OPW 'BLAST FROM THE PAST' – Jan 3 – This month, 10 years ago, Match.com launched a free dating site DownToEarth as an answer to ever growing threat from Markus Frind's free dating site – PlentyOfFish. DownToEarth only lasted 10 months when Match.com decided to relaunch it as Stir.com, a service that would recommend the best places to go and meet like-minded people. Mandy Ginsberg, back then GM of Match.com, commented: "It became obvious that DownToEarth resonated with 18-25 years old. Based on feedback, we are evolving the site experience to be more relevant for that audience which includes suggestions for places to hang out as well as people to go there with." Match needed to create a product to draw in and warm up a new generation of Match.com users. Stir seemed like a good idea at that time but little did they know that the real game changer (Tinder) was yet to come. In the meantime, money kept on rolling in for PlentyOfFish.com. The site was bringing in $10M annual revenue with 50% profit. "Yahoo is a complete joke, Google is a cult, and Match is dying," said Frind in an interview with INC. in January 2009. Fast forward 10 years, Match Group is an $11B dating empire which owns 50+ dating brands including PlentyOfFish which Frind sold to Match for $575M in cash in 2015. Meanwhile, Markus Frind, happy to keep every single penny from the POF sale, is venturing into the wine business by opening Frind Estate Winery in West Kelowna, Canada. So what will the online dating world look like in another 10 years? Your comments please…
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