NEWS.USC.EDU – Aug 26 – Aram Galstyan and Greg Ver Steeg of the USC Information Sciences Institute are applying principles of quantum mechanics to the matchmaking algorithms that run eHarmony. Jonathan Beber, who leads eHarmony's data science, approached the ISI duo with a problem: how to reduce eHarmony's questionnaire; what is the minimum amount of questions eHarmony can ask without losing its predictive compatibility power. What started out with ~500 questions became 145 questions over time. Galstyan and Ver Steeg boiled down the questionnaire with a process called correlation explanation (CorEx). "The idea behind CorEx," Ver Steeg said, "is to ask what are the hidden factors that explain correlations in the data. For example, how different parts of your brain light up at the same time or the way you answer question A always predicts the way you answer question B."
Category: eHarmony
Radio Interview With eHarmony CEO Grant Langston And Mark Brooks, CEO Of Courtland Brooks
Quentin: Last week Neil Clark Warren, the founder and CEO of eHarmony, retired. Grant Langston has taken over as CEO. Grant, I did an interview with you on MarketWatch – "Why eHarmony will never be like Tinder or Grindr". I know you have had a casual dating site before, called Jazzed, that did not really do great and your customer base got confused. Can you tell us about what market you are after in the online dating world?
Grant: We have been in this business for a long time and we have made a commitment to help create compatible long term relationships. It's a little bit of a disconnect to turn around and tell your constituency that we are now also facilitating very casual hookups. That is something that people pass judgments about. We learned the hard way. People that used our core business started to get confused about who we were and what our mission was.
Quentin: So when you started, were you a religious site? What was the ethos?
Grant: Dr. Warren was a psychologist for about 40 years. Towards the end of his career he started to write books about mate selection. Those books were published primarily by religious publication houses. So his audience was largely in the Christian world. When eHarmony started that was the natural constituency for the business because he had made a lot of appearances on Christian radios and had a name in that universe.
Quentin: Mark, how much do you put in all of the science and the secret sauce behind these sites?
Mark: I often get asked why use a dating site. People use dating sites because they help you get the tough questions out of the way right up front. So I really see the sites that are more focused on compatibility as being an extension of this. You are meeting people who are not only willing and able and committed enough to spend some money on the process, which says something, but you are meeting people who are willing to go through a number of questions and be a little bit more involved in the process.
Quentin: Do you think certain types of people are attracted to certain sites?
Mark: Absolutely. For example VeggieDate.com. For some people, being a vegetarian is a big part of their life. That's what they want to lead with. So I think you choose a site based on what your thing is. The thing people go to eHarmony for is more meaningful, more serious relationships.
Quentin: With sites like eHarmony, people do pay. They are showing commitment. With Tinder and also OKCupid you are matched with people and you message them but nobody ever has time to actually meet in real life.
Catey: I always thought of Tinder as a hookup site but more younger people are now finding relationships on that site.
Quentin: What do you think, Mark?
Mark: I think the bigger they get the more general their audience will be and the more range of use the service will have. The entire experience is simplified which is really the secret sauce. They went entirely to be the emotional hub of the brain. They are pure system one (Book: Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman), pure emotion. It's entertainment, a game, very sharable which also led a great deal to their success. It is moving in the opposite direction than I thought the industry would move in.
Quentin: Grant, you mentioned you were making some changes.
Grant: The bar changes all the time. One of the things that we failed to do is to keep our apps as easy as possible to use. We are always going to be more involved because we need to know more about you to do the kind of matching that we want to do. But the process that we have could use a lot of improvement. It just needs to be a lot easier to interact with it. That is my first priority in this new role.
Quentin: Mark do you think the premium sites are worth the money? $59.95… that is 6x more than your Netflix subscription.
Mark: I think it demonstrates commitment to the process. Somebody once asked me many years ago: "How much would I spend to meet a woman that I would spend the rest of my life with?" And I remember answering: "To me that's $100k? That's the most important decision I will ever make." And he said: "My club is $1k/year, and I'll give you a shot." I said: "Cool, that sounds like a decent deal". Matchmakers are charging $5k – $50k for their services, and they've done OK despite the rise of Internet dating. eHarmony is essentially bottling matchmakers' key services. But it's far more scientific. eHarmony is running rings around most matchmakers.
Quentin: eHarmony launched a matchmaking service for $5k some time ago. I think that actually implies you want to meet somebody who has the money to spend on that kind of site.
Mark: I think people will pay to not be surprised.
Catey: I think Quentin would pay for that :).
Quentin: I have had more surprises than anybody. If I could pay for a premium service where nobody fibs, I would do.
by Catey Hill & Quentin Fottrell
Listen to the interview at MarketWatch
Q&A With Grant Langston, eHarmony’s New CEO
MARKETWATCH – July 27 - Grant Langston has taken over from co-founder Neil Clark Warren.
Q: What was your previous position?
A: VP of brand marketing.
Q: There must have been a few people interested in the job.
A: We do not have a lot of people in the senior ranks at eHarmony.
Q: What have you learned from Neil Clark Warren?
A: He's a guy who's about authenticity even when it's not cool to be himself. There's no pretense. He's an emotional and real person and he's not afraid to let that show.
Q: This is your 16th year at eHarmony. What have been your most challenging times?
A: When we launched Jazzed, a casual dating product. We went through a period where we didn't know who we were. We found ourselves without any real fans. We had to get back to our mission.
Q: I don't blame you for giving it a shot. If you invented Tinder, you probably wouldn't be complaining.
A: Maybe.
Q: Tinder is responsible for relationships too. It just puts swiping photos at the forefront because physical attraction is important too.
A: A lot of people misunderstand our opinion on physical attraction. We just don't want it to be the primary criteria by which people kick off relationships. We have tried to do research for things that correlate with a happy relationship, which is proven through science.
Q: So what do you mean by things that correlate for a happy relationship?
A: Ambition. If one person is a go-getter and the other person likes to spend a lot of time on the couch, that causes friction. The more you have, the more it's going to matter.
Q: How many members do you have?
A: We have ~750k members.
Q: What's happening with Compatible Partners?
A: It's very profitable.
Q: What changes are afoot?
A: The apps need to be much easier to use.
eHarmony’s New CEO Vows To Make The App Simpler
LA TIMES – July 26 – eHarmony founder Neil Clark Warren left retirement four years ago to bring the site back to relevance. Mission accomplished. Now he is returning to retirement and Grant Langston, VP of brand marketing, assumed the CEO role Monday. His focus will be on improving the company's website and app. "Newer dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble and Coffee Meets Bagel have attracted millions of young users with simpler interfaces. It's time for eHarmony to catch up", Langston said. Leading the effort is Ken Walker, a former executive at job search start-up ZipRecruiter who was named chief product officer last month. The product went neglected as Warren prioritized turning around other facets, Langston noted. eHarmony's TV ads had become less effective in driving user sign-ups. He doesn't expect other executives who may have been skipped over for the CEO position to depart, but he's sure that there will be personnel changes.
eHarmony’s Neil Clark Warren Stepping Down, Grant Langston New CEO
CNN MONEY – July 26 – Neil Clark Warren is no longer CEO of eHarmony. He will continue to serve the company as chairman. The new CEO is Grant Langston, the VP of brand marketing who has been with eHarmony since the beginning. This isn't the first time that Warren has stepped down. He retired in 2007, but came back in 2012 to "turn around" the company.
How Marketers Changed Online Dating
MARKETING NEWS – June 2 – No dating site has found the magic method of creating a love connection. "This is a total virgin science," said Mark Brooks who runs Courtland Brooks, an agency that works with online dating companies. There are 2,5K – 8K online dating platforms worldwide. While it's growing, the industry is "sort of being squished," with the majority of growth seen at large businesses and smaller apps, leaving a large middle section open, Brooks says. According to Brooks, Tinder's explosive popularity changed the face of internet dating. The app grew from college campuses, Brooks says, as the company used a marketing program to entice "campus connectors" to spread the word. "It doesn't take much," he said. "It's such a hotbed on campuses that you can get these things to take off on campus with the right story and the right product. Tinder is a very, very compelling product. It's one of the few dating apps that's truly sharable. For some reason, apps are more sharable in online dating. You wouldn't generally talk about Match, but on Tinder, you'd just show it around and talk about the experience." How do these dating platforms grow? Brooks says the traditional way is via pay-per-click ads and paid acquisition. Companies with more money are able to advertise on TV. Grant Langston, eHarmony's VP of brand marketing refers to TV as eHarmony's "magic formula". Now, TV accounts for ~70% of eHarmony's lead generation. For Zoosk, Facebook mobile app is one of the most successful distribution outlets. The conversion rate for Facebook mobile, from click to install, is ~5% and 10%. Years ago, Brooks says he predicted that "we'd go Star Trek" in online dating, meaning he foresaw the impending mobile boom. In his recent research, he found that 73% of all visitors to dating services are on mobile devices. Brooks believes larger screens, five-to-six inches, will come into prominence in the near future. Users want larger pictures for their online dating needs and Brooks says larger phones and small tablets will serve that need. After that, he believes wearable technology will play a larger role in the industry. People often tell white lies on their dating profiles, but Brooks says sites may be able to take advantage of a customer's FitBit data by matching people who run seven miles per day. Online dating is here to stay with little chance of evanesce. Brooks notes that the availability of people, within the click of a button, has created an addictive element.
by Hal Conick
See full article at Marketing News
See all posts on Tinder See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on eHarmony See all posts on Zoosk
Ex-Pandora Marketing Director Nicole McInnes Joins eHarmony
MUMBRELLA – May 25 – eHarmony has hired former Pandora marketer Nicole McInnes to be its new marketing director for eHarmony Australia.
Quick Review Of Top Dating Sites
The full article was originally published at Reviews.com, but is no longer available.
See all posts on eHarmony See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on OkCupid See all posts on POF
eHarmony Promotes Dr. Steve Carter To Chief Scientist
BUSINESSWIRE – May 3 – Dr. Carter has been at eHarmony since its inception, part of the original team that developed eHarmony from concept to enterprise. Today, Dr. Carter is responsible for leading the development, testing and implementation of the data science that powers eHarmony and Elevated Careers. Dr. Carter was promoted from VP of Matching.
Tuesdays At 2PM – The Busiest Time, Says eHarmony
LIFEHACKER.CO.UK – Apr 26 – The best time to find love online is on Tuesdays at 2pm, according to the latest eHarmony research. The eHarmony team conducted a study of 800K log-ins to identify the peak hours throughout the week for finding and arranging a date. They discovered ten big online dating spikes and nine of them happen on a Monday and Tuesday around lunch time.