Category: Hot Stories

Spark Networks Acquires HurryDate

Posted on February 5, 2007

Hurrydate_logoPR NEWSWIRE — Feb 1 — Spark Networks acquired HurryDate, a leading online personals and singles events company. "Adding HurryDate to the Spark family is another step towards expanding our offline presence and solidifies our position as the only leading online personals provider to effectively 'marry' the online and offline dating worlds," stated Greg Liberman, Spark Networks' President and COO. "We are focused on smoothing the process of introduction by making it easier for singles to meet and get to know one another whether online or offline." HurryDate parties held 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: I helped Cupid buy PreDating.com in 2004. Now Spark has bought Hurrydate.  Who will buy 8 Minute Dating? The press are no longer covering speed dating and they are having a hard time driving traffic from PPC, CPM and CPA marketing because of all the competition from dating sites which generally convert better. Traffic is significantly down to both these services. Alexa shows them peaking in, and Quantcast shows them at a couple thousand uniques a week now. 

Spark Networks Acquires HurryDate

Posted on February 5, 2007

Hurrydate_logoPR NEWSWIRE — Feb 1 — Spark Networks acquired HurryDate, a leading online personals and singles events company. "Adding HurryDate to the Spark family is another step towards expanding our offline presence and solidifies our position as the only leading online personals provider to effectively 'marry' the online and offline dating worlds," stated Greg Liberman, Spark Networks' President and COO. "We are focused on smoothing the process of introduction by making it easier for singles to meet and get to know one another whether online or offline." HurryDate parties held 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada.

The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: I helped Cupid buy PreDating.com in 2004. Now Spark has bought Hurrydate.  Who will buy 8 Minute Dating? The press are no longer covering speed dating and they are having a hard time driving traffic from PPC, CPM and CPA marketing because of all the competition from dating sites which generally convert better. Traffic is significantly down to both these services. Alexa shows them peaking in, and Quantcast shows them at a couple thousand uniques a week now. 

OkCupid Raises $6 Million

Posted on January 12, 2007

Okcupidlogo_1GIGAOM — Jan 12 — OkCupid raised $6 million from a group of angels. Each time I talk to Yagan about his new company, he pulls out some variation on the same line: "Our goal is to reduce GDP by half a million dollars by completely eliminating the subscription online dating market." Yagan says he can run a successful dating site without making people pay, something PlentyofFish has also had success with. OkCupid currently has 600,000 active users (logged on within 90 days). Match.com has 1.3 million subscribers. PlentyofFish reports a quarter million users logging in per day. Yagan led SparkNotes and eDonkey before but, didn't take venture capital. He talked to twenty VC firms last year but went with collecting checks from five angels, whom he says he's not disclosing because we've never heard of them. FULL ARTICLE @ GIGAOM

 

OkCupid Raises $6 Million

Posted on January 12, 2007

Okcupidlogo_1GIGAOM — Jan 12 — OkCupid raised $6 million from a group of angels. Each time I talk to Yagan about his new company, he pulls out some variation on the same line: "Our goal is to reduce GDP by half a million dollars by completely eliminating the subscription online dating market." Yagan says he can run a successful dating site without making people pay, something PlentyofFish has also had success with. OkCupid currently has 600,000 active users (logged on within 90 days). Match.com has 1.3 million subscribers. PlentyofFish reports a quarter million users logging in per day. Yagan led SparkNotes and eDonkey before but, didn't take venture capital. He talked to twenty VC firms last year but went with collecting checks from five angels, whom he says he's not disclosing because we've never heard of them. FULL ARTICLE @ GIGAOM

 

Meetic Intends to Acquire DatingDirect

Posted on January 8, 2007

Meetic_logo_1REUTERS — Jan 8 — Meetic signed an agreement with a view to acquiring DatingDirect, UK's leading online dating service. Founded in 1999, DatingDirect has 4.5 million members (3.5 million in the UK), 70,000 paying members, 1.6 million uniques a month and £11 million annual revenue. Meetic has also signed an agreement for the acquisition, from the same shareholders, of Chemistry.co.uk which organizes UK singles events. Dating Direct has marketing partnerships with AOL, Channel4.com, HeartFM.co.uk, iVillage.co.uk, NTL and Tiscali. The acquisition of DatingDirect and Chemistry, for £27.3 million, will be carried out entirely in cash once the operation is finalised.

Meetic Intends to Acquire DatingDirect

Posted on January 8, 2007

Meetic_logo_1REUTERS — Jan 8 — Meetic signed an agreement with a view to acquiring DatingDirect, UK's leading online dating service. Founded in 1999, DatingDirect has 4.5 million members (3.5 million in the UK), 70,000 paying members, 1.6 million uniques a month and £11 million annual revenue. Meetic has also signed an agreement for the acquisition, from the same shareholders, of Chemistry.co.uk which organizes UK singles events. Dating Direct has marketing partnerships with AOL, Channel4.com, HeartFM.co.uk, iVillage.co.uk, NTL and Tiscali. The acquisition of DatingDirect and Chemistry, for £27.3 million, will be carried out entirely in cash once the operation is finalised.

Markus Nails One of America’s Most Wanted

Posted on November 21, 2006

Calvin_profile_1Homicide fugitive seeking online love arrested
REUTERS — Nov 20 — A fugitive, wanted for a double homicide in Arkansas, was arrested on the weekend in Wisconsin after he posted his name, picture and address on PlentyofFish.

Man sought in Arkansas double slaying captured in Wisconsin
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Nov 20 — Wisconsin authorities arrested Calvin A. Bennett, 26, on Sunday after a segment on the killings was aired Saturday night on the television show "America's Most Wanted." The television viewer's tip led police to PlentyofFish, run by Vancouver based CEO Markus Frind. A U.S. Marshal e-mailed him Saturday night. Within 10 minutes, Frind had gathered messages sent by Bennett to five women on the site ranging from "call me" to "I'd love to talk to you and get to know you," Frind said. From the messages, Frind could tell Bennett had moved into a home of a site user. He also found Bennett's cellular phone number. With that information, an Arkansas State Police investigator contacted Wisconsin authorities. About a dozen officers arrested Bennett as he tried to leave a home in Rothschild, Wis. Frind said he has removed Bennett from the dating Web site. But he cautioned that the arrest shouldn't dissuade people from attempting to find matches online. "I've made 112 million introductions since the site started," Frind said. "One in 8 million people get hit by lightning in the U.S."

Mark Brooks: Markus happened to stay in Saturday night and caught the email from the US Marshals and was able to quickly turn it around. What might have taken hours at some dating sites, took minutes…and the bad guy got nailed. Nice! Well done Markus. 

AOL Buys Userplane

Posted on August 17, 2006

Aol_1WASHINGTON POST — Aug 17 — Shortly after AOL announced a dramatically new business plan that included laying off a quarter of its workforce, the company went on a small buying spree, purchasing GameDaily.com, which provides information about video games, and instant messaging firm Userplane.  AOL is trying to find ways to keep customers coming back to its Internet community while parent company Time Warner seeks ways to expand its Internet empire. AOL is trying to cut costs as it transitions from an Internet service provider to a Web portal that provides free services and draws revenue from online advertising. It will cut 5,000 positions over the next six months. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

Mark Brooks: Userplane has a vast reach and has built great good will with myriad internet dating, social networking and online communities. That good will could translate into more deals and distribution opportunities for the new AOL.com.

Yahoo Hitches Indian Wedding

Posted on August 2, 2006

BharatlogoRED HERRING — Aug 2 — Yahoo and Canaan Partners have invested $8.6 million in Bharat Matrimony, a leading Indian personals site. Canaