DAILY NEWS — Nov 13 — Marc Lesnick organizes three or four internet dating business conferences a year in places such as Beijing, Amsterdam and Miami. "In Europe, the business generates between $200 and $250 million," says Lesnick, "and in Asia, between $40 and $100 million." Whatever your nationality, religion, occupation or fetish is, it seems there is an online dating service tailor-made for you. "If you want to meet someone local, you've got the big sites like Match.com and eHarmony," says Mark Brooks, online editor and blogger of Online Personals Watch, a Web site devoted to Internet dating industry news. "If you look in a smaller niche site, keep in mind you'll probably be jumping on a plane," advises Brooks. Internet safety expert Larry Burris talks to parent and teacher groups all over the world about keeping people safe on the Internet. He calls his presentations "Safety in the Cyber Village," and says dating online is not much different than traditional dating. Thanks to online dating services such as TRUE.com, ensuring user safety is becoming a top priority for many matchmaking companies. TRUE offers criminal background checks, as well as marital background checks, and the company says it will prosecute anyone who commits fraud on their Web site. "Women need to know that when they go on a date, they're not talking to a criminal or someone who is married," says Brooks.
Category: Courtland Brooks Press
Web Dating Game Heats Up
THE STREET — Nov 14 — Troublemakers on the online dating scene may have met their match in a group of increasingly brand-conscious Internet giants. Yahoo! Personals and Match.com, two of the largest Internet dating sites, are stepping up their efforts to weed their services of abusive, obnoxious or married people. Earlier this year, Yahoo! instituted a code of conduct for online daters in which they must swear that they are single and won't be abusive toward other members. The company also has made it easier for members to report misbehavior. Match.Com has added additional people to its fraud and abuse unit. The effort comes as the online dating market consolidates and surviving services fight off competition for loyal users from social network sites like Friendster.com and Myspace.com, which also offer free dating, and smaller upstarts such as True.com. "They have got very significant brands that they have to protect," says Mark Brooks, who runs the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com. "They can't have people who are scamming, spamming, being obscene or being obnoxious. It's very bad for their brand." About 11% of all online users have a profile on an online dating site, according to Jupiter Media. "The market is reaching maturity," Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliot told the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com in a recent interview. "…there are fewer consumers 'just curious' to have a look. It's no longer the 'new thing.'" FULL ARTICLE @ THE STREET
Web Dating Game Heats Up
THE STREET — Nov 14 — Troublemakers on the online dating scene may have met their match in a group of increasingly brand-conscious Internet giants. Yahoo! Personals and Match.com, two of the largest Internet dating sites, are stepping up their efforts to weed their services of abusive, obnoxious or married people. Earlier this year, Yahoo! instituted a code of conduct for online daters in which they must swear that they are single and won't be abusive toward other members. The company also has made it easier for members to report misbehavior. Match.Com has added additional people to its fraud and abuse unit. The effort comes as the online dating market consolidates and surviving services fight off competition for loyal users from social network sites like Friendster.com and Myspace.com, which also offer free dating, and smaller upstarts such as True.com. "They have got very significant brands that they have to protect," says Mark Brooks, who runs the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com. "They can't have people who are scamming, spamming, being obscene or being obnoxious. It's very bad for their brand." About 11% of all online users have a profile on an online dating site, according to Jupiter Media. "The market is reaching maturity," Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliot told the blog onlinepersonalswatch.com in a recent interview. "…there are fewer consumers 'just curious' to have a look. It's no longer the 'new thing.'" FULL ARTICLE @ THE STREET
Safety? A Nice Photo? Help’s Out There, For a Fee
SUNDAY NEWS — Oct 23 — Consultation with online dating adviser: $30. Dating profile makeover: $70. Professional profile photos: $130. Criminal background check: $20. Finding the perfect match: Priceless. As the market for online dating continues to grow, so does the array of related businesses helping online daters find their ideal mate. Most online daters are clueless when it comes to attracting, wooing, and catching that elusive fish in the great big sea of online dating. Being more specific in your profile is simple advice that can make a huge difference, said Mark Brooks, editor of major industry blog Online Personals Watch. Posting a flattering – but accurate – picture is also important, but many online dating subscribers have yet to take advantage of the services. "The users still don't quite get it," Brooks said. "They still don't think they need it." Sites such as LookBetterOnline.com and DatingHeadShots.com will set up users with a professional photographer. Background checks are becoming a more popular way to screen dates, Brooks said. One dating site is taking the initiative and screening members before they are allowed to join the pool. True.com screens for convicted felons and married people, and requires all members to state that they are neither. Approximately 5% of the site's applicants fail to pass the felony screening and another 4% fail the marriage screening, CEO Herb Vest said. "If you go to any other site my guess would be probably 10-11% of the people on the site will have felony convictions, and I've heard estimates as high as 30% of the people on some sites are married," Vest said. Other services likely to grow over the next few years include "Web dating" - Webdate now allows daters to use webcams for "virtual dates" – and anonymous phone services that allow users to chat without handing over phone numbers. "To be honest, it sounds safer than going into a bar and meeting someone," WebDate founder Abe Smilowitz said. "When you walk into a bar and meet someone, you do that at your own risk." Most of the businesses related to online dating sites have only been operating for a couple of years, but Brooks predicts many of them will continue to profit from the boom of online dating.
