Category: All UK & Europe

British Children to Get Happiness Lessons

Posted on July 29, 2006

YAHOO NEWS — July 28 — Some 2,000 pupils at English state schools are to have special classes in happiness under a pilot scheme aimed at cutting depression, self-harm and anti-social behaviour.  Lessons will include role play designed to help children build up self-esteem, challenge negative ways of thinking and express thoughts clearly. "They will also be shown special breathing exercises to keep them calm when their parents are arguing and avoid blaming themselves for situations that are beyond their control, for example, the fact their parents may be divorcing."

Mark Brooks: As leaders of online dating (and social networking) services, you can directly impact the divorce rates, and more importantly the mental well being of the next generation. Better matches, happier kids, happier human race. So the theory goes, anyway. Your comments please.

Investors Flock to MySpace Clones

Posted on July 18, 2006

Myspace_19LA TIMES — July 16 — Money is pouring into businesses preening to become the next MySpace. Facebook has raised $38.2 million. Affinity Engines is helping about 50 colleges create their own Facebook clones.  Bebo ($15 million), Doppelganger ($11 million), Gaia Interactive ($8.9 million), TagWorld ($7.5 million) and Tagged.com ($7 million).

Luvoo in Poland

Posted on July 11, 2006

Luvoo_1MARKET WIRE — July 11 — Luvoo signed an exclusive distribution agreement with AAA Investment SP.ZOO to provide Poland (38 million) residents its online dating website as part of Luvoo.com’s global expansion. The terms: Luvoo.com maintain servers and infrastructure and provide web-content in Polish. AAA Investment SP.ZOO will pay Luvoo.com $375,000 for the rights of distribution in Poland as well as a percentage of monthly residual revenue generated from online subscribers. AAA Investment SP.ZOO will market Luvoo.com in Poland.

Safety Tips for Social Networks

Posted on July 4, 2006

Ceop2BBC NEWS — July 4 — The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) will run a series of workshops in UK for parents, children and teachers. Ceop said it was concerned that children were posting personal details and said one in 12 children met up with someone encountered first online. 54% of Bebo UK users are under 18, 31% of MySpace UK users are under 18. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS

TrueDate.com Enters UK Market

Posted on June 27, 2006

RelatieplanetPR NEWSWIRE — June 26 — Relatieplanet.nl, a leading dating site in the Netherlands, today enters the UK market with TrueDate.com. The publisher of Holland's biggest daily newspaper "De Telegraaf", recently took out a 70% stake in Relatieplanet.nl. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS-CON

Dating Direct UK Newspaper Deal

Posted on June 2, 2006

Datingdirect_6REVOLUTION MAGAZINE — June 2 — Trinity Mirror will provide Dating Direct content and access to dating services through the online editions of The Daily Mirror, the People and the Daily Record (3.7m subscribers). A World Cup Survival Guide, Dating Toolkit and a Hot Date of The Week will follow.

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

Mark Brooks: Locking up major channels with big name media is a winning strategy for the long term…and for improving conversions in the short term. Users like to see these kinds of alliances. It makes them feel more warm and fuzzy about parting with their pounds. Another A1 distribution deal for Dating Direct. Match has been very strong with this kind of business development distribution deal in the past.

Bebo Secures Funding

Posted on May 23, 2006

Bebo_2NET IMPERATIVE — May 22 — Benchmark Capital (eBay, betfair, MySQL) has taken a stake in Bebo for $15m. Bebo will use the funding to expand the US team and open a London office, maintain its market leading position, and develop the business in its other core markets. Bebo is now the largest social networking site in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand and is also growing rapidly in the U.S., Australia and Canada, with 24m members and 2.5 billion monthly page views.

Top 15 Social Networking Sites

Posted on May 22, 2006

COURIER POST ONLINE — May 16 — 1. MySpace 75.6% market share, 2. TheFaceBook 8.3%, 3. Xanga 7.3%, 4. MSN Spaces 1.8%, 5. Yahoo! 360 1.4%, 6. hi5 1.4%, 7. Tagged 1.3%, 8. Sconex 1.1%, 9. Bebo 0.7%, 10. Friendster 0.6%, 11. TagWorld 0.2%, 12. CrushSpot 0.2%, 13. Bolt 0.1%, 14. XuQa 0.1%, 15. VidLife 0.1%.

Worldfriends Networks Signs 200th Partnership

Posted on May 12, 2006

Worldfriends_1PRESS ZOOM — May 10 — WorldFriends Networks, a provider of private label multi-lingual online dating services signed up its 200th partner. WFN operates in 20 different countries, in English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. WFN signs up ~8 new partners each month and has 680,000 users with 275,000 photos. 1,000+ new members join daily. Partners include ESPN, STAR TV, China Times, Taiwan’s dominant ISP Hinet and Japan’s So-net, Japan.com, Mail.com, Fresheye.com, Japan-Zone.com, and Shanghaiist.com. FULL ARTICLE @ PRESS ZOOM

Loopylove Acquired

Posted on May 10, 2006

Loopylove_logo234x60_1DMGT — May 8 — Associated Newspapers, the national newspaper division of DMGT has acquired Allegran, which operates a portfolio of dating web sites, catering for different segments within the UK market. In the year to 31 January 2006, Allegran reported revenues of £7.4 million, up ~160% on 2004. Allegran´s sites include three ranked in the top seven UK dating sites.

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

Mark Brooks: The UK market is hot and prime for acquisitions. Anotherfriend is doing well in Ireland and has 10 employees. I hear conversions in the UK are very strong? Allegran runs Loopylove, GirlsDateforFree, Pocado, DreamsDiscovered and DatingforParents.