GUARDIAN UNLIMITED — Aug 21 — Gaydar co-founder Gary Frisch has left an estate worth about $13 million to his business partner and former boyfriend Henry Badenhorst. Gaydar, the world’s largest gay online dating website, accounts for 72% of the internet’s gay and lesbian usage in the U.K. and has about 3.5 million users worldwide. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN UNLIMITED
Category: All Gay
Australia’s Fastest-Growing Online Gay Dating Service
GAY IN WA — Aug 21 — Gay Match Maker is Australia’s fastest-growing online gay dating service. With a membership of over 170,000, the site provides a dating service, personals, and free chat rooms. FULL ARTICLE @ GAY IN WA
Gay Dating Sites Accused Of Enforcing Stereotypes
PINK NEWS — Aug 20 — A professor at Salford University has accused Gaydar and other online gay community websites of using "Village People clichés" to categorize gay men into stereotypical groups. Gaydar has dismissed the assertion that they group their members into narrow profile types on the basis of their sexual identity. FULL ARTICLE @ PINK NEWS
Manhunt.net Sets Its Sights On Europe
GAY VN — July 5 — Now the official launch of Manhunt.net, "the largest gay hook-up/personal site in this country," in Europe is being celebrated (and promoted) by a tour of gay parties and events in at least 10 U.K. and continental cities with a traveling show entitled "Manhunt Invades Europe." The sponsor is mega-movie site Maleflixxx.tv, which will soon add a VOD theater to the Manhunt.net page.
Gay.com To Close London Office
PINK NEWS.CO.UK — July 12 — PlanetOut/Gay.com will close its London and Buenos Aires offices to cut costs. Last week, news emerged that Bill Gates and other investors purchased majority shares (56.3%) in PlanetOut. PlanetOut’s CEO said it would take 12 to 24 months to turn it around and it may sell its adult businesses. PlanetOut owns The Advocate, Gay.com, PlanetOut.com, Advocate.com, Out.com, OutTraveler.com and HIVPlusMag.com, as well as localised versions of the Gay.com site in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. FULL ARTICLE @ PINK NEWS
As Gay Media Brings In Business, PlanetOut Struggles
DOW JONES NEWSWIRE — June 28 — Though corporate interest in the gay dollar may be on the rise, Planet Out struggles. Their stock price is down from the IPO price of $9 (Oct. 2004) to $1.30 today. The company faces stiff competition from other media outlets, and its online business and recent acquisitions, such as RSVP Vacations, aren't performing as expected. The company is now considering strategic options, says CEO Karen Magee. She won't say whether the company is for sale, but said it may sell its adult entertainment business. PlanetOut faces stiff competition in the gay media market. Although the company doesn't own a TV network, Viacom Logo network, NBC's Bravo and Here! Networks all have Web operations. Various blogs and lifestyle sites have also popped up, like AfterEllen.com and AfterElton.com, newcomer GLEE and Queerty, social-networking sites Manhunt.net, Adam4Adam.com and OurChart.com.
myPartnerPerfect CEO, Patrick Perrine – OPW Interview
OPW INTERVIEW — June 24, 2007 — It’s Gay Pride! Time for an interview with the gay Hitch, Patrick H.Perrine, the CEO and Founder of myPartnerPerfect.com. – Mark Brooks
What is your background?
I originally started with St. John’s University where I studied psychology. My main focus was on human dating preferences, specifically drawing parallels from Darwin’s Evolutionary Theory research and Kinsey’s research on sexuality, then applying those to the LGBT community.
From there I continued on to get my Master’s in Human Sexuality Studies and started focusing again on the gay male population, doing counseling and working with individuals. Following my Master’s I continued on to get my PHD in Psychology.
myPartnerPerfect.com just launched. Why did you start myPartnerPerfect?
It was when I was doing my counseling for gay men that I uncovered that a lot of gay men, like myself, have issues based either around the lack of relationship or in the current relationships that they’re in. Once I started doing research as to how I could better serve these individuals through the counseling process, I uncovered that there really aren’t that many tools for gay men to develop healthy and happy relationships.