The full article was originally published at Union Leader, but is no longer available.
Scammers Dupe Online Daters for Millions of Dollars
— Oct 14 — Markus Frind, of Plentyoffish, estimates that scammers operating on Internet dating sites steal at least $100 million a year. Those performing a ruse could be women in Russia asking for money to leave their country; or a Nigerian sending "business proposition" emails. Crooks often use stolen credit cards to join a site, send out messages to other members, wait for responses then sometimes chat for four or five months before asking for money. "It's bad for someone like Yahoo because it reduces the value of their service, it tarnishes their service," says Dave Evans, a consultant to the online dating and social networking industry who also writes a blog. Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com, explained that two and a half years ago Nigerian scammers used stolen credit cards to join the site causing so many charge backs (about 1% of all transactions) that it threatened his merchant account with his bank. But he's since blocked Russian and Nigerian IP addresses and cut that rate down by three-quarters. LoveAccess.com, with 3.5 million members, also reviews profiles manually, like its bigger competitors. TRUE created a stir in the industry last summer when it announced a nationwide campaign for legislation to require dating sites to conduct criminal checks of their members. Not everyone agrees with Evans, who estimates that on the majority of dating sites, nearly 10% of all profiles are fake. Mark Brooks, a former executive with Cupid.com, FriendFinder and Friendster, disputes that figure and says the actual dating sites, not their members, are even bigger targets. Fraudsters will set up an affiliate Web site to send traffic and fake members, which earn them a commission that can exceed the price of the monthly membership, says Brooks, who also writes a blog, Online Personals Watch.
Mark Brooks: Of 120 employees onsite at Friendfinder in Palo Alto, CA, over half are dedicated to customer service and the 'abuse team'…which grooms for scammers amongst other things. Smaller sites rely on automated methods for spotting scammers. Larger sites usually apply people resources for checking profiles and dealing with scammers more proactively.
Personality Profiling Sites: Who Would You Trust
ONE2ONE MAGAZINE — Sept 15 — ARTICLE BY MARK BROOKS, ONLINE PERSONALS WATCH EDITOR/BLOGGER — Which of these people would you trust with probably the most important decision you'll ever make? Dr Warren of eHarmony is a clinical psychologist with a theology background and 30 years of counseling experience. Dr Houran of TRUE is a young clinical psychologist with 15 years counseling experience and many journal papers to his name. Then we have the sociologist Dr Pepper Schwartz of PerfectMatch.
SIMILAR/COMPLEMENTARY: eHarmony matches on similarities whilst PerfectMatch offers you a choice. You can see people who are similar to you, and also people who are complementary to you. TRUE is mainly focused on matching you with people who have complementary traits.
MAGIC BOX: eHarmony does the searching for you. PerfectMatch and TRUE take alternative approaches. You have more visibility and control over the way you are matched and the speed at which you can get out on a date. PerfectMatch and TRUE also offer instant messaging which eHarmony doesn't favor. Both TRUE and PerfectMatch are less decisive, and more open box rather than magic box. Dr Pepper Schwartz of PerfectMatch commented, "I'm a sociologist, not a deity."
ON CHEMISTRY: Cupid.com CEO, Eric Straus argues that chemistry can only be gauged in the real world, by meeting and getting eyeball to eyeball. "There's no mathematical formula to love," affirms Abe Smilowitz, CEO of WebDate.com. "You can't qualify love by doing a profile analysis. Love is about feelings and a persons emotions." On the other hand Pat Dines, CEO of Mary.com argues, "chemistry works in unison with long term compatibility. Compatibility tests simply identify who you are compatible to be friends with. You need to meet many 'compatible' people to find chemistry." Dr Glenn Wilson is one of the fathers of compatibility testing and states, "[Compatibility testing] will not tell you whether or not you are going to fall in love with another person in a compulsive, 'chemical' way, just whether or not it is a good idea if you do."
