CHINA DAILY — June 19 — There's no shortage of companies looking to capitalize on the so-called "lovesick" Chinese youth, challenge to turn love into cash. There's 137 million internet users in China. 56 million are using the web to look for love or friendship, according to iResearch. The Chinese online "friends and dating" market reached 400 million yuan February 2007. Most multinationals are also looking to enter this fruitful market, either by acquisition or partnership, following the leads of Meetic buying YeeYoo.com and Match buying edodo. "The biggest opportunities will pass soon", said Mark Brooks, of Online Personals Watch. "Non-Chinese companies should move this year, or they will miss the Chinese boat."
Category: Courtland Brooks Press
Disharmony, The New Tolerance
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — June 7 — Last week, a lesbian filed suit against eHarmony.com for not serving individuals "based solely on their sexual orientation." When I asked why Carlson didn't simply go to another dating service, her lawyer evoked the image of Rosa Parks, noting that "nearly every step in civil rights law, you could have said the same thing…There is a big difference between the sites that allow the customers to self-select who they are looking for" and a site that makes the decision "to exclude a minority group." But the answer isn't to make eHarmony be what it is not, but to let others create something like eHarmony for gays and lesbians. Mark Brooks, spokesman for the gay online matchmaking service myPartnerPerfect.com, said of eHarmony: "I think they're having a bit of an unfair time of it. I think it's their right to have a niche focus, but they've not quite said the right thing, and their underlying tone has riled people up."
The full article was originally published at TownHall, but is no longer available.
eHarmony Sued For Discrimination
BAY AREA REPORTER — June 7 — Carlson claimed that when she attempted to use the Web site in February 2007 she was "denied the ability to do so based on her sexual orientation." eHarmony allegedly violated California's Unruh Civil Rights Act. Said Schneider, with Schneider and Wallace. "Segregation in this country ended a long time ago and apparently eHarmony hasn't realized that gay rights is civil rights." Earlier this year a study, "The Close Relationships of Lesbians and Gay Men", by UCLA researchers, found that "lesbians, gay men, and heterosexuals seek similar qualities in their romantic partners. Regardless of sexual orientation, most individuals value affection, dependability, shared interests, and similarity of religious beliefs." LGBT dating services, such as the newly launched myPartnerPerfect.com and LavenderLiaisons.com provide services to gays and lesbians. In a statement released this week by Patrick Perrine, the founder of myPartnerPerfect.com and creator of its "Partner Perfect Compatibility" test, stated that he started the site "partially because of the discriminating policy of eHarmony." Warren was quoted in USA Today, "We don't really want to participate in something that's illegal" when asked about providing matchmaking services to lesbians and gays, referring to the fact that lesbian and gay couples aren't currently legally allowed to marry, except in Massachusetts. FULL ARTICLE @ BAY AREA REPORTER
Gay Male Dating Matures
EBAR — May 31 — Increasingly, gay men are seeking out life partners and starting their own families. Call it the gay marriage effect. myPartnerPerfect launches Friday, sort of the gay version to the anti-gay eHarmony site. myPartnerPerfect claims to be the first and only dating service with a compatibility system specifically designed for gay men. Patrick H. Perrine, the founder of MyPartnerPerfect and creator of its "Partner Perfect Compatibility" test, said, "Our goal isn't necessarily to be a dating site. With most users our goal is to help gay men develop relationships," said Perrine, who earned a master's degree in human sexuality at SFSU in 2004. "We are not trying to put Gay.com out of business. There is a need for what Manhunt.net does and what Gay.com does." Perrine, 28, is marketing his site "to sophisticated, cultured, and professional gay men." Its mission is "to assist extraordinary men in finding their true love and life-partnership." The test stems from his undergraduate studies at St. Johns University where he took Darwinian evolutionary theory on mating preferences and applied them to the LGBT community. For the last three years Perrine has offered a national private gay matchmaking service. Now he plans to focus more on his new site. Some portions of the site will be free to use, while others will cost up to $2,000. It will also have a phone call service called MyCall where men can call each other using anonymous phone numbers supplied through the site. FULL ARTICLE @ EBAR
Mark Brooks: I’m handling Patrick’s media relations. Press can contact me directly at 212-444-1636, or at mark@courtlandbrooks.com to interview Patrick.
PlentyOfFish Owner Has the Perfect Bait For a Huge Success
WSJ — May 23 — The headquarters of what may be, on a per-capita basis, the busiest, most profitable site on the entire World Wide Web is on the 16th floor of a brand-new Vancouver building with panoramic views of the nearby Canadian Rockies. It happens to be the apartment of Markus Frind, the owner and sole employee of PlentyOfFish.com, a free online dating site and a model for the next generation of Web entrepreneurship.
- For the week ended April 28, PlentyOfFish.com was the 96th-busiest Web site in the U.S. (HitWise)
- Busy Web sites like these usually require scores of people. Mr. Frind says people often don't believe him when he says PlentyOfFish is all his.
- Nielsen/NetRatings says that by some measures, such as the time its members spend on the site, it ranks second after eHarmony.
- A few months back, he posted on his blog a picture of a check from Google for nearly $1 million for a two-month period. Google confirmed the check was for real.
- Mr. Frind says the site brings in between $5 million and $10 million a year.
- Many companies would respond to competitive pressure by hiring someone. Mr. Frind says he has no plans to do so.
