Month: April 2014

What To Watch Before Falling In Love With Zoosk

Posted on April 23, 2014

Zoosk logo new Dec 13SECFILINGS.COM – Apr 21 - Zoosk has 26M members, 650K are subscribers. With a focus on data-driven analytics, the company’s behavioral matchmaking engine learns from clicks, messaging and other interactions to deliver connections that are predicted to result in mutual attraction. Zoosk focuses on mobile. In 2013, 41% of their first-time subscriptions were made on mobile devices. Zoosk grew its revenues by 63% from $109M to $178M between 2012 and 2013, but reported net losses of $20.7M and $2.6M, respectively.

The full article was originally published at SecFilings.com, but is no longer available.

See all posts on Zoosk

Grindr Removes Advert From Christian Group GodLife

Posted on April 23, 2014

Grindr Godlife adPINK NEWS – Apr 21 - Grindr will remove ads from a Christian group GodLife which had been using Grindr to advertise the ‘four steps to God’, though the group denied it was trying to ‘change’ gays. Grindr has made a business decision not to accept religious advertising.

See full article at Pink News

See all posts on Grindr

FarmersOnly Is Launching In Canada

Posted on April 23, 2014

Farmersonly logo simpleTHE CANADIAN PRESS – Apr 20 – FarmersOnly was set up in 2005 to help farming singles meet a mate. Jerry Miller was doing agricultural marketing when he came up with the idea for the site. A divorced, female friend was having trouble meeting men while working long hours on her farm, and found suitors on other dating websites didn’t have a clue about what her life was like. The site now has ~1.5M members, 10% are from Canada.

by Chris Purdy
See full article at The Star

See all posts on FarmersOnly

Interview With Phil Gripton, CEO Of Cupid

Posted on April 23, 2014

Cupidplc phil gripton apr 14THE SCOTSMAN – Apr 20 – Phil Gripton was promoted in December to replace founder Bill Dobbie as Cupid's new CEO. Phil was forced to move quickly to recover ground lost when the company was accused of using fake profiles. Investors were becoming twitchy. From flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in June 2010, shares soared from 60p to 250p by Sep '11. But they have since plunged below 50p and last week traded at 43p. Phil wants the company to focus on a dating market that embraces social events such as wine tasting and cookery sessions.

by Terry Murden
See full article at The Scotsman

See all posts on Cupid plc

Online Dating Sites As Political Activists

Posted on April 23, 2014

Online dating Apr 14WASHINGTON POST – Apr 18 – When Gary Kremen, founder of Match.com, did his first TV interview, he said his site would “bring more love to the planet than anything since Jesus Christ.” Neil Clark Warren started eHarmony with a vision to “literally change the world.” Three weeks ago, OkCupid helped galvanize support for the ouster of Brendan Eich, the CEO of Mozilla. Dating site may go to bat for certain interest groups, but only when doing so is easy, cost-free and consistent with building its brand. eHarmony has been alone in its willingness to risk resources and sacrifice customers over politics. From 2006 to 2008, the site spent millions to fight gay daters who demanded that eHarmony cater to them. “As online dating plays an important role in how we fall in love, we have a growing responsibility to advocate for our customers,” says Brian Schechter, co-founder of HowAboutWe. “This of course involves advocating for equal rights and respect for all sexual orientations.”

by Dan Slater
See full article at Washington Post

See all posts on Match.com        See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on OkCupid            See all posts on HowAboutWe

Tastebuds.fm: For Those Who Share The Same Taste In Music

Posted on April 23, 2014

Tastebudsfm logoINDEPENDENT.IE – Apr 20 – Tastebuds.fm is a place to meet people through music. The site has 170K users around the world. The users are often young music lovers and concert-goers but also people looking to expand their social network. The site was founded by Julian Keenaghan and Alex Parish in 2010.

See full article at Independent.ie

See all posts on Tastebuds.fm

Zoosk Relies Heavily On Spam

Posted on April 17, 2014

Zoosk spam business insiderBUSINESS INSIDER – Apr 17 - Zoosk recently filed to go public on the NYSE. It grew 44% from 18M registered users to 26M. In its filing, Zoosk acknowledges that email and text message campaigns are an important means to drive member and subscriber engagement. "We send a large volume of emails and text messages to members and subscribers notifying them of a variety of activities on our platform."

by Megan Rose Dickey
See full article at Business Insider

See all posts on Zoosk

Zoosk Files For $100M IPO

Posted on April 17, 2014

Zoosk baloonsTECH CRUNCH – Apr 17 – Zoosk just filed its S-1 registration statement with the SEC, announcing its plans to raise $100M in an IPO. Zoosk posted a net loss of $2.6M in 2013 on revenues of $178M. As part of the filing, Zoosk provided details of its global business, which includes 26M members worldwide and 650K paying subscribers across 80 countries. That’s up from the 18M registered members and 483K paying subscribers a year earlier. Zoosk had raised $60M since 2007.

by Ryan Lawler
See full article at Tech Crunch

See all posts on Zoosk

This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Japanese Local Authorities Turn Matchmaker To Combat Low Birthrate

Posted on April 16, 2014

MachikonTHE GUARDIAN – Apr 16 – Local government holds social 'machikon' events to introduce people to each other. Machikon take place in cafes and restaurants and are small festivals: the streets are closed to traffic, and participants pay a fee of £15 to £35. In return they get unlimited food and drink. The idea is that people talk and form relationships. According to the Japan Machikon Producers Organisation local government affiliates have organised 59 machikon events since 2012.

by Aya Homei
See full article at The Guardian