PANDO DAILY – Aug 12 – A year ago, not many developers had heard about graph databases. But thanks to the release of Facebook’s “Graph Search”, this is no longer true. Neo Technology is one of the pioneers of graph database technology. The technology enables companies to better map relationships, mine connections, power user queries, and resolve connected data challenges. Neo’s customer roster includes companies like Accenture, Adobe, Autodesk, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, HP, Intercontinental Exchange and T-Mobile. Neo’s most recent paying customer to implement Neo4j is Bang With Friends (BWF). It’s only five months post-launch, and the company has already crossed the 1M user mark with 200K successful matches made, and continues to see viral growth. BWF co-founder Colin Hodge used graph technology to map relationships at his prior dating startup HeardAboutYou and describes the database architecture as the obvious way to structure his company’s data. “It allows us to more effectively model the dating landscape and the connections between our users,” Hodge says.
Month: August 2013
eDarling CEO Interview, Lukas Brosseder (MD And co-Founder Of Affinitas GmbH)
OPW INTERVIEW – Aug 13 – eDarling recently pared away from eHarmony and is independent again, and ready to compete internationally. eDarling launched in the UK recently and is now open for business in 22 countries. Here’s their founding story, from Affinitas co-founder Lukas Brosseder. – Mark Brooks
This is our first interview with eDarling. What’s your founding story?
David Khalil and myself founded the company in November 2008. In Europe, we didn't see a true matchmaking company. Here, it was always a combination of a dating site and a personality questionnaire, but not a true matchmaking service, and existing players weren’t very innovative. None of the matchmaking sites such as Parship in Germany and eHarmony in the U.S. were able to go international. We believed that this was possible, and that was our idea. In May 2009, 6 months after the launch in Germany, we were live in 4 other countries.
Would you say that your product and philosophy is different from the likes of Parship and eHarmony?
What distinguishes us is a very true matchmaking system. We are focusing on delivering very good matches. You only get 7 initial matches when you finish our relationship questionnaire. We pride ourselves in the quality of the matches, and the communications.
eHarmony has been a big part of us for a very long time, and we have grown together in a lot of ways. Initially, they were one of our biggest heroes. Our matchmaking system is very different from the eHarmony system.
Let's talk about matchmaking then. What is your philosophy; what kind of basis do you focus on for the matchmaking?
All the other larger competitors’ matchmaking is based on the big five model. We truly believe in compatibility and being matched based on having similar interests and personality traits. We have several innovative algorithms implemented that understandably I can not talk about in detail. A big part of the secret sauce are the users on the site, and here we pride ourselves on having a high educated, extremely dedicated user base. I think that also is a big part of our success.
Recently you parted ways with eHarmony. Could you give us some more insight on why, and what happened?
We parted on very good terms on either side. I think the main reason for the parting was Dr. Neil Clark Warren’s strategy to decrease eHarmony’s international footprint. We wanted to grow internationally. It was a good way and good timing for everyone to take different routes and to take different strategies.
How many countries are you in now?
We launched in UK and Ireland just a couple weeks ago, and now we're in 22 countries.
Congratulations on entering UK and Ireland. How did that go, and how did you seed into those countries from scratch?
We have done this 20 times before. We know how to grow business internationally. With UK and Ireland, it was the same set up as it was with Hungary, Finland, Denmark, and Slovakia, which all were launched at the beginning of this year. We make the site free and spend significant 5-digit marketing budgets per day to build up a user base. When we have a user base and also activity on the platform that is sufficient, we start to charge.
What is eDarling going to look like in a year or so's time?
We will grow further international. We just launched in Ireland and UK which is the largest dating market in Europe. So there are a lot of things to do. We won't rule out launching in more countries in Europe. We also see opportunities in South America.
Tinder: The Dating App That Everyone’s Talking About
MARIECLAIRE.CO.UK – Aug 12 – Tinder, a simple-to-use dating app, launched in the US in September, is now taking the UK by storm. It's a kind of modern day 'Hot or Not'. It's quick, easy to use on the run and the embarrassment factor’s limited. Unlike other dating sites, age is the only vital stat you get. Tinder say they have made ~100M matches since the launch and claim there have been 50 marriage proposals.