Engage.com Connects Daters with Matchmakers
MERCURY NEWS — Apr 9 — Engage.com (free, 200k members) is founded on the premise that online dating needs to be more like offline dating. Members are encouraged to seek out matchmakers who have volunteered to act as yentas…and invite friends to join and to vouch for them. The site's old-fashioned approach to courtship is one answer to the disappointment reported by online daters. A 2005 JupiterResearch survey found one in three online daters as "somewhat satisfied." Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com and an Internet dating consultant, said Engage addresses one weakness of the most popular dating sites, the ability to involve one's friends in a budding romance. Brooks said the chance of hooking up with a friend of a friend is one of the keys to the success of social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. People can avoid the awkwardness of actually declaring they are single, but don't want to be. "I love what they are doing, but it's going to take them awhile to be successful," Brooks said. Some of Engage's features are specifically designed to turn off would-be "players" who populate other sites. For example, Engage encourages its members to rate one another on "responsiveness," "politeness" and whether a person is "true" to his or her profile. Mike Murrow has been chronicling his online dating misadventures and said Engage's matchmaker process sounded good but required friends who were extremely committed. "My friends have their own lives; they are not going to scan through the profiles." FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS
Mark Brooks: I think the industry is doing a better job of setting expectations these days. Online dating takes time. The matchmaking industry is doing well because many people don't want to spend time. They just want dates, and they'll pay for them. There's an opportunity in there somewhere. 😉 The clever people at Match are working to meld the yenta and online dating worlds together, but I think it will be a little tougher than they think. I think Match will need to offer a money back guarantee to safeguard their brand, and encourage word-of-mouth, and compete with $3000+ services like Great Expectations, Together Dating/The Right One, and Table For Six.
Engage.com Connects Daters with Matchmakers
MERCURY NEWS — Apr 9 — Engage.com (free, 200k members) is founded on the premise that online dating needs to be more like offline dating. Members are encouraged to seek out matchmakers who have volunteered to act as yentas…and invite friends to join and to vouch for them. The site's old-fashioned approach to courtship is one answer to the disappointment reported by online daters. A 2005 JupiterResearch survey found one in three online daters as "somewhat satisfied." Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com and an Internet dating consultant, said Engage addresses one weakness of the most popular dating sites, the ability to involve one's friends in a budding romance. Brooks said the chance of hooking up with a friend of a friend is one of the keys to the success of social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. People can avoid the awkwardness of actually declaring they are single, but don't want to be. "I love what they are doing, but it's going to take them awhile to be successful," Brooks said. Some of Engage's features are specifically designed to turn off would-be "players" who populate other sites. For example, Engage encourages its members to rate one another on "responsiveness," "politeness" and whether a person is "true" to his or her profile. Mike Murrow has been chronicling his online dating misadventures and said Engage's matchmaker process sounded good but required friends who were extremely committed. "My friends have their own lives; they are not going to scan through the profiles." FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS
Mark Brooks: I think the industry is doing a better job of setting expectations these days. Online dating takes time. The matchmaking industry is doing well because many people don't want to spend time. They just want dates, and they'll pay for them. There's an opportunity in there somewhere. 😉 The clever people at Match are working to meld the yenta and online dating worlds together, but I think it will be a little tougher than they think. I think Match will need to offer a money back guarantee to safeguard their brand, and encourage word-of-mouth, and compete with $3000+ services like Great Expectations, Together Dating/The Right One, and Table For Six.
In the Computer Dating Game, Room for a Coach
NY TIMES — Mar 12 — Dating-Profile.com, ProfileHelper.com and E-Cyrano.com turn stale profiles into eloquent and ads for $39 to $2,000. LookBetterOnline.com and SingleShots.com, sell professional photo shoots. Dating makeovers are hardly new. High-end offline dating services have long provided help, said Mark Brooks, of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, "The promise of Internet dating is you plug in your profile and you send a few e-mails and you have got a date. It's not as easy as that." Jim West, 43, a divorced engineer, struggled to get beyond the first "hello" e-mail when he started online dating. He paid $49 for a critique from Eric Resnick, of ProfileHelper.com. The advice: when sending e-mail messages to women, ask them questions about their profiles so they are more inclined to reply. Match.com CEO Jim Safka says, online dating is like being on stage and being viewed by thousands of people. "Wouldn't you spend some time backstage getting ready?" Match is testing 'Match Platinum' in which professional matchmakers interview clients, coach them on appearance and style and then sift through Match's database of 15 million members to find a compatible date for $500 to $2,000, depending on the level of service. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
In the Computer Dating Game, Room for a Coach
NY TIMES — Mar 12 — Dating-Profile.com, ProfileHelper.com and E-Cyrano.com turn stale profiles into eloquent and ads for $39 to $2,000. LookBetterOnline.com and SingleShots.com, sell professional photo shoots. Dating makeovers are hardly new. High-end offline dating services have long provided help, said Mark Brooks, of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, "The promise of Internet dating is you plug in your profile and you send a few e-mails and you have got a date. It's not as easy as that." Jim West, 43, a divorced engineer, struggled to get beyond the first "hello" e-mail when he started online dating. He paid $49 for a critique from Eric Resnick, of ProfileHelper.com. The advice: when sending e-mail messages to women, ask them questions about their profiles so they are more inclined to reply. Match.com CEO Jim Safka says, online dating is like being on stage and being viewed by thousands of people. "Wouldn't you spend some time backstage getting ready?" Match is testing 'Match Platinum' in which professional matchmakers interview clients, coach them on appearance and style and then sift through Match's database of 15 million members to find a compatible date for $500 to $2,000, depending on the level of service. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
PlentyofFish on Fox News
FOX NEWS — Feb 8 — Online dating is 10 years old. But the days of paying to find a match may be a thing of the past if you believe one couple who met online and started their own dating service.
The full article was originally published at Fox Orlando, but is no longer available.