The online dating world was pretty void of any site that would help facilitate those relationships. That’s why I started the private matchmaking service to work with clients one-on-one to help them identify their needs and wants. We’re specifically going to work for them to develop that happy and healthy relationship that they’re seeking. That’s what brought us to today.
How does heterosexual compatibility testing differ from homosexual compatibility testing?
They’re very similar when you look at relationship styling, personality profiling and elements of relationship compatibility. The difference with gay men and with gay relationships is that there are a multitude of different cultural factors that go into how they seek and pursue a relationship.
I think one of the biggest differences we need to look at is that from the get go there aren’t too many relationships for gay people to identify with as they’re growing up, identifying and uncovering their sexuality. There’s a major gap in representation. Just that alone affects the way that gay men are able to identify the appropriate relationship styling for them.
Who would you say are your competitors for myPartnerPerfect?
I think the direct competition for services like ours are going to be the comprehensive relationship based sites. Sites that offer profiling systems, compatibility systems that are, of course, focusing on the gay men market. I think Chemistry.com does a great job of presenting a relationship focus for the gay community unlike any other site. eHarmony obviously doesn’t provide these services for the gay community, which is what opened the door for myPartnerPerfect.
Are there any particular sites that have inspired you as you were working on myPartnerPerfect?
Definitely, eHarmony. I think eHarmony does a great job of presenting the message of commitment and there’s a large segment of the gay community that is looking for a long-term life partnership. The methodology that eHarmony uses, even though it is applied to heterosexual couples, is very similar to the methodology that myPartnerPerfect.com uses in the sense that we’re looking for compatibility based on a series of different dimensions. They were a good model for us.
In closing, what are your goals for 2007 through 2008?
Our goal is really to be able to position myPartnerPerfect as a sophisticated and classy website that caters to the gay population and not only is provides a lot of successful matches for that user base but also just presents a representation that’s different from the current online environment. We will let people know that gay individuals do, in fact, want to have committed relationships and that it does take work to make those relationships happen.
myPartnerPerfect Launches Gay Matchmaking Service
EDGE — June 12 — myPartnerPerfect.com launched recently. Its the first dating service with a compatibility system specifically designed for gay men. The man behind the "love engine" is Patrick H.Perrine, creator of the Partner Perfect Compatibility test. In similar fashion to eHarmony, members use guided communication tools and begin conversations with other members, whilst learning the secrets of developing a successful relationship through Patrick's Dating Advice column, e-newsletters and articles. In addition, Private Matchmaking services are available. FULL ARTICLE @ EDGE
Disharmony, The New Tolerance
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — June 7 — Last week, a lesbian filed suit against eHarmony.com for not serving individuals "based solely on their sexual orientation." When I asked why Carlson didn't simply go to another dating service, her lawyer evoked the image of Rosa Parks, noting that "nearly every step in civil rights law, you could have said the same thing…There is a big difference between the sites that allow the customers to self-select who they are looking for" and a site that makes the decision "to exclude a minority group." But the answer isn't to make eHarmony be what it is not, but to let others create something like eHarmony for gays and lesbians. Mark Brooks, spokesman for the gay online matchmaking service myPartnerPerfect.com, said of eHarmony: "I think they're having a bit of an unfair time of it. I think it's their right to have a niche focus, but they've not quite said the right thing, and their underlying tone has riled people up."
The full article was originally published at TownHall, but is no longer available.
myPartnerPerfect Opens New Door to Gay Love
PRESS RELEASE — June 8 –While hundreds of couples fill countless television spots with stories of how eHarmony helped them find each other, thousands of men and women have been turned away from the process because the long-term relationship that they were seeking was with someone of the same sex. Enter Patrick and myPartnerPerfect.com. "It was actually partially because of the discriminating policy of eHarmony that I founded myPartnerPerfect. For far too long the industry has neglected the gay community and their pursuit for life-partners….a large segment of the gay community is looking for something that can last a lifetime." Patrick has worked in the field of human sexuality since 1997 developing and cultivating relationships for the LGBT community. He has a B.A. in Psychology, an M.A. in Human Sexuality Studies and a PhD in Clinical Psychology. While at Saint John's University, Patrick conducted internationally recognized research on Human Mating Preferences.
The full article was originally published at E-MediaWire, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Media can call me at 212-444-1636 to arrange interviews with Patrick.