Month: February 2015

Internet Dating Jobs Listing Update – February 2015

Posted on February 9, 2015

Internet dating jobs logo OPW – Feb 9 - The new Internet dating 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:

DatingFactory
  Customer Communication and Marketing Manager

Global Personals USA (Webdate, Fling, WealthyMen, Crush.com)
  Brand Manager (Stunr.com)

MillionaireMatch
  Marketing Managers

____

eHarmony
  Vice President, Product Management

Grindr / Blendr 
  Director, Grindr for Equality

Jiayuan
  Co-director of the new media to promote

Match.com, Chemistry.com, People Media
  Director, Search Marketing

POF
  Director of Strategy and Analytics

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.

Post by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Bumble Introduces Direct Photo Messaging

Posted on February 8, 2015

BumblephotosharingTECH CRUNCH – Feb 9 – Bumble, the dating app that puts the ladies in charge, has introduced photo-messaging. “It’s a big risk for a dating app,” said Bumble co-founder Whitney Wolfe. “But we see it as a great ice breaker for girls who want to start a conversation in a more Snapchat-like way.” When a user sends a photo message, the photo is blurred unless the user is holding down on the screen. Whenever the user is holding down and the photo is clear, it’s water-marked with the the sender’s name and a picture of their face. This prevents anyone from sending something that they wouldn’t want forever attached to their identity online.

by Jordan Crook
See full article at Tech Crunch

See all posts on Bumble

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

People Rejected From BeautifulPeople.com Come Back After Plastic Surgery

Posted on February 8, 2015

Beautifulpeople rejectionABC NEWS – Feb 7 – On BeautifulPeople.com, new users are allowed to upload one photo. If the photo doesn’t get enough votes from the site's members in the first 48 hours, the user is kicked off. Some people who were rejected from the site decided to get work done, and then returned to the site. Sal Vance said he spent $10K on his teeth before signing up. BeautifulPeople.com launched in Denmark in 2003, and has since gone global with 800K members. The acceptance rate is ~30%.

by Chris James, Hana Karar & Lauren Effron
See full article at ABC News

See all posts on BeautifulPeople

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

iovation Reveals Statistics About Scammers

Posted on February 8, 2015

Iovation logo new feb 12MARKETWIRED – Feb 5 – In 2014, 1.37% of all transactions on online dating sites were fraudulent. In comparison, iovation says 1.24% of all transactions it monitored across all industries in 2014 were fraudulent.

Top Types of Fraud

  1. Scams/solicitations
  2. Spam
  3. Credit card fraud
  4. Profile misrepresentation
  5. Identity mining

The highest percentage of fraudulent transactions on online dating sites in 2014 originated from these countries:

  1. Nigeria (29%)
  2. Ghana (26%)
  3. Ivory Coast (15%)
  4. Vietnam (10%)
  5. Argentina (8%)

What Businesses Should Look For
Knowing the true location of scammers, and when they are hiding behind proxies or Tor, is extremely helpful. "We looked at a laptop that had visited 18 different dating sites within a month. Many of our clients had already associated the device with some kind of fraud. Since these 18 dating sites all use iovation's risk service, they understand the high risk of doing business with that device and deny the registration attempts," said Jon Karl of iovation. "When that same laptop visited our financial clients to set up money transfer accounts, they were denied as well."

See full article at Marketwired

See all posts on iovation

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Which Dating Sites Received The Best And Worst PR In 2014?