Socialbots Can Flirt And Tweet
NY TIMES – Aug 13 – From the earliest days of the Internet, robotic programs, or bots, have been trying to pass themselves off as human. Chatbots greet users when they enter an online chat room, spambots churn out e-mails advertising miracle stocks and unattended bank accounts in Nigeria. Bimbots deploy photos of gorgeous women to hawk work-from-home job ploys and illegal pharmaceuticals. Now come socialbots, programmed to tweet and retweet. This new breed of bots is being designed to sway elections, to influence the stock market, to attack governments, even to flirt with people. Last year, the number of Twitter accounts topped 500M. Some researchers estimate that ~35% of the average Twitter user’s followers are real people. Within two years, ~10 % of activity occurring on social networks will be masquerading bots, according to technology researchers. Dating sites provide especially fertile ground for socialbots. Christian Rudder, a co-founder and GM of OkCupid, said that when his site recently bought and redesigned a smaller site, they witnessed not just a sharp decline in bots, but also a sudden 15% drop in use of the new site by real people. This decrease in traffic occurred because the flirtatious messages and automated “likes” that bots had been posting to members’ pages had imbued the former site with a false sense of intimacy and activity. Mr. Rudder and his programmers are seeking to design their own bots that will flirt with invader bots, courting them into a special room, “a purgatory of sorts,” to talk to one another rather than fooling the humans.
by Ian Urbina
See full article at NY Times
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
The Physics Of Online Dating
WORLD SINGLES NETWORKS – Aug 12 – World Singles Networks has been building dating sites for over a decade. This experience provides them a unique perspective on the growth and evolutionary tendencies of dating sites across a wide range of diaspora communities in every country on the globe. Just like in astrophysics where scientists can determine the lifespan and ultimate fates of stars based on their initial mass and other criteria, World Singles Networks can predict the growth and performance characteristics of online dating sites. Check out their own predictive model using the organizing metaphor of star dynamics.
The full article was originally published at World Singles Networks blog, but is no longer available.
Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – August 2013
OPW – Aug 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:
Global Personals USA (Webdate, Fling, WealthyMen)
Product Manager
____
Badoo
Head of PR
eHarmony
Marketing Director (AU)
Grouper
Director of Finance
Match.com, Chemistry.com, People Media
Director, Finance & Strategy
Spark Networks
Director of Mobile Products
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.
Facebook As A Resource For Matchmakers
DIGITAL TRENDS – Aug 10 – Facebook's Graph Search feature has recently been making waves in the online dating industry for its ability to return a list of users that fit the bill (romantically), and more matchmakers are experimenting with it to provide their clients with matches. Matchmakers mainly used social media to let people know their services exist and are reputable. “We use Facebook and Twitter to promote events and build awareness about our company, but not until Graph Search did we use it to reach out to people for dates.” exclaims Anni Powers, COO and Executive Matchmaker for Northern California of The Real Matchmaker. We do not use Graph Search to find matches for our clients as we only match our clients with other It’s Just Lunch users,” says Irene LaCota, Spokesperson for It’s Just Lunch International. This protocol may be due to the results of their survey where 54% users say that they never interact with a love interest on social media, 44% prefer to keep their personal relationships out of cyberspace, and 34% wait for their date to friend them on Facebook before initiating online contact.
Online Dating For Catholics: Benefits & Risks
NC REGISTER – Aug 11 – Today, the most often-cited meeting place for singles (21%) is online, according to a Match.com survey. Catholic Match says it has served ~1M people since its founding in 1999. Other sites for catholics are AveMariaSingles.com, CatholicSingles.com and CatholicMingle.com. Such sites pair people who would otherwise not meet due to distance or other circumstances, said Catholic Match CEO Brian Barcaro. “One of the biggest problems is that of treating another human being as something you can ‘shop for’ based on a list of traits and qualities,” said Christopher West, a Catholic author and speaker on John Paul II’s theology of the body. “Every human person is incomparable, totally unique and unrepeatable. If we’re only in love with a list of qualities, well, then our love will drift to anyone who has those qualities. We haven’t yet reached the dignity of the person.” Catholic Match discourages members from having a shopping mentality. “Online dating sites are tools,” said Barcaro. “Simply because a tool can be abused does not mean the tool itself actually promotes a certain kind of behavior.”
by Stephen Beale
See full article at NC Register
See all posts on CatholicMatch
See all posts on AveMariaSingles
See all posts on CatholicSingles
For Sale: Pikilino & Thedatedr.com
OPW – Aug 11 – Pikilino.com – a social dating site targeting south american markets with over 100k registered users is for sale at $40 000. Users come mainly from Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Colombia. The site is built completely from scratch. The owners state that cost per reg is low and they will show the buyer how to acquire further users at low cost. A freemium business model has been developed but hasn’t been fully implemented yet. There’s no revenue at the moment. Contact daniel@pikilino.com.
Thedatedr.com domain is for sale as well. The asking price is $1500. Contact Steve if you´re interested.