REUTERS — Dec 23 — FriendFinder Networks Inc, an operator of
social-networking websites and publisher of the adult men's magazine
Penthouse, filed on Tuesday for a $460m initial public offering.
FriendFinder plans to use the proceeds of its IPO primarily to pay
off debt, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Category: FriendFinder
Online Personals: Changing Norms, Changing Business Models
CLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE REPORT — Oct '08 — JupiterResearch predicts the online dating industry will hit $1.9 billion by 2012, not including matchmaking services at $250m+ in the U.S. Mark Brooks, who monitors the personals industry, pegs 2004 as the year when dating sites matured. "There are less people on dating sites, but they're spending more money." The CEO of The Right One/Together Dating, Paul Falzone has been in the business 20 years. "When times are good, people want someone to share the fun with. When times are bad, they want companionship."
The Free factor – Free has become a very real factor in the industry, with the emergence of PlentyOfFish.com. POF has more than 10m profiles, and 2m active monthly users. "He's the renegade of the market," said Brooks. "He's making the other players think about advertising money." Frind acknowledges that his $10m in yearly ad revenue has gotten people's attention, but he thinks the traditional dating sites are too invested in the paid-membership model to shift gears.
The Facebook factor – Many in the online dating industry believe social networks will not be a negative factor because SN are for friends and people are posting all sorts of material there they might not want a prospective date to see. But Robert Lee, who has been reviewing dating sites at ALoveLinksPlus.com, believes Facebook is going to figure out how to establish different layers of access, so a user can create a dating-oriented profiles that not everyone can see. As of Oct. 18, Facebook had 497 dating applications.
Different marketing and revenue models – "Personals ads" in newspapers was disrupted by the Internet in the mid-1990s but is being revived with a new focus on Web-first publishing, promoted in print. Another model uses the Web as its operating venue, but drives new customers through heavy advertising in traditional media. Cupid.com makes deals with radio stations to run ads for free in exchange for a share of revenue and claims a conversion rate of 13%. eHarmony and Match spend millions on TV advertising. The typical revenue model is "browse for free, connect for a fee." Matchmaking sites such as Kelleher and Associates, Together Dating and It's Just Lunch have a dual role in the online ecosphere. First, they buy leads from online dating sites, creating yet another line of revenue. Paul Falzone bought LoveAccess.com as a way to generate his own leads. In the 1980s, Falzone's cost per lead was $200-$250 using direct mail. Now his goal is to get that number to zero.
Growth of explicit sites – At the Internet Dating Conference held in London in September, the hallway buzz was all about the explosion in numbers of women signing up for adult sites like Fling.com and AdultFriendFinder. "I'd call it a sexual awakening," said Brooks. "Guys have always been interested in the adult sites, but this is new." The average length of membership on a regular dating site is three months, compared with five months on an adult site.
The future – Mobile and video remain theoretical game-changers, enabling potential match-ups by proximity or direct communication. Brooks sees another potential business model emerging from academic research: a dramatic improvement in the quality of matching.
The full report was originally published at AIM Group, but is no longer available.
See all posts on PlentyofFish See all posts on TogetherDating
See all posts on aLoveLinksPlus See all posts on It's Just Lunch
See all posts on eHarmony See all posts on Fling.com
See all posts on Match.com See all posts on FriendFinder
See all posts on Kelleher and Associates
The Web Of Desire Or Just Deceit?
THE OBSERVER — Oct 26 — The web has become a place through which to contact, meet and have sex with real people. Some sites are quite explicit about their offerings. AdultFriendFinder claims to be the world's biggest adult social network and sex personals site. The site claims to have more than 2.5m members registered in the UK. Other sites quite evidently do as they promise, such as Hookuparea.com and BeNaughty.com. And when a marriage is under strain, spouses no longer have to go very far out of their way to cheat. Illicit Encounters asks on its homepage: 'Married but Feeling neglected? Illicit Encounters launched in October 2003 and now has 245,000 members, mostly in the UK. 65% of them are male. The site provides a guide on how to conduct an illicit affair, with advice tips including using a separate SIM card in their mobile phone, paying with cash instead of credit cards and never giving their surname, exact location or workplace. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Fling Now #1 Casual Dating Site
OPW — Sep 9 — AdultFriendFinder and Fling.com have been running close on traffic for a while now, but Fling.com just overtook AdultFriendFinder.com for total traffic according to Compete.com. I included Match.com to give some perspective on the graph. Fling is up 7.4% for the month with 22m unique visitors, and AdultFriendFinder is down 3.5% for the month with 21.7m uniques. AFF has a LOT of momentum, but Fling rides on a very considerable affiliate network of its own. AFF still has a considerable lead for user engagement and visits. These collossals of the adult dating world will be duking it out for a long while to come but without Andrew Conru at the helm, will AFF be able to maintain a lead? Your comments please. (Disclosure: Fling is a client of Courtland Brooks).
FriendFinder IPO Delayed As Developers Mutiny
VALLEYWAG — June 27 — The effort to migrate into an online publishing and social networking powerhouse is being hampered by developers dissatisfied with working conditions and an inability to hire new staff. An internal email obtained by Valleywag features Anthony Previte scolding the mutineers for disappearing from work early and being insubordinate. This news might put off the investors necessary to bankroll the company taking itself public — assuming the rumor that the big money has already demurred, delaying the planned $250m IPO, isn't true.
The full article was originally published at ValleyMag, but is no longer available.
Clean Up Those Bogus Profiles, Pronto!
PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE — May 19 — Over the years, the CDA (Communications Decency Act) has been criticized for giving Web sites too much of a free pass. Under the act, website couldn't be held liable for content posted by others. The scope of the CDA's immunity has been called into question. The Fair Housing Council filed suit against Roommates.com because the site provided pull-down menus that allowed users to choose what kind of roommate they wanted based on race, sexual orientation and gender, the court found that they were responsible for developing content and that they were not entitled to immunity under the CDA. Another suit has been filed against AdultFriendfinder because someone created a fake profile that "reasonably identified" someone. They complained and FriendFinder removed the profile, but it continued to appear in "teaser" ads. The court dismissed the plaintiff's tort claims for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress—but didn't dismiss her claim based on her "right of publicity". Since right to publicity claims vary from state to state, sites would have to tailor their practices to the lowest common denominator and make sure they followed the most restrictive state laws, or face the possibility of being liable for violating a state intellectual property law.
The full article was originally published at Public Knowledge, but is no longer available.
Niche Dating Sites Grow Steadily As Mainstream Ones Flail
TECH CRUNCH — Apr 24 — In the internet dating space, bigger is not always best. According to the latest U.S. numbers from Hitwise, the top niche dating sites are steadily gaining market share while their big mainstream counterparts stagnate. In March 2008, the top 5 overall sites held 7% less market share than they did in 2007 (Plentyoffish and Singlesnet were the only sites to buck this trend individually). Meanwhile, the top sites (Adam4Adam, Manhunt, Gay.com, BlackPeopleMeet, BlackSingles, BlackChristianPeopleMeet, ChristianMingle, JDate, and ChristianCafe.com) from the top five major niche dating categories made considerable gains. The biggest niche in terms of total traffic is casual dating, which consists of sites like Fling, AdultFriendFinder, and SexSearch. While the top 10 mainstream dating sites gained only 0.01% of total Internet traffic over the past year, the top three casual adult sites gained 0.07%. That's a hefty 56% increase in the traffic. (Authored by Mark Brooks)
FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Casual Dating Affiliate Payouts Top The Industry
OPW — Feb 15 — Does anyone know of any dating affiliate programs that pay out higher than casual dating sites? The super fast growing dating sites Fling and SexSearch are topping my research on payouts. SexSearch is paying out $90 and Fling $50 per paid sign up over Valentines. Adultfriendfinder is definitely feeling the heat on its tail from these two. I'm surprised how many dating sites don't have affiliate programs. Match, eHarmony, Perfectmatch and Yahoo! have good programs, but many top and second tier players have relatively small programs, if they have them at all. From the affiliate perspective adult dating sites just plain convert better, which would partly explain the rise in popularity of casual dating sites over the last few years. CJ, Linkshare, Azoogleads, Shareasale, Primary Ads, and Link Connector all drive significant amounts of traffic to dating sites. CJ seems to have the most offers. Email me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com for a copy of my spreadsheet listing all the dating offer payouts on the top affiliate networks. – Mark Brooks
Penthouse To Discuss Its Acquisition Of FriendFinder At iDate
MARKET WIRE — Jan 24 – Marc Bell, CEO & Owner of The Penthouse Media Group Inc., will discuss the acquisition of Various, which included the popular dating website FriendFinder, at the Internet Dating Conference taking place on January 31-February 1, 2008 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Based upon current registration figures, this event will be the largest gathering of online personals executives in history. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETWIRE
Mark Brooks: This sets a few precedents. #1 The very public acquisition of an adult dating company, #2 FriendFinder actually coming out and talking. Definitely a good thing. This will be one of the best attended sessions at iDate.
FriendFinder (Various) Acquired Seniors.com Domain
OPW — Dec 21 — Apparently Various recently bought seniors.com for $1.8m. It's now forwarding into
SeniorFriendFinder.com. – Mark Brooks