Posted on February 7, 2015

Good press bad press post 2015CB – Feb 7 – A lot of companies that traditionally receive a lot of press hits appeared to be lacking this year, including POF, Badoo, SNAP Interactive and Zoosk. Tinder got the most press coverage in 2014, followed by Match.com. Articles mainly highlighted Tinder's impressive growth. It also scored some negative press, most notably the Whitney Wolfe lawsuit. We heard a little less about eHarmony last year, but they still received solid press coverage thanks to their new eH+ service and the announcement of a plan to launch a "jobs matchmaker". OkCupid, as usual, made the list along with AshleyMadison, Grindr and Hinge. There were also companies with more sad than good news. Cupid was one of them. They sold their casual dating sites in 2013, posted weak 2013 annual results, tried unsuccessfully to revive their business, and even launched new services such as LoveBeginsAt and dating app Tangle. In December the news came out that the company decided to sell the remaining mainstream dating sites and quit the dating business. It was not an easy year for Spark Networks either. After some bad news for investors, a fight between the company leadership and Osmium partners began, ending in July with Osmium appointing 4 new directors to the Spark´s board. CEO Greg Liberman left the company in August and layoffs began in September.

Read the full post on CourtlandBrooks blog

Post by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Led By Tinder, The Mobile Dating Game Surges

Posted on February 5, 2015

MACHINE-articleLargeNY TIMES – Feb 4 – Many app makers are trying to capitalize on the Tinder method of simple, smartphone-based dating. They add a twist to the swipe. Hinge sifts only through Facebook connections for friends of friends. Clover offers Tinder-like features but with an added bonus called “On-Demand Dating.” Users pick a location and a date, and Clover sends someone to meet them. Tinder processes ~1B swipes a day and matches ~12M people a day. Amarnath Thombre, president of Match.com in North America, said that in the last year it had registered a 35% increase in the people who use Match app, and a 109% increase in the number of people who use only the app to reach Match every month.

by Molly Wood
See full article at NY Times

See all posts on Tinder          See all posts on Hinge
See all posts on Clover          See all posts on Match.com

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Valentine’s Day Is A Lonely Time For Dating Apps

Posted on February 5, 2015

Zoosk smart pickSF BUSINESS TIMES – Feb 4 – Early February is not a strong month for looking for a partner online, said Dawoon Kang, co-founder of Coffee Meets Bagel. "Those that aren't matched up usually wait until after the holiday." Zoosk's internal numbers back that up. Last year, there were 16% more messages sent on Zoosk in the two weeks following Valentine's Day compared to the two weeks before. However, the big day itself had the least profile views of any day in February 2014.

by Krystal Peak
See full article at SF Business Times

See all posts on Coffee Meets Bagel
See all posts on Zoosk

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Tinder Tests Limited Right Swipes

Posted on February 5, 2015

Tinder plus overviewTECH CRUNCH – Feb 3 - Tinder is rolling out a beta feature "Bouncer" (as they call it internally). It is only meant to be shown to spammers and bots. Spam bots and other malicious behavior will be detected by algorithms and introduce a paywall to limit the amount of likes a user can give. The paywall lasts for a day and disappears the next morning. Regular users should really never hit this pay wall. Only a fraction of the Tinder population reflexively swipes right on every single recommendation without even looking at the potential suitor.

by Jordan Crook
See full article at Tech Crunch

See all posts on Tinder

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

SinglesAroundMe To Introduce Freemium Model

Posted on February 5, 2015

Singlesaroundme logo Jan 14SAM – Feb 4 – SinglesAroundMe, the last free dating app, will soon introduce freemium model around enhanced services. “Since our initial launch in 2010 our focus has been on user adoption and market penetration. Now that we have a strong global user base, users will be asked to pay for some enhanced services,” said Christopher Klotz, CEO of SinglesAroundMe.

See full article at SAM website

See all posts on SinglesAroundMe

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

IAC Hit By Slowing Growth In Match Group

Posted on February 5, 2015

Iac logoREUTERS – Feb 3 – Match Group reported the slowest growth (4%) in the number of subscribers in several quarters, sending IAC's shares down as much as 6%. Match Group Q4 2014 revenue was $241.5M, up 15% YOY, operating income is down 5% to $73.5M.

by Sai Sachin Ravikumar
See full article at Reuters

See all posts on Match.com

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting