GIZMODO – Aug 26 – According to AshleyMadison data released by the hacker group, there were 31M men for 5.5M women. Most of those women had never talked to men on the site, or even used the site at all after creating a profile. Many of the profiles are fake. There were ~10K accounts with ashleymadison.com email addresses which makes it look like they’d been generated by a bot.
by Annalee Newitz
See full article at Gizmondo
LOVESITES.COM – Mar 30 -
Q: Back in 1994 when you started up WebPersonals.com, did you ever think that the industry would be this huge?
A: While I understood that online dating would change the way people meet, I didn’t fully grasp the extent that it would change the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Q: Is there any new technology that you see getting incorporated into online dating that will revolutionize it? Mobile, GPS, Apps, Video, VOIP, Matching
A: There are four elements to online dating: access, member profiles, searching/matching, and member interaction. The access via mobile does open members to more spontaneous meetings. As far as member profiles, most people are comfortable only with uploading photos and creating text profiles. Members say that online dating sites have tons of profiles but it gets harder and harder to find a good match (while actually, the matches are better than before just that they have become more picky).
Q: You were one of the pioneers in developing niche community sites with AsiaFriendFinder and BigChurch. What made you think that these niche groups would be so successful?
A: In the early days of online dating, we had to come up with ways to make people feel comfortable that they would find good matches and one way was to show them that all the members of a site matched their primary filter.
Q: Do you think that there is room for an emerging dating company to compete with the likes of FriendFinder Network, Match.com or eHarmony?
A: There is also always the potential for a first-mover company to take advantage of new traffic markets.
Q: What do you think of eHarmony’s approach to personality test matchmaking vs. searching profiles?
A: I believe that self-assessment tests, specific suggestions on how to better search, and many profile with personality data give online daters a better chance at success.
Q: Do you think that Social Networks are a big threat to the dating industry at large?
A: In 2001, I modified FriendFinder.com to support both friend social networking and online dating. It turned out not to be successful because members found that interacting with their current friends was a separate process than discovering new friends and dates.
Q: Do you think love can blossom in 140 characters or less?
A: The most common subject line sent to members of online dating sites is “hi”. The question is more dependent on what the person had to do before they were able to send you that 140 characters… how were they screened? how do you know that they have the potential to be worth loving?
Q: What is one thing that you would tell someone pursuing a new start-up?
A: Pick your battles… find the minimum product/service offering features that you need to have in order to have a complete solution and get it done as soon as possible.
LA TIMES – Feb 14 – Piper Jaffray Investment Research predicted U.S. spending on online dating would reach $1.7 billion annually by 2013, and $1.2 billion was spent in 2008. The Internet is essentially the world's largest bar, explains Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch. The first step is figuring out which nightspot is for you: There are those with no cover charges, PlentyofFish and OKCupid, and hookup spots Fling.com and OnlineBootyCall.com. There are "theme nights" geared toward particular interests, such as BikerPlanet.com, and "neighborhood watering holes" based on religion or culture, such as JDate or AsiaFriendFinder. There's comfort in name recognition from eHarmony and Match. Or get a yenta through eLove.com.
"One of our more popular sites as of late is DateaCougar.com," says Stephen Ventura, VP of First Beat Media, which owns GothScene.com, BikerPlanet.com, FitnessDates.com and others. Want a dash of romance with your social networking? Brooks says to look to Zoosk. It syncs with a users' Facebook's profile page. Spark's Kizmeet is attempting something similar. Still, Brooks says it's unlikely that social networking sites will kill the online dating market. "If people are anonymous, people tend to be more aggressive and more outspoken," he says. "On an Internet dating site, if you want to cut somebody off, you can easily. When you're on a social network, you have to be [polite] because their friends are watching."
Match.com's mobile members alone grew 250% from 2008 to 2009, says Whitney Casey, Match's relationship expert. Industry experts Brooks and CyberDatingExpert.com's, Julie Spira also praise GPS-based mobile applications like Skout and Foursquare. "I'm looking forward to people using Internet dating on the iPad," Brooks adds. "You can look up a profile very easily on that format. The iPhone is still a phone." Spira says to look to webcam dating sites, Speeddate.com or WooMe.com. Hitwise reports that visits to free dating sites like PlentyofFish rose 19% over the previous year.
FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
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