics like age, weight and height, to information about a prospect’s job and character. There are a number of matrimonial sites including BharatMatrimony.com, Shaadi.com, and SecondShaadi.com (for second marriages).

by Ji Huyn Lee
See full article at NY Times

See all posts on TheJMom        See all posts on BharatMatrimony
See all posts on Shaadi            See all posts on SecondShaadi

Stock Market: Spark Networks Could Be The Next Netflix

Posted on May 13, 2013

Sparknetworks logo new Jan 13BENZIGA – May 10 – 9 months ago Netflix traded for $55 a share. Over the last 7 months, Netflix quadrupled in value and is now trading at ~$217 a share. Who will be the next Netflix? It could be Spark Networks, which owns and operates JDate and Christian Mingle. It only has $170M market cap. JDate been around for over a decade and has had a 90% or higher contribution margin for the last 11 years running, but it hasn't grown. It is the very definition of a beautiful cash cow. Christian Mingle is aimed at the market of Christians in the United States, which is 30 times larger than the Jewish market. It is now substantially larger than JDate. It is not yet profitable because they take all of their cash flow and plow that back into growth. Last quarter, revenues grew 45% YOY. IAC is the most logical buyer for Spark, and it would be a tiny bite-sized acquisition.

by Louis Bedigian
See full article at Benzinga

See all posts on Spark Networks
See all posts on JDate
See all posts on ChristianMingle

Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – May 2013

Posted on May 12, 2013

Internet dating jobs logo OPW – May 12 – New iDating jobs listing is live on the Internet Dating Jobs blog.

Below see a couple of this month's most interesting offers:

____

From our esteemed Courtland Brooks clients:

AnastasiaDate.com
  UX Lead (User Experience Lead/Human-Computer Interaction Lead)

Global Personals USA (Webdate, Fling, WealthyMen)
  Product Manager

GuySpy
  Community Manager 

____

Grouper
  Director of PR/Communications

Match.com, Chemistry.com, People Media
  Director, West Coast Advertising Sales

Spark Networks
  Director of Mobile Products

SpeedDate
  Director of Marketing – Display

Zoosk
  Director of International Marketing

To see more open positions go here.

Do you have an idating industry job offer which is not included? Please, send it to petra@courtlandbrooks.com and we will add it to the list.

1 In 10 Online Dating Profiles Is Fake

Posted on May 10, 2013

Fake profilesNY DAILY NEWS – May 9 – A study of bogus online dating profiles reveals that most fraudsters claim to be religious and widowed. Many are also foreign, but describe themselves as Native American, mistakenly thinking it means only that they're from America. The FBI says ~$50M is stolen every year in romance scams. One in ten profiles is fake, according to research from SeekingArrangement.com, which deletes ~200 fraudulent accounts every day. CEO Brandon Wade says: “Scammers want you to trust them, and they want sympathy.” The bogus accounts are more likely to belong to a woman (71%) than a man (29%). Many fake profiles are listed in Nigeria, the Ukraine and the Philippines.

by Rheana Murray
See full article at NY Daily News

See all posts on SeekingArrangement

4,000 Irish Students Seek ‘Sugar Daddies’

Posted on May 10, 2013

Seekingarrangement logoINDEPENDENT – May 10 – ~4,000 Irish students have signed up to a SeekingArrangement.com to pay their way through college. 80% of all relationships conducted through the service involved sex. 4 of the top 10 colleges using the service are based in Dublin. Overall, membership from Ireland is the seventh-largest in the world, behind the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, France and Germany.

by Nick Bramhill
See full article at Independent

See all posts on SeekingArrangement

FlashComs Offers 30% Off To All Userplane Customers

Posted on May 10, 2013

Flashcoms logoOPW – May 9 – FlashComs, the Internet communication tools provider, is offering 30% discount to all Userplane users if they decide to buy any of their products/services. FlashComs has been around since 2003 and developed a line of flash based apps including Community Chat, Instant Messenger, Video Messenger and Audio & Video recorders. Userplane is shutting down on August 1st, 2013.

