REUTERS – June 20 – Cupid said it has been approached by multiple parties for its casual dating sites and added that it expects core earnings for the first half to be hit by higher marketing costs. Cupid was in talks to sell its casual dating business that operates benaughty.com and flirt.com. EBIDTA for the six months ending June 30 is estimated to be ~2.5M pounds ($3.9M).
Category: All Adult Dating
Paul Shurey – CEO & Founder Of Illicitencounters.com
GUARDIAN.CO.UK – June 15 – Paul Shurey (aged 54) died after a fall in India this April. He was one of the key movers and shakers in the rave scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s. He began running unofficial parties from 1989. He decided to launch Tribal Gathering with several different stages and DJs. Later he moved into digital marketing and went back to university to study television production. He founded IllicitEncounters.com, a dating site for married people who wanted to have affairs. Shurey was still running the site when, in March this year, he travelled to India. He was there when he suffered a fall, hitting his head and suffering injuries from which he never recovered.
Paul Shurey, born December 24, 1958, died April 24, 2013.
Americans Are Schizophrenic When It Comes To Adultery
COURIER POST ONLINE – June 8 – A Gallup poll on attitudes about 19 moral issues found that more Americans considered adultery more morally wrong than any other type of behavior — ahead of suicide and human cloning. More than nine in 10 said infidelity was immoral. But it appears that more people may be cheating on their spouses. In any given year, ~10% of married people — 12% of men and 7% of women — say they have had sex outside their marriage. Launched in February 2002, AshleyMadison has 19M members across 26 countries. The site was created when the founders discovered that 30% of people who were using singles dating sites were actually married or in an otherwise “committed” relationship.
by Michael Riley
The full article was originally published at Courier Post Online, but is no longer available.
Bang With Friends CEO Interview
OPW INTERVIEW – Apr 30 – This is a very unusual interview. The CEO wanted to be anonymous. Bang With Friends is growing fast. Here’s their story… – Mark Brooks
When will Facebook be buying Bang With Friends?
I'm not sure they can afford us.
How much is it?
The rumors may or may not be true, but you'll have to ask them for more comments.
Well there was a post I saw and the price was $30 million.
Let's just say we’re in private talks.
Why anonymous?
We're anonymous because we started as a side project. It was a little joke and it's taken off on its own. We were working on other startups at the time and we didn't want to compromise those.
How many are on the founding team?
Three.
Who came up with the idea initially?
It was a team effort between all three of us. We started asking why is online dating so dishonest and so frustrating? Especially for Generation Y. We wanted to make something simple that allows you to straightforwardly say what you were into and what your intentions were. The most obvious case is finding friends with benefits.
So it sounds like you weren’t a fan of internet dating. What sites would you say are your least and most favorite? Are there any which have inspired you? Or inspired you to improve on?
The big guys don't really fit well with what we're doing as a younger generation. Even the new upstarts that we've seen haven't really gotten straight to the point like we have, and taken such an unabashed and simple approach.
How well has Bang With Friends been received by Facebook corporate?
We have a good relationship with Facebook. Of course they are careful with their brand, and we're working with them to make sure that everybody is happy.
You've got 820,000 users and 200,000 couples matched, which seems very high. How do you get so many couples?
A lot of it comes from the safety we provide. Since everybody that you're seeing is a friend of yours, you're much more likely to be interested in them and meet up with them. Also everybody has at least a few friends that they've always had an eye on.
Can you tell us your latest numbers?
We are definitely north of that 200,000 matches. I believe we are at around 880,000 signups now.
How successful is your app? And take that as you will.
We're happy just enabling more people to bang.
You have to have a sense of humor to use the app.
You need a sense of humor and it definitely plays toward the younger generation and the recognition of how important sex is.
How do you make money?
We don't. We're not worried about making money right now. We're all about the customer.
But you have some aspirations to make money, surely?
I'm sure we'll have some stuff coming out that helps us keep things going, but for the most part our goals here are staying focused on creating success for our users. We know that will drive our business forward.
Where will you be in 12 month's time with Bang With Friends?
You will see us move beyond just banging and beyond your friend group.
So Hang With Friends to go with Bang With Friends?
I can say it will be more generalized. More ways to meet up rather than strictly hook-ups.
Ashley Madison CEO Noel Biderman Talks Marriage With His Wife
HUFFINGTON POST – Apr 3 – Creator Noel Biderman
has been happily married for 10 years. His wife Amanda was featured on
the company's new billboard campaign.
Q: Amanda, how did you react when Noel first told you about his plan to create an infidelity dating site?
Amanda: Originally, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t an emotional or personal issue.
Noel: She saw the passion in which I wanted to pursue this and she wanted to match that passion. I knew I had a true partner.
Q: Has running a site like AshleyMadison informed how you behave in your own marriage in any way?
Noel: Ironically, I talk about infidelity more than any man on the planet.
Amanda: This business has just made us stronger and more communicative.