Imagine, you walk into your favorite coffee shop, bar or club and meet someone that you click with. You spend the next six months with them, only to find you're COMPLETELY incompatible. Would you have had a better time with someone who was a 'good match.' How about the perfect match? Relationship based online personals sites hold high promise. They are new. They are still experimenting. Dr Houran confirmed, "we're in the infancy of compatibility testing." FULL ARTICLE @ ONE2ONE MAGAZINE
Mark Brooks: ONE2ONE Living (available on Amazon) is a magazine for the singles lifestyle…'Fuel for the single life: entertainment, travel, culture, events, style, dating.' I thought Halle Berry's quote in the latest magazine was fascinating. "I'll never get married again, and I always hate to say never to anything, but I will never marry again… I want love and I'll find it hopefully and have a committed relationship, but no more marriages." These attitude is fueling the decline in number of people getting married… and the future success and growth of the online personals industry.
Singles Hire Coaches to Improve Their Dating Game
ABC NEWS — Aug 11 — Liz Kelly, author and dating coach, tells her clients to go out and get professional photographs. Web sites such as e-cyrano.com and Lookbetteronline.com help singles with their online profiles. What makes more sense, according to some in the industry, would be for these kinds of services to be bundled into the online dating sites. "I don't think the online dating sites have pushed it very hard and I don't think that users perceive that they need help. But sitting on the other side of the table … I'm here to tell them yes — you jolly well do," said Mark Brooks of Onlinepersonalswatch.com. "There's a dire need for people to improve their photographs. People, especially guys, are so visual," said Brooks. "It behooves the online dating sites to help the users improve their profiles. The better the profiles look, the better their product looks." FULL ARTICLE @ ABC
Mark Brooks: All too often daters just don't put enough time into their profiles, or put up old or awful photos. Surprise! No results. Put more time and consideration into your profile. …"I like going for walks on the beach." Why? What is it that lights your fire and makes you want to dance at the waters edge? Get up to date photos, from a pro. At the very least, get your friend to snap 100 photos and pick out the top 5.
Dating Sites Rekindle the Flame
— July 29 — Seeking someone who's a "giver," a "rebel" or an "observer"? Yahoo Personals now lets you search for them. Dying to know if Ms. Right is a philanderer or a felon? True will run a background check. Online-dating sites raked in $473 million from American customers in 2004, according to JupiterResearch, which expects revenue to reach $516 million this year. At the same time, it's becoming more expensive for dating sites to advertise online and woo enough new customers to create a viable site, said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant who blogs about the business. "We're going through the big squeeze," he said, "One in which consolidation looms and innovation is key to survival." True, for one, allows so-called "bidirectional blocking": Users can block other members forever and decide who can peruse their own ads. "Basically," said True chief psychologist Jim Houran, "you're really empowering clients." Big deal, sniffs Nate Elliott, an analyst with JupiterResearch. The bells and whistles "don't really matter to customers," he said. "If you give them a large number of photos and profiles, they're happy. Beyond that, it's all incremental." Niche marketing sites include BlackPeopleMeet.com, Christian Mingle and BBWHarmony (BBW stands for "big beautiful women"), along with "adult" sites for the instant-gratification crowd. The quickie-oriented sites are growing rapidly, but "they've flown under the radar," said Brooks. Mark Thompson, CEO of weAttract.com, thinks short video clips are the future. "Jump ahead 10 years, and it will all be video-based." FULL ARTICLE @ WIRED NEWS
Hey, Baby, Want a Date?
SAN FRAN CHRONICLE — July 23 — With advances in cell phone technology and wireless networks, users can browse truncated profiles, view photos of possible dates and exchange cheesy lines via text messaging. SmallPlanet has come up with a way for its compatible users to be alerted when they are within range of each other, in most cases about 30 feet for now. Said analyst Brent Iadarola of Frost & Sullivan. "The comfort people have with online dating in the wired world is now translating to the mobile world." Subscription revenue for mobile services are expected to rise from $31.4 million this year to $215 million by 2009. That does not include revenue from text-messaging charges, which could double those figures, according to Iadarola. "Handset technology has moved in leaps and bounds to the point you can have a good user experience while on the bus or sitting in the back of car," said Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch. "People are gaming and texting now. It all makes sense at last." One promising technology is location-based dating, in which users can be alerted to a potential match just down the street or somewhere in their ZIP code. "I can go to a club, and the phone becomes a transponder," said Joe Brennan Jr., vice president of Webdate, the industry leader with 5 million users. "I can find someone I match up with, and that facilitates a meeting." But there's a hitch. Wireless carriers haven't embraced Webdate technology for now because they are unconvinced of the safety and manageability of the service. Some fear the technology could be manipulated to electronically harass users. FULL ARTICLE @ SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Internet Dating Goes Mobile
The full article was originally published at CBS5, but is no longer available.