Domains4Sale: Romantically.com, Peoplego.com

Posted on May 10, 2013

For_sale4OPW – May 10 – Here is a list of domains for sale. Contact Kevin if you are interested in:

  • MobileSoulmates.com $4,500 or $850 if bought today
  • MicroDating.com $4,500 or $850
  • CupidsRomance.com $4,500 or $850
  • Romantically.com $25,000

Contact Sam if you are interested in:

  • peoplego.com $2,500
  • esingleparent.com $2,000
  • cafequebec.com $1,500
  • mobilechatgroups.com $1,250
  • singleschat.org $1,000
  • realchats.com $1,000
  • koreacafe.com $1,000
  • chatbuzz.com $1,000
  • induscafe.com $750
  • womancafe.com $500
  • foreveryoungcafe.com $500
  • cafemodel.com $250
  • howtobemissright.com $250
  • 1singlescafe.com $200
  • dateaerobics.com $250
  • cafefortwo.com $250
  • cafefor2.com $200
  • cafe4two.com $150
  • cafefortow.com $50

Sam will sell the above four as a package for $500.

Diet Domains

  • slimcafe.com $1,000
  • edietcafe.com $750
  • shapecafe.com $500

See all domains & sites for sale

Are You Interested Makes 2M Connections

Posted on May 9, 2013

AYI areyouinterested logo new march 13TECH CRUNCH – May 9 – Are You Interested has been in the online dating game since 2007, predominantly focused on the Facebook platform as a way to connect people. In the past few months AYI launched a new feature that connects you with friends of friends. There are ~20M Facebook profiles connected to AYI and 3M active users per month. And since they implemented their friends of friends feature in March, AYI says that ~2M connections have been made through the new feature. Matching friends of friends is the “next big thing”. Another startup that’s been around since last year is Coffee Meets Bagel, and it could be said that they were the first ones to match friends of friends together, albeit at a much smaller scale.

by Jordan Crook
See full article at Tech Crunch

We asked Cliff Lerner, CEO of Snap Interactive, to comment. He said:
"We're very excited by the user reaction and early data around connecting through your mutual friends.  The new feature is increasing engagement, with US women being 41% more likely to connect with a man when there's a friend in common. It's also providing viral growth opportunities with 1,000's of users messaging their friends directly to learn about a potential date.

We look forward to continuing to  iterate on meeting new people through mutual friends as well as building a deeper mobile integration. Our mission is to improve the online dating experience for meeting new people. We believe we are uniquely positioned to offer the friend functionality due to our Facebook scale of 20 million Facebook connected profiles, ensuring users have a robust experience to meet through their friends."

See all posts on AYI
See all posts on CoffeeMeetsBagel

Facebook Friends Can Play Cupid With ‘YouShouldTotallyMeet’

Posted on May 9, 2013

Youshouldtotallymeet logoMASHABLE – May 9 – YouShouldTotallyMeet is a new Facebook app that matches friends of your friends. You first build an app profile for a single friend that you want to set up.Through the app, you then write some reasons why someone should meet your friend. Mutual friends can even vouch for them with "agree" and "disagree" votes. Then, you go through your own friends list and find people they "should totally meet."

by Vignesh Ramachandran
See full article at Mashable

How The Internet May Have Increased Young Marriages 14%

Posted on May 9, 2013

Wedding rings2TECH CRUNCH – May 9 – One study suggests that the Internet is responsible for boosting holy matrimony 14% among 21-30-year-olds. Of regions with similar composition in race, socioeconomic status, population density, unemployment, and age, the author finds the Internet is associated with 13-30% boost in first-time marriages. A 2005 Pew Poll which found that 5% of all marriages began online.

by Gregory Ferenstein
See full article at Tech Crunch