Foreign Businesses In Cyprus Grind To A Standstill
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE – Mar 25 – Avid Life Media, the Canadian-owned operator of AshleyMadison.com, set up an office in Cyprus as a base for its international operations. Sure, the Avid Life Media executives were aware that a banking crisis was brewing, but they were assured in part by a promise from President Nicos Anastasiades when he was elected in February that he would soon arrange an equitable bailout with the international organizations that have guided the euro zone through four previous bailouts while keeping bank depositors whole. “We went from paradise to hell in a minute,” said Keith Lalonde, Avid Life Media’s top executive.The Cypriot government had just declared it would seize ~10% of the $2.6M, the company had on deposit in Cyprus.
by Alexandros Demetriades
The full article was originally published at Gnom News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Looks like that could be as much as 40% now.
Move To Block Sugar Daddy Dating Website
SCOTSMAN – Mar 19 – Members of the University and College Union (UCU) will this week use their annual congress to call for a joint campaign to end what they call sexual exploitation by websites which connect female students with “benefactors”. SeekingArrangement claimed to be growing in popularity in Scotland, adding Edinburgh University to its “top 20 fastest growing sugar baby schools” in the UK. The website said there had been a 222% increase in female student sign-ups from the university since April 2012. “According to the site, the average female university student using the site receives £5K per month from their ‘benefactors’.
College ‘Sugar Babies’ Date For Cash
CNN – Feb 26 - SeekingArrangement.com reports that female college students made up 44% of the site's total users in 2012. With tuition on the rise, that number will likely continue to climb. Men who engage in such relationships, many of whom are older and married, enjoy taking care of young women and assuming a mentor role in their lives, said Steven Pasternack, who launched Sugardaddie.com in 2002. The average monthly "allowance" sugar daddies on the site said they shell out is $3K, according to SeekingArrangement.com. Surprisingly, sex isn't a given. It's obviously on the table but there are other motivations – to go out to eat or to have someone to talk to. SeekingArrangement.com's Wade said the men who subscribe to his site are discouraged from offering money on a per-date basis to avoid operating like an escort service.
by Stephanie Goldberg
See full article at CNN
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App Helps Facebook Friends Get Benefits
SF GATE – Feb 13 – Bang With Friends is a controversial app that, is supposed to be no-nonsense way to learn which of your friends is interested in having sex. The app lists Facebook friends, allowing a choice of males, females or both. Clicking a "Down to Bang" button below each profile picture sends a message. Both sides are notified only if the prospective banger responds, and then it's game on.
10 Things Dating Sites Won’t Tell You
MARKETWATCH – Feb 8 –
1. Finding a soul mate is expensive
The industry is now worth about $1.2 billion, up 4% from a year ago. eHarmony, launched in 2000 and marketed toward people seeking long-term relationships, blazed a trail with its prices, charging some of the highest in the industry, says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch.
2. Everyone is single sooner or later
The fastest-growing segment is baby boomers.16% of online daters are 50+. In January, the advocacy group AARP launched its own dating service, AARP Dating, powered by HowAboutWe.com. The number of HowAboutWe users 50+ grew 173% in the past year. It’s a good fit, says Brooks, especially given that 25% of AARP’s 37M members are single.
3. Cupid’s arrow often misses
Dating sites pride themselves on the wizardry of their algorithms. “It’s very early in the online dating industry,” says Dan Slater, author of “Love in the Time of Algorithms”. "Sites have gotten better at cross-referencing what people say and do, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement,” he says.
4. So many liars, so little time
Over half of U.S. online daters lie on their profiles. On the plus side, people who lie online tend be people-pleasers and very self-aware, says Jeffrey A. Hall, assistant professor of communications at the University of Kansas.
5. And you thought Facebook was nosy
The more people learn about each other before the first date, the better, author Slater says. “But nothing is free,” he says, “you’re giving them a ton of data.”
6. This place is a hotbed of adulterers
While most sites don’t promote infidelity, some make it easy. AshleyMadison now has 18M members worldwide. Some experts say, the marriage and divorce rate has been unaffected by the Internet.
7. Don’t judge a person by their photo
“Men like it when a woman is looking into the camera, as a man wants to believe that a woman is focused on them exclusively,” says Slater, the author. Men who stare into the lens, on the other hand, should take care not to appear intimidating, he says.
8. Keep a close eye on your wallet
Consumers lost $50M to romance scams in 2011. On newer, smaller sites, as many as one in 10 profiles could be fake, according to Brooks. “Scammers come in droves, and they’re very aggressive.” He advises talking to someone on the phone before meeting.
9. Objectification: It’s what’s for dinner
On-the-go dating seems to be a hit. Mobile dating revenue is expected to nearly double over the next five years, from an estimated $251.2M in 2013, according to IBISWorld. Crazy Blind Date app, which pixelates user photos, was downloaded ~100K times in the first 24 hours of its launch last month.
10. Endless love — or endless chat?
The endless supply of fresh faces, and the modern worker’s lack of leisure time make it difficult for people to ever actually go out on a date, says Hall, of the University of Kansas. Match says it’s responsible for 12% of all dates in the U.S., while eHarmony is saying its service accounts for 5% of all weddings in the U.S. Users, meanwhile, typically stick to a site for three months before moving on, says Brooks. But then roughly one-fifth of members on the big sites return within 18 months, he says.
by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at MarketWatch
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