USA TODAY — Feb 14 — The industry has grown so fast that Hitwise foresees a shakeout. Says Mark Brooks, who runs Online Personals Watch, "I think we're moving into the first stages of maturity." So companies are trying, like the most desperate bachelor in the bar, to stand out. Those who market love on the Internet are increasingly wooing customers by giving personality and compatibility tests. For the strongest players, the cyberspace dating game remains lucrative. In December, for instance, eHarmony attracted $110 million from two venture-capital firms. "What kind of metrics must eHarmony have shown the VCs to get $110 million?" asks Brooks. JupiterResearch says online-dating revenue hit $473 million in 2004, up from $396 million in 2003. <On background checks>…"That's a solution looking for a problem," complains Jim Safka, the new CEO of rival Match.com. But some competitors grudgingly admire the marketing strategy. "It was brilliant," says Nelson Rodriguez, CEO of LoveAccess.com. "You try to legislate into law your business model." True's CEO Herb Vest warns: "If a person is married or a criminal, they best go somewhere else." True says it intends to prosecute married people who masquerade as singles. "We don't think of ourselves as an online-dating service," says Greg Forgatch, CEO of eHarmony. "We're all about helping people get married and get married well." Yahoo has launched Personals Premier, a $35-a-month service with advanced searching and matchmaking and a personality test. IMatchup.com has unveiled a handwriting-analysis feature. Niche sites proliferate. "I'm not promoting Cupid.com anymore; I'm pitching DesMoines.Cupid.com," says Cupid.com CEO Eric Straus.
Category: eHarmony
Tech-Savvy Singles Find Online Personals Nothing Like Real Thing
SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS — Feb 13 — Nearly all of the 1,650 new Bay Area members who joined Table for Six in 2004 were singles who stopped fishing online, said owner Julie Paiva. "A big reason why someone does online dating is to expand their social life,'' said Paiva. "But they find out what they're mostly doing is spending time in front of a computer screen." Cali, for one, paid for memberships at five sites before pulling the plug. “If you're serious about finding someone, you have to spend money and stick around to make the effort,'' she said. In 2000, when eHarmony homed in on the population of serious daters — armed with a 436-question personality test — many of its competitors laughed. EHarmony's algorithms for romance struck a chord; boasts a membership of 6.5 million, up from 1 million in 2003. Yahoo Personals, True, PerfectMatch.com and Tickle followed suit with their own love alchemy tests. At ColorCupid members are matched based on color preference tests. Mary.com launched this month offering compatibility testing, background checks and certified photos taken by its photographers to ensure people look like their photos.
The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Mary.com, what a great name!
eHarmony Celebrates Marriages
PRNEWSWIRE — Feb 11 — eHarmony today announced it will send exclusive wedding gifts to couples who meet and marry through eHarmony. The first gift will be a Heart Bowl from Tiffany & Co.
Mark Brooks: Nice touch. Match.com just announced their new site featuring successful singles at success.match.com.
Video Clips Aim to Steer Cupid’s Arrows
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Feb 12 — After exchanging instant messages and digital photos through an online dating site, he flew to Houston to meet what he hoped would be a beautiful soul mate. What he found was a flabby misanthrope with an apparent drinking problem. "I decided right then that I needed more information before I'd go on another date with someone I met online." New policy: He'll only date women who post videos or use Web cameras in virtual chat rooms. Videos are gaining popularity among the estimated 20 million Americans who visit online dating sites each month. Nearly one in four U.S. singles have used online dating services, according to Date.com. Only 10% of 2.8 million active users at True.com post videos, but the percentage is rising quickly and online profiles with video get more hits than those without. "Online daters go on a lot of first dates but not many seconds," Compagno said. "More information almost always is better." PerfectMatch.com (1.5 million-members) doesn't allow videos. Nor does eHarmony.com. It didn't accept photos until 2001 and will probably never accept videos, said senior VP Marylyn Warren. "Chemistry fogs your brain a little bit," Warren said. "If you see someone who is drop-dead handsome or beautiful, you might forget that she cheated her way through school or he tells lies or does the kind of things that break up a marriage. We need to get at the true character of a person without emphasis on photos and videos."
