OPW – June 1 – FastCupid.com, a service has just relaunched under the watchful design eyes of the old PerfectMatch team. Duane Dahl, the former CEO of PerfectMatch, and his faithful Redmond team of ten rebuilt the site on .net and also relaunched BigChurch in March. Most of Duane's team have been with him since Kiss.com days.
Category: BigChurch
Interview With Andrew Conru
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.
FriendFinder Networks Could Look To Sell Non-core Businesses
MERGER MARKET – Oct 26 – FriendFinder Networks, formerly known as Penthouse Media, filed for an IPO in December, anticipating $460m in proceeds to help pay off its debt. FriendFinder could look to sell off non-core pieces of its business that may be distracting to potential investors including GradFinder and Christian dating site BigChurch, online dating industry consultant Mark Brooks said. The company would likely keep its highly lucrative adult sites. Its adult social networking and live interactive video sites comprised 95% of the company’s revenue, as of six months ended 30 June 2008. FriendFinder’s international properties could also be spun out to a media company with more expertise in certain geographic markets, said Noel Biderman, CEO of Toronto-based Avid Life Media, the holding company of dating sites like HotOrNot and Ashley Madison. He pointed to IAC-owned Match which took a 27% stake in European dating operator Meetic in February, in exchange for Match’s European operations, as an industry example of this. In the case of FriendFinder, its Latino dating site Amigos has a strong membership base, and could be sold to an acquirer that can better grow and monetize the brand, Brooks noted. FriendFinder’s sites may fetch 7x to 8x EBITDA, Biderman said, using Match’s USD 80m acquisition of People Media in July as a comparable transaction. FULL ARTICLE @ OPW
Mark Brooks: FriendFinder's successful IPO and continued strong performance is critical for the reputation of the internet dating industry. FriendFinder could indeed look to sell its non-core businesses. Here's what I told the reporter…"GradFinder is a significant property that could be developed out to compete with Classmates.com. …BigChurch is a misfit community for them. They have been chastised by the Christian community for running the site. It should really be sold. Amigos has lots of traffic, is a great name, but South America still doesn't monetize anywhere near as well as the rest of the world. So its a longer term play for a potential acquirer, but the future is pretty clear, it will eventually make good money. FriendFinder needs to have money in the bank, and make good money quickly, so I think these communities would be most suitable for selling."
See all posts on FriendFinder See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on BigChurch See all posts on Meetic
See all posts on HotorNot See all posts on Amigos
See all posts on AshleyMadison See all posts on People Media
A Date With Faith
HOUSTON CHRONICLE — Feb 18 — Thanks to everything from faith-based Internet dating sites to 1,000-member singles groups within congregations, spiritually minded solos across the country are looking to religion for love. "It's not always so easy when you're single, so it gives them some common ground," said Diana Howard who estimates she has about 2,200 people on her Jewish Community Center singles mailing list. Faith is also an important factor for online daters at Soulmatch. Since launching in mid-2004, the site has picked up 100,000 users president Sujay Jhaveri.
Mark Brooks: Faith based sites represent one of the strongest online personals verticals. Bigchurch, JDate, ChristianMingle and ChristianCafe.com are the market leaders.