YAHOO NEWS — May 19 — Friendster has new architecture and is preparing to launch an instant messaging service. With more than 27 million page views, the company nearly tripled performance and page views in about one month. The improved performance has also enabled increased advertising and revenue.
Category: All Worldwide (non UK/Euro/US)
Spark Relaunches BlackSinglesConnection as BlackSingles
PR NEWSWIRE — May 16 — The new BlackSingles launches with over 250,000 active members and enhanced searching capabilities. Spark Networks operates ~25 online personals communities focused on religious, ethnic or special interest groups – JDate, AmericanSingles, Relationships, PrimeSingles.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
Top 15 Social Networking Sites
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%.
MyYearbook Growing Fast
ASBURY PARK PRESS — May 16 — MyYearbook was launched in 2005 by a brother and sister, ages 17 and 16. Within a week of their start date ~200 people from their school joined. They are adding ~4,000 members a day from all over the world and have 700,000+ users. In February, comScore Media Metrix reported myYearbook was growing ~43% a month in the 12-24 age group. MyYearbook's membership drive consists of word-of-mouth marketing and an affiliate program that allows users to refer new members for $1 for each registrant referred. In April an investor purchased a 10% stake for $1.5 million.
Mark Brooks: Piczo and Hi5 are also strong in the teen market.
Worldfriends Networks Signs 200th Partnership
PRESS 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
Australian Online Dating Sites
Online Personals Watch will now list the monthly top 10 Australian internet dating site rankings by special courtesy of Hitwise Competitive Intelligence. See the left bar. – Mark Brooks
Text-Messaging Changes Dating in Afghanistan
NPR WEEKEND EDITION — Apr 9 — In Afghanistan, young men and women are rarely allowed to meet without a chaperone, making romance a challenge. But text messaging has launched a dating revolution in Kabul. LISTEN TO STORY @ NPR.ORG
Text-Messaging Changes Dating in Afghanistan
NPR WEEKEND EDITION — Apr 9 — In Afghanistan, young men and women are rarely allowed to meet without a chaperone, making romance a challenge. But text messaging has launched a dating revolution in Kabul. LISTEN TO STORY @ NPR.ORG
Love Goes Mobile in New Text Date Game
MAITLAND MERCURY — Mar 20 — 19date, matches subscribers with a new single every 24 hours. It allows for six anonymous texts so that participants can decide if they are interested in their texting partner. After the first six messages, users are in open chat mode and can exchange personal details if they wish.
The full article was originally published at The Maitland Mercury, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: SMS is huge in Europe, but fledgling in USA. Other flirt/SMS apps include SMS.ac, Jumbuck and UPOC. More serious online dating applications include Webdate, Lavalife and Match. Webdate has the nicest mobile dating platform I've seen and are the only online personals company that links to their mobile dating prominently from their home page.
Brazil Tries to Seize Data on Users of Google’s Orkut
Reuters — Mar 10 — Brazilian authorities said on Friday they will seek warrants to seize information on hundreds of users on the Orkut social network for users suspected of publishing child pornography and drug trafficking on Orkut. Orkut has around 14 million registered users, over 70% of whom say they are Brazilian.
The full article was originally published at Yahoo, but is no longer available.