The full article was originally published at Yahoo, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Great chemistry is hugely multifaceted, at the core of great relationships, and nigh impossible to predict. Personality profiling distinguishes someone as a great potential friend. The rest is up to chemistry. Your comments please…
Date Docs Rate Will Smith’s Romance Prescriptions
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (front page) — Feb 10 — In the romantic-comedy "Hitch," opening tomorrow, Will Smith plays a "date doctor" who tutors clueless guys in how to impress the women of their dreams. Hitch says: "Use what you've got – if you're shy, use your shyness. If you're outgoing, be outgoing." Dr. Neil Clark Warren, founder of the online dating site eHarmony.com and author of 'Falling in Love For All the Right Reasons,' says,"You don't want to fabricate a persona to make a first date memorable. You can't fool the other person into thinking you're terrific. Plus, you're going to create a front-end identity that over time you can't maintain."
The full article was originally published at NY Daily News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Dr Warren has built up incredible momentum as a media spokesperson.
16% of Surfers Visit Dating Sites
SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL — Feb 10 — From January to June 2004, Web surfers spent $235.3 million on online personals, according to the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks. That figure is about 10% more than the $214.3 million spent in the first half of 2003. Just think, in the first half of 2001, people spent only $22.6 million on Web Personals. Of America’s 161 million Internet users, 16% visited a personals site in December 2004. Top 5 Web dating sites, ranked by Comscore Mediametrix by number of unique visitors in December 2004: 1. Yahoo Personals, 5.7 million, 2. Match.com sites, 4.4 million, 3. MatchNet, 3.89 million, 4. Eharmony.com, 1.9 million, 5. True.com, 1.5 million
Mark Brooks: From $50 million to $500 million in 4 years!
Breakup Blues
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNES — Feb 8 — I’d met up with Kate through eHarmony in early November. We’d communicated extensively through e-mail for about a month, and I’d been down to visit her in Chicago twice. When it came close to Christmas, I bought a computer part I knew she needed as an early gift. A few days later, she called me and said although she’d be happy for me to come down and visit, she just didn’t think "the spark" was there. I appreciated her honesty and thought we could remain friends. So even knowing this was a dating dead-end, I still drove down to see her that evening — and fixed her computer. Then, the last week of December, I started communicating with Lisa from Indiana, who I’d met through Cupid.
Breakup Blues
SOUTH BEND TRIBUNES — Feb 8 — I’d met up with Kate through eHarmony in early November. We’d communicated extensively through e-mail for about a month, and I’d been down to visit her in Chicago twice. When it came close to Christmas, I bought a computer part I knew she needed as an early gift. A few days later, she called me and said although she’d be happy for me to come down and visit, she just didn’t think "the spark" was there. I appreciated her honesty and thought we could remain friends. So even knowing this was a dating dead-end, I still drove down to see her that evening — and fixed her computer. Then, the last week of December, I started communicating with Lisa from Indiana, who I’d met through Cupid.
eHarmony; Dr Warren’s Story
BELLA ONLINE — Feb 1 — In 1995 Dr. Neil Clark Warren, moved his counseling practice to a new office in Pasadena. Much of his time was consumed with creating materials to teach people how they could have a better marriage. One day while talking with his son-in-law Greg Forgatch, he told him about a study he had done in which he asked 100 married couples to tell him what makes a great marriage. His son-in-law asked him had he ever thought of creating a service for singles based on that kind of information? FULL STORY @ BELLAONLINE
Mark Brooks: Dr Warren started eHarmony. Greg is the CEO now. PerfectMatch and True are direct competitors and are branding on their personality profiling.
Battle for Supremacy Among Leading Online Relationship Sites Heats Up
BUSINESS WIRE — Jan 27 — Online relationship sites devoted to serious relationships are attracting millions of new members. This burgeoning market segment will continue to attract interest, investments, and members in 2005, and the two companies poised to capitalize on this trend are PerfectMatch.com and eHarmony.com. "eHarmony has done a very good job at educating the market about the differences between a dating site and a relationship site," said Duane Dahl, founder and CEO, PerfectMatch.com. "They've spent a tremendous amount of money, but money doesn't necessarily mean success for eHarmony's members. We are gaining ground quickly."
Mark Brooks: The holy grail of online dating = finding a truly compatible match (whatever your preferences might be). The three big psychological profiling based online dating players are eHarmony, True and PerfectMatch. I'll be profiling the PhD's behind these sites shortly. Yahoo, Match and FriendFinder offer optional profiling as well, but a minority of their users have taken the profiling tests.