WSJ – May 7 – Currently available in beta, Cupidtino.com is described as “a new dating site created for fans of Apple products by fans of Apple products! Why? Diehard Mac & Apple fans often have a lot in common — personalities, creative professions, a similar sense of style and aesthetics, taste, and of course a love for technology.” To register for the beta, users must first check off which Apple products they own, from a list that includes iPod, MacBook, iPhone and iPad. Instead of the usual dating site background questions. “I think, in this case, it’s okay that they’re making it exclusive to Apple fans, because it’s a micro-niche dating site,” says Mark Brooks, an online dating site consultant. “But what’s going to matter the most is not just the numbers they see, it’s how active their user base is.” He points out that dating sites traditionally experience peak traffic from Nov to Febr and see a lull in activity during the summer months, when people are more inclined to be outside and get away from their computers. “In order for Cupidtino.com to become and remain successful, they’ll have to see an initial user base in the thousands, but eventually reach tens of thousands active users or more.” Since the beta launched two days ago, 12,000 users have signed up, about 50% of whom live in the Bay Area. The site has already caught the attention of Apple. The Business Team of the Apple store in San Francisco sent an email to the Cupidtino.com team explicitly stating that the note was “not an official endorsement”, but offered help with “any technology needs.” FULL ARTICLE @ WSJ
Category: Courtland Brooks Press
Phone-sex Chat Lines Are Part Of Web Of Cybersocializing
WASHINGTON POST – May 5 – The phone-chat services offer several ways for users to interact. Traditionally, callers are connected at random to another user already on the line. If they are not interested, they can disconnect and move on to someone else. Recently, however, companies have offered members use of a voicemail box through which they can record a personal message and pore through dozens, or hundreds, of other people's messages before leaving a contact number for anyone. Some of the most popular adult-oriented chat sites have more than 1M visitors logging in each day, said Mark Brooks, a consultant and editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com. What happens after users turn over their credit cards for monthly membership payments is largely left to chance — and users are generally good about taking precautions, Brooks and others in the industry said. "People arrange to meet at your place or mine," said Jonathan Crutchley, chairman and founder of Manhunt.com, which operates gay-oriented phone and Web chat services. "And every now and then, people get murdered. There have been some murders." "Even if you just go into a bar, you can have a bad experience," Brooks said. "So common sense applies. If you are going to meet up with someone, let someone know where you are headed. Don't let them pick you up at home. Meet somewhere public. There are three basic rules. People break the rules." FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST
Date Site Operator To Play The Field
LA BUSINESS JOURNAL – Apr 26 – Spark Networks turned down a March 2 offer from Great Hill Equity Partners III, a Boston-based private equity fund that owns 44% of Spark, to buy the rest of the company for $3.10 per share. The bid represented a 5% premium to Spark’s March 1 closing price of $2.95 and valued the company at $64M. The offer was widely denounced as low ball for Spark, which owns 29 niche dating sites, including JDate.com. Osmium Partners, another fund that owns 6.1% of Spark, called the deal “grossly inadequate” and vowed to fight any offer less than $6 a share. Shares have since risen, closing at $3.59 on April 22. Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com and a dating service consultant, believes the Great Hill valuation was probably about right – for now. “I think the valuation is pretty solid at $3.10,” Brooks said. However, he believes that Spark can do better. “I know the management at Spark Networks and they are smart people. Someone is going to acquire them,” he said. “They have a hallmark brand and they think they can do better once the market picks up.” The decline in Spark’s business corresponds to a slump in the entire online dating sector, as paid providers face new competition from free dating sites and social networks such as Facebook, Brooks said. FULL ARTICLE @ LA BUSINESS JOURNAL
For Web’s New Wave, Sharing Details Is The Point
Mark Brooks: Will people share this kind of extraneous information in their internet dating profile? Should they? Your comments please.
BBC London, Joanne Good Radio Show With Dr. Gonzaga (eHarmony) And Fabrice LeParc (SmartDate)
Joanne: Do you actually work in a laboratory?
Dr. Gonzaga: I do. We have a lab space downstairs where we bring in couples who are engaged or married and we interview them about their relationship to figure out what makes their relationship work, what makes them strong and satisfied.
Joanne: What do you think are the most important things for making a long term relationship work?
Dr. Gonzaga: One of the most important things is sharing fundamental personality characteristics, values and interests.
Joanne: You use 29 dimensions of compatibility at eHarmony?
Dr. Gonzaga: That’s correct. The happiest couples tend to share 29 dimensions much more often than less happy couples do. The 29 dimensions include things like religion, height, and body language, energy level, etc?
Joanne: It seems that there is not quite so much emphasis on physical looks.
Dr. Gonzaga: You also have to feel that connection, that spark, that attraction to someone but it’s very hard to figure out what each individual person is attracted to because everybody is different.
Joanne: How many matches are given to each person?
Dr. Gonzaga: We give people 2, 3 or 4 matches per day.
Who doesn’t want a long term relationship but just wants a bit of fun? Who doesn’t want to sit and fill in page after page after page of questions? Somebody who doesn’t want to do that is Fabrice LeParc from Smartdate.com.
Joanne: Fabrice, why are people single?
Fabrice: I think people are being a little too demanding nowadays. And also I don’t think they rely enough on their social environment. At Smartdate, we’re trying to reinvent the way people date online.
Joanne: So you’re saying that many people know people they can be attracted to, they just haven’t bothered looking at them?
Fabrice: Yes. Smartdate is a tool that allows you to search through all the social networks you already have.
Joanne: No wonder it’s called Smart. Half the work has been done for you. The previous guest, we were talking to from eHarmony, was saying that too much attention is placed on looks. But when I look at your website, it is very aesthetically pleasing and there are no gargoyles and there's very beautiful people on it.
Fabrice: Let’s face it. People want to look at pictures and if you’re in a bar you’re going to be attracted to looks. Looks matter and pictures matter. We put together a clever tool called SmartSearch. This is exactly what Amazon.com does for books.
Joanne: Smartdate is in 6 languages, is that right? So it’s truly global.
Fabrice: Yes, we’re just launching now. You don’t need to meet a neighbor to be happy, you can also talk to somebody who happens to be in England right now and maybe you get along and you get on the phone…
The Science Of Online Dating
TIMES ONLINE – Apr 11 - Relationship science is an increasingly respectable field of academic study. Dr Gian Gonzaga and his team at the eHarmony Labs promises to match its customers using its patented 29 dimensions of compatibility, including sexual passion, anger management, appearance, intellect, obstreperousness, spirituality and emotional health. Other dating sites also employ complex algorithms based on psychometric testing, such as PerfectMatch, Chemistry, Plentyoffish, True, Parship and Matchaffinity. They all like to dismiss each other’s compatibility models. Plentyoffish, for example, thinks people should be matched on their differences. The exception is OKCupid, which is strongly against psychometric testing because, according to Sam Yagan, one of the Harvard mathematicians who founded it, “eHarmony’s patronising belief is that they know what’s best and you need help. We believe you know what you’re looking for and put the power in the user’s hands”. The industry analyst Mark Brooks sees psychological testing as an important part of their increasing credibility and market growth. “Internet dating services will get amazing,” he says. “The science will develop.” Brooks believes personality profiling is the future of matchmaking, and agrees with the eHarmony line: “People don’t know what they want. They need help.” FULL ARTICLE @ TIMES ONLINE
See all posts on PerfectMatch See all posts on True
See all posts on Chemistry.com See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on Plentyoffish See all posts on Parship
See all posts on MatchAffinity See all posts on OkCupid
The Future Of Dating Is Mobile
AMERICAN OBSERVER – Mar 27 – This past year saw the growth of location-based social networks like Foursquare and Gowalla, which allow users to check in via GPS-enabled Smartphones and share their location with friends. In a 10-day span this year, Foursquare claimed it added 100,000 users. Foursquare is partnering with various establishments, like Starbucks, to offer special deals and customer rewards via the service. Clifford Lerner, co-founder of AreYouInterested.com, runs an online dating empire that integrates a traditional site with Facebook’s most popular dating app. By February, 100,000 iPhone-wielding flirts had downloaded the app. Developers are counting on online dating’s faithful to make the switch to mobile apps. Brendan O’Kane is CEO of messmo, a company that fills technical needs for dating sites. O’Kane says immediate gratification is what mobile dating is all about.“As mobile gets better and better we are going to see a large portion of the population connected and available. It’s going to be immediate. That’s going to be a game changer,” O’Kane said.
The full article was originally published at American Observer, but is no longer available.
10 Secrets To Finding Love Online
LIFESCRIPT – Feb 25 - If you’re trolling online dating sites, certain strategies work better than others. These 10 tried-and-true tips from experts and successful online daters will help you put your best foot forward.
1. Pick the right site. "Take a two-pronged approach, combining a general site with a niche site,” says Eric Resnick, founder of Profile Helper, a company that works on online dating profiles.
2. Take the compatibility test. "They’re “a wonderful little filter” to weed out men looking for casual encounters", says online dating expert Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com.
3. Pick an appropriate screen name. “Your screen name is your first impression,” says Cristy Stewart-Harfmann, a matchmaker and online dating profile consultant.
4. Stand out. “Your online dating profile should repel about 95% of the people who read it,” Resnick says. “But for the people who could be a good match, we want them to know it was written for them.”
5. Drop the purple prose. It’s better to show – not tell – what you’re all about.
6. Post pictures. And at least one has to be a full-body shot.
7. Set ground rules. Setting limits prevents from getting in too deep too fast and allows you to bail if there’s no chemistry.
8. Play it safe. Don’t give out personal information. Always meet first in a public place. Make sure a friend knows where you are and when you’re expected home. Do a background check.
9. Meet in person quickly. If you’re leery of meeting face to face too soon, test the waters with a video chat on Skype. Or go on a “virtual date.” PersonalQuest.com and OmniDate using this technology.
10. Complain about the weirdos.
FULL ARTICLE @ LIFESCRIPT
Lavalife Is Being Shopped
THEDEAL.COM – Feb 12 - Lavalife is being shopped by its owner, online marketer Vertrue. Vertrue paid C$152.5M ($113.9M) to acquire Lavalife in 2004. Vertrue was itself bought out by management, private equity firms One Equity Partners and Brencourt Investors and venture capital firm Rho Ventures for $855M in 2007. Lavalife's Web properties have been on the block for about four months. Lavalife Voice, a phone-based dating service, is not being shopped. Some say the auction has been going on for longer than that. "They've wanted to sell for a while," Noel Biederman, CEO of Avid Life Media, said of Lavalife. "Lavalife is not of great strategic value, and its business is in decline," said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant with Courtland Brooks. The company has not disclosed revenues since it was taken private in 2007. That year it brought in ~$90M. Although online dating giants Avid Life and FriendFinder Networks canceled initial public offerings this month, the space is still ripe for M&A deals, according to Brooks.
iovation Keeps Scammers Out Of Your Heart And Wallet
SILICON BEACH – Feb 19 – One of the topics at the iDate 2010 conference descended on Miami Beach last month was protection against scammers. Identity theft is ridiculously easy. iovation is a pioneer in managing online fraud and abuse. "The fraudsters posts a profile, usually to attract women," says Max Anhoury, VP of sales and marketing at iovation. "They build confidence. They'll use a stolen credit card to upgrade their membership level. They'll use the same card to send flowers or jewelry. And then typically there's a story about how they've been abandoned and need money wired." By examining devices — the computers from which fraudsters generate profiles — Iovation can detect when something is amiss. Once a computer is re-identified, the same schmuck who is trying to get money out of a lonely heart somewhere might have a difficult time pulling a scam elsewhere online. Iovation also works with other industries, such as e-retail and financial services. "In the last 90 days, we have identified 67,588 different instances of spam, over 30,000 scams and solicitations, over 13,000 profile misrepresentations, and over 5,000 cases of identity mining and phishing." FULL ARTICLE @ MIAMI NEW TIMES