Courtland Brooks Press – Page 8 – Online Personals Watch

IAC Looks For Love In PlentyOfFish

Posted on August 17, 2015

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR – Aug 14 – Last month Match Group, agreed to buy POF for $575M in cash, the highest price it has ever paid for any of its various dating sites. To industry watchers, the high price that POF fetched was not all that surprising. IAC controlled 22% of the U.S. market before adding POF’s 4.9% share. According to Mark Brooks, Internet dating industry consultant and editor of Online Personals Watch, POF deal was mostly about timing. "Buying PlentyOfFish took one question off the table: What about the pressure from free sites, from POF? Now the answer is, 'We bought it.'" Many people looking for love will maintain profiles in several places at once. "One thing we know is that if we can't convert someone on one site, we can usually get them on a competing brand," says Brooks. "There are people who won’t try Match.com, but they will try PlentyOfFish." Analysts are eager for the spin-off. Chris Merwin, a senior U.S. Internet analyst at Barclays in New York, commented that IAC had been held back by Ask.com. "Now that there will be a true value for the Match Group in the marketplace, we think IAC will be able to unlock tremendous value." Brooks, too, feels shareholders are excited that Match Group will now be something "they can touch and feel."

by Lila MacLellan
The full article was originally published at Institutional Investor, but is no longer available.

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Most Online Daters Are Liars

Posted on August 17, 2015

MARKETWATCH – Aug 14 – The flap between Tinder and Vanity Fair misses a larger point. Nancy Jo Sales, the author of the recent article in Vanity Fair titled: "Tinder and the Dawn of the 'Dating Apocalypse'", tweeted data from GlobalWebIndex, which alleged that 30% of Tinder users are married. Tinder responded that only ~1.7% of its users were married. But most married people lie about their relationship status. 54% of online daters said dates have "seriously misrepresented" themselves in their profiles, according to a 2013 study by Pew Research Center. People tell lies — big and small — because it’s the norm, says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch. "It's the norm because it's competitive, and it's an easy way to get ahead. But it's no way to start a relationship. I've always encouraged people to ditch dates fast when they show up and they’ve clearly and outright lied."

by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at Marketwatch

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Dating Apps Are Popular To Build But Not The Easiest Businesses To Sell

Posted on August 14, 2015

INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR – Aug 14 – When Match bought POF for $575M in July, smaller dating sites felt encouraged. Mark Brooks, an Internet dating business consultant who has worked with POF, says the news prompted one start-up to approach him with a business plan. "They told me they'd like to get purchased by Match in six to nine months," Brooks says of the would-be clients. He had to set them straight, explaining that the POF acquisition was many years in the making. POF had impressive back-end features and 100M users. Bill Pescatello, a partner at Lightbank, a VC firm in Chicago, feels very optimistic about online romance. "It's crazy looking back to see how Tinder and other mobile apps have changed the game," he says. Tinderites may be anywhere from age 18 to 35, the younger set being those not yet interested in marriage prospects and likely to stay with the service for a longer time, notes Brooks. Another popular apps are Coffee Meets Bagel and Hinge. Dawoon Kang, CMB co-founder, says she believes her site will grow to rival Match. That kind of confidence made it easy for her to turn down Mark Cuban’s offer to buy the company for $30M.

by Lila MacLellan
See full article at Institutional Investor

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Online Dating In Hollywood

Posted on July 23, 2015

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER – July 22 – Dating in L.A. has always had a bad rap. "Particular to Hollywood are successful businessmen going home with anyone they want — and women getting paid to be pretty," says Talia Goldstein, professional matchmaker and founder of Three Day Rule. "This makes this town more superficial and brutal for the rest of us." Tinder has become part of the daily lexicon. Mark Brooks explains the app's popularity: "What's made it catch fire is that it's fun, and online dating can feel like work. It's brought new heat to the industry and is benefiting everyone," including Tinder president and co-founder Sean Rad, who met his girlfriend Alexa Dell on his own app. "What we've done," says Rad, "is take rejection out of dating." Online dating has seen the rise of the "virtual affair," a romance that ends the minute meeting becomes a reality. Brooks admits digital dating could improve: "We've taught people a new way to meet people. Now we have to teach them how to keep people. People need to reveal themselves more. The future is in combining digital dating with wearable tech, which will allow the sharing of certain personal data: what music you download, where you eat, where you travel." Video also will add authenticity, says dating coach Eric Resnick.

by Merle Ginsberg
See full article at The Hollywood Reporter

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How The Recent Data Breach Affects Ashley Madison’s IPO

Posted on July 21, 2015

MARKETWATCH / WSJ – July 20 – Avid Life Media, which owns Ashley Madison, wanted to raise $200M in an IPO. A recent data breach may hurt the site’s chances of launching a successful IPO anytime soon. "They've hinged their entire existence on privacy," says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch. "It's definitely going to affect their IPO plans. It’s going to reduce the value of this company. They're going to see their conversion rates hit, their attention rates hit, and see some people leave. People prize their privacy on online dating sites. This is compounded 1,000 times on AshleyMadison.com over a typical dating site." Other dating site companies with IPO ambitions such as The Match Group, will be doubling down on their security measures, he adds. Ashley Madison said it has now secured the site, called the hack an act of "cyberterrorism" and apologized to its users.

AshleyMadison launched in 2001. "It has helped move adulterers from traditional dating sites", Brooks says. "It's done a good job of cleaning up other sites," he says. Another thing that can affect the IPO are complaints about fake profiles on the site. Ashley Madison has little direct competition. "The entire business is built on the premise that few will follow," Brooks says. "It's simultaneously brilliant and despicable. It gets people talking, which is also good for business."

Biderman acknowledges that there are a lot of hurdles to overcome before an IPO. He says he loves being the CEO of a private company. Brooks says, the site will be working hard to restore confidence in the site among users and potential investors. "They'll also work on search engine optimization over the next six to 12 months to make sure that other more positive stories about Ashley Madison appear when you Google the site," he says. "There’s plenty that can be done. If someone is prepared to spend big money, they can have a story almost disappear by producing more interesting content."

by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at Marketwatch

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Ashley Madison Failed At A Key Value – Privacy

Posted on July 21, 2015

FINANCIAL POST – July 21 – A group of hackers gained access to Ashley Madison's data. This is the second time in two months a prominent dating site has been compromised. In May, hackers leaked info about users of Adult Friend Finder. The married people seeking affairs may be more interested in discretion than the average online dating user, but the hack exposes a vulnerability in the growing industry. Mark Brooks, principal consultant at the online dating industry advisory firm Courtland Brooks, said he would be surprised if Avid Life goes ahead with its IPO on schedule following the attack. "Their key value is privacy. They've failed at a key value," Brooks said. "Their IPO is definitely going to be affected. I can't imagine they'll proceed with it. They're not going to achieve full market valuation."

by Claire Brownell
See full article at Financial Post

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Ashley Madison May Have To Scrap £130m London IPO

Posted on July 21, 2015

STANDARD.CO.UK – July 21 – Dating-industry analyst, and editor of Online Personals Watch, Mark Brooks said: "They've hinged their entire existence on privacy. It's definitely going to affect their IPO plans. It's going to reduce the value of this company. People prize their privacy on online dating sites. This is compounded 1,000 times on AshleyMadison.com over a typical dating site."

by Jonathan Prynn
See full article at Standard.co.uk

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Match Bought POF, And Cements Its Position As Market Leader

Posted on July 16, 2015

MARKETWATCH – July 15 – The Match Group announced that it will buy PlentyofFish for $575M in cash before going public. "In this industry, size really matters," says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch. "The Match Group gains very sizable key strategic assets and very effectively cements its position as market leader." The US online dating industry is dominated by IAC, with 21.8% market share. While each site has its own secret set of algorithms, the industry is consolidating and becoming more efficient from a business perspective.

"Making ideal matches is a virgin science," Brooks says. "We don't really know when we've been successful, so we don't really know when the algorithm has actually worked." That will soon change with the popularity of location-based apps and mobile technology, he says. "We'll be able to survey singles before and after dates." "Dating algorithms do exactly what they're designed to do, which is to match to sets for data,"” says Amy Webb, author of "Data, a Love Story: How I Gamed Dating to Meet My Match." Some dating sites beg to differ: "eHarmony has only a divorce rate of 3.86%, well below the national average of 40% to 50%."

by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at Marketwatch

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Match Group Could Fetch ~$1.2B From Its IPO

Posted on June 28, 2015

BLOOMBERG – June 26 – IAC’s Match Group plans to to sell ~20% of its common stock this year. The sale could fetch $600M to $1.2B if 10% – 20% of the business is sold to the public, according to Cowen and Co., valuing the division at $6B or more. IAC bought Match.com in 2003. Meetic joined in 2009 along with People Media. In 2011, IAC spent $50M for OKCupid. In 2012 came Tinder which "gamified" the online dating process. "There’s a lot of people that just weren’t prepared to get onto Internet dating," says Mark Brooks, a dating-website analyst and consultant at Courtland Brooks. "Tinder warmed people up to the psychology that it’s not a dating site. Everybody is on it; it’s fun. That’s really the thrill ride here." But free and fun dating apps can be volatile, while cannibalizing customers from such paid services as Match.com, Brooks says. Last year, as the popularity of free-to-use Tinder grew, paid subscriptions at Match fell by ~100K in the Q4, compared with Q3. Now IAC is trying to make money out of Tinder.

by Alex Barinka
See full article at Bloomberg

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Match Group’s IPO Could Be A Success Story

Posted on June 26, 2015

WSJ – June 25 – IAC/InterActiveCorp has followed through on a long-expected plan to pursue an IPO of Match Group. Mr. Diller, IAC’s chairman, isn’t breaking up with Match Group entirely. The company is planning to sell a stake of less than 20% in the division, which includes fitness and educational businesses. Investors cheered the move, sending IAC’s shares up $3.93, or 5.1%, to $81.19. Match Group is IAC’s strongest growth engine, bringing in 29% of overall revenue in 2014. For all the buzz around dating sites, there hasn’t yet been a significant win for VCs in terms of an IPO, said Mark Brooks, CEO of Courtland Brooks, an adviser to dating companies. That’s been a challenge for entrepreneurs. "We need a success story, and I think the Match Group could be a success story," he said. If the IPO doesn’t go over well with investors, "we can kiss the opportunity of future funding goodbye."

by Georgia Wells & Lukas I. Alpert
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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