SEEKING ALPHA – Apr 25 – Spark Networks full year revenue increased 16.5% to €85.6M due to the 20% growth in paying subscribers as well as marketing efforts in North America and the Affinitas-Spark merger in Nov 2017. For the full year 2017 adjusted EBITDA was €6.6M, a YOY increase from €5.9M. It includes €509K of post merger adjusted EBITDA from Spark. The company ended the year with ~465K paying subscribers. (158K in North America and 307K international). Here a few key points from Spark Networks earning call:
Spark Networks is expecting future M&A to accelerate growth
EliteSingles is the largest and fastest growing brand (20% growth in 2017); ~60% of Spark Networks revenue comes from EliteSingles.
Elite Singles is expanding in North America
Jdate and Christian Mingle stable and expected to grow in 2018, marketing focus in North America for now, although new languages were introduced in April
The company launched a new matchmaking site SilverSingles in Dec 2017 in US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and Australia. The site targets serious daters who are 50+. 15% of Spark registrations coming already from this brand.
AD NEWS – Nov 3 – Creatives from Marcel, Loud and VCCP weighed in on ads from Tinder, Elite Singles, eHarmony, Bumble and RSVP.
eHarmony Seems like a safe bet for those who take dating and relationships seriously. eHarmony understands that there's a moment when something just clicks but could have gone down a much richer creative path.
Tinder It's great that Tinder are self-aware and don't take themselves too seriously. As for the idea, it's ok but we've seen this sort of set up before.
Tinder, Apple TV The writing's great. Characters are funny. Very watchable. Feels like a sitcom. And strategically it works hard. This definitely gets a swipe to the right.
RSVP Hats off to The Core Agency and RSVP team for sticking with a great line, 'Find a keeper', and building on a really strong platform.
Elite Singles For all its obvious flaws, this ad makes up for it in spades when it comes to appealing to a particular audience. It knows who it wants to target and is not shy about it. However, there's a big difference in appealing to your audience, and understanding them.
Bumble Bumble is the cool kid. The fact that there is only one ad in the series that features a guy, and that he doesn't utter a word, is a teeny bit unnerving though. It totally appeals to the confident millennial females out there.
NOAH CONFERENCE – Nov 10 – CEOs of Parship, EliteSingles and The Meet Group were interviewed at the “Future of online dating” panel during the NOAH17 conference in London. They spoke about the past, present and future of online dating.
Parship – two brands – Parship & ElitePartner that operate in the matchmaking segment, €120M annual revenue (mobile revenue €35M), ~50% of registrations are via mobile, 100k babies
EliteSingles – renamed to Spark Networks, predicted 2018 revenue $122M, EBITDA $22M, 500K paying members
The Meet Group – 15M monthly active users, 4.5M daily active users (DAU), 190K new members every day, acquired Lovoo and Tagged; focus on live video streaming, 20% of DAU use live streaming every day.
Q: Are people on your platform looking for a relationship? Geoff: Half of Meetme users would say dating, half would say friendship. On Lovoo, ¼ of users say they are looking for entertainment. Tim: Serious relationship, people go through our questionnaire that takes 30-40 minutes. Jeronimo: We have very similar product as Parship, our questionnaire also takes 30-40 minutes.
Q: What’s your view on Bumble? Geoff: It is a great success story. Tinder introduced double swipe to unlock the chat, Bumble amped it up with the female initiating the conversation after double swipe. Tim: It helps them a lot to be part of Badoo.
Q: How much do you spend on TV ads? Jeronimo: It is a double-digit million number. 2/3 of our marketing budget goes into offline media, 1/3 goes to online&digital. Geoff: 70% of our revenue comes from advertising today, that was 85% before Lovoo. We believe live streaming is going to change that. People can send gifts to the streamers. The gifts could be purchased with our virtual currency.
Q: Do you see the younger demographic declining on your platforms because they don’t watch TV with ads? Tim: No, we have actually seen the biggest influx in the younger demographic (25+) Jeronimo: We are shifting our advertising from TV to online. We are shifting to where our audience is. So I don’t think shifting away from TV will impact our business.
Q: How global is your business? Geoff: 80% is international. Jeronimo: Half North America, half the rest of the world, mostly Europe. Tim: We are mostly focused on the German-speaking market and we are very comfortable.
Q: What is going to happen in 5 years? Tim: We will continue with consolidation. Geoff: I think if you stand still, you’ll die. The competition is big.
ACCESSWIRE – Nov 2 – Spark Networks announced the successful completion of the previously announced merger of Spark Networks and Affinitas GmbH ("EliteSingles") in a stock-for-stock transaction. Former EliteSingles stockholders now own ~75% of the combined company and former Spark Networks stockholders own ~25%.
ACCESSWIRE – Oct 2 – The special stockholder meeting is scheduled for Nov 2, 2017 at Spark's offices. Spark and EliteSingles have entered into a definitive agreement under which Spark and Elite Singles will combine in a stock-for-stock transaction that is expected to result in EliteSingles stockholders owning ~75% of New Spark and Spark stockholders owning ~25%. The merger is subject to approval by Spark stockholders and is expected to close in the Q4 of 2017.
ACCESSWIRE – Aug 8 – In May, Spark Networks entered into an agreement with Affinitas GmbH ("EliteSingles"), which operates premium online dating platforms EliteSingles, eDarling and Attractive World to merge. The transaction will close in Q4 2017. Q2 revenue was $6.6M, down 27% YOY and 9% down from the previous quarter. The decrease was driven by a decrease in average paying subscribers, reflecting reduced direct marketing investment in the Jewish and Christian Networks. Total direct marketing expenses decreased 53%. Q2 net loss was $2.5M. The company has no outstanding debt.
OPW INTERVIEW – Aug 8 – Affinitas wants to be the world's leading operator of paid (premium) dating services. They're in the process of merging with Spark Networks (JDate). I paid their HQ in Berlin a visit a few weeks back and met Bart, and then we did this interview for you. Attractive World is launching in Australia. Bart is Head of Brand Marketing, so I asked him about market fit for Attractive World.
IOL.CO.ZA – June 12 – EliteSingles, a German based dating site which touts itself as "no 1 dating site for educated singles and professionals", has been criticized by South African users over its renewal and cancellation policy. EliteSingles automatically renew memberships unless users cancel 24 hours in advance. SA Consumer Protection Act (CPA) requires they send a membership expiry reminder at least 40 days beforehand (and not more than 80 days before). "EliteSingles is violating our domestic laws", the consumers say. Ouma Ramaru, media liaison for the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, stresses: "They need to abide by our laws and regulation. They are not considering the provision of the CPA in relation to cancelling fixed-term contracts."
SATPRNEWS – May 30 – This is according to the latest research commissioned by premium online dating platform EliteSingles. One in ten Londoners (10%) want to be dating within a week of the end of long-term relationship, compared to the UK national average of 6.5%, and more than a quarter (26.5%) will return to dating within a month, compared to the national average of 21%.
The full article was originally published at SATPRNews, but is no longer available.
SEEKING ALPHA – Apr 25 – Spark Networks full year revenue increased 16.5% to €85.6M due to the 20% growth in paying subscribers as well as marketing efforts in North America and the Affinitas-Spark merger in Nov 2017. For the full year 2017 adjusted EBITDA was €6.6M, a YOY increase from €5.9M. It includes €509K of post merger adjusted EBITDA from Spark. The company ended the year with ~465K paying subscribers. (158K in North America and 307K international). Here a few key points from Spark Networks earning call:
