Category: All UK & Europe

Telegraph.co.uk’s Dating Pages ‘Lack Insight’

Posted on July 20, 2007

Telegraph_logo JOURNALISM.CO.UK — July 19 — The former editor of Telegraph.co.uk has launched an attack on the dating section run by the news website. At issue is the way in which photos from the personals ads service, which is powered by software from DatingBuzz, are juxtaposed with stories as a sidebar puff box. Telegraph.co.uk has, in the meantime, seen new developments designed to increase participation, including the appointment of Shane Richmond as communities editor. FULL ARTICLE @ JOURNALISM.CO.UK

Mark Brooks: I expect the white label cobrand services will be calling them shortly.  Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com for the latest version of my initial roundup of white label cobrand services.

Dating Firms Fight For UK Hearts

Posted on July 19, 2007

Datingdirect_2BBC NEWS — July 18 — "The UK is the battlefield for the World War of dating," according to Marc Simoncini, the Frenchman who started Meetic. His company bought the UK dating website Dating Direct and is going head-to-head with Match.com. Mr Simoncini says it is not just a clash of companies. He reckons it is about whether the British date in a manner more similar to people elsewhere in Europe or like the Americans. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS

Mark Brooks: Match helps people find love, whereas Meetic/DatingDirect promises dates.

DatingDirect.com Launches On Vodafone

Posted on July 12, 2007

DatingdirectMAD.CO.UK — July 11 — DatingDirect.com is launching a new partnership with Vodafone UK to feature the dating service on its mobile internet service. Users can browse images and profiles, upload photographs and text and receive alerts to notify them when another member has visited their profile. Earlier this year DatingDirect was bought by Meetic for £27.3 million. FULL ARTICLE @ MAD.CO.UK

British Online Dating Statistics

Posted on July 12, 2007

Datingdirect_2THE GUARDIAN — July 12 — With free sites such as MySpace and Facebook growing, dating services are borrowing their tricks to entice younger users. There are 141 dating sites in Britain. Dating Direct is the largest and is adding MySpace type features to appeal to younger users. Their average member is 45 and only 6% of British web users aged 18-24 do online dating, according to Synovate, though 38% have met friends online. 13.4% of UK internet users visited personals sites in May compared with 8.2% three years ago, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. 45-55 is the typical age worldwide for dating services. FULL ARTICLE @ THE GUARDIAN

YouCanGetMe.com Free Dating For Women

Posted on July 3, 2007

Logo_easy_date_lo_res_2PRESS RELEASE — July 2 — EasyDate announced totally free dating for women on YouCanGetMe.com, a UK dating site and one of the sites in its portfolio. Men are still charged £19.95 per month. Among other features, YouCanGetMe offers live video chat amongst members.

The full article was originally published at Media Syndicate, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: EasyDate is a white label service. Dating Central and WhiteLabelDating are similar services.  Email me if you'd like a copy of my spreadsheet round-up of the white label services.

Marc Simoncini, Meetic CEO/Founder – Video Interview

Posted on June 17, 2007

OPW INTERVIEW — June 17, 2007 — Marc Simoncini's Meetic.com is taking on Match.com head on to become the pre-eminent matching service in Europe. Marc (French) knows Europe. He says that Meetic is different from other dating sites becuase Meetic merely promises 'dates' and that's a more European approach. But Marc hasn't stopped short of Europe, he's advancing on China now. In an acquisitions spat earlier this year, Meetic acquired Yeeyoo in January and Match acquired eDodo in China, and picked up Netclub around the same time to take a stronger position in Meetic's back yard, in France. Here's my video interview with Marc at the Asian internet dating conference. – Mark Brooks

Half of Brits Regularly Use Online Dating Sites

Posted on June 16, 2007

Bestonlinedatingsites TECH DIGEST — June 14 — A new 3000-people survey claims that over half of Brits have registered at two dating websites, while 83 % of people have been on a dating site at some point. A third of them found a long-term relationship and 6%  got married. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH DIGEST

Online Dating Booming in Germany

Posted on June 6, 2007

Datingbycomputer JUST 4 BUSINESS — June 5 — In 2006 Germans spent 65.6 million Euros in order to find a mate on the internet, up 49% over 2005. Jupiter Research predicts another 29% increase in 2007 to 84.5 million Euros. A study was commissioned by the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM). In total there were on average 6.2 million people over the age of 15 visiting online dating services each month in the first quarter of 2007. Slightly less than in 2006 because of the growing popularity of social networking sites such as MySpace. But at the same time an always growing number of people are willing to spend money on online-dating. The number of users of online-dating services in Europe is expected to rise from 2.8 million in 2006 to 6.0 million by 2011. And from 246 million to 549 million Euros in the same period. One of the most important markets in this respect could be Germany. FULL ARTICLE @ JUST 4 BUSINESS

Loneliness Causes More Misery than Debt

Posted on June 4, 2007

Parshiplogo_2PRESS RELEASE — May 31 — A survey released today by PARSHIP.co.uk, a UK scientific online dating service, proves that loneliness is the biggest cause of stress for singles, with more sleepless nights being caused by worry about solo status than by credit card debt, work pressures and global warming. In the survey of 500 people by PARSHIP.co.uk, 51% of Britain's said their main source of stress was loneliness and the prospect of never meeting someone to share their life with. Only 18% of singles, cited financial problems, including credit card debt, as a cause of stress, and the same percentage put blame on work pressures.

The full article was originally published at Parship website, but is no longer available.

Russian Online Dating on The Rise

Posted on June 1, 2007

Loveplanetrulogo RN WIRE — May 31 — According to the results of an online opinion poll 1,461 respondents held by ROMIR this spring, 32% of the Russian Internet audience use various online dating services. The majority of them are Muscovites (71%) and young people between 18 and 24 years old (41%). LovePlanet.ru is the second most popular online dating service, which is being used by 29% of survey respondents. The Finam investment company forecasts online dating services revenues in Russia will increase by more than 30% in 2007, from $34m to $45m. Experts from iKS-Consulting expect that the turnover of the online dating services will double this year. FULL ARTICLE @ RN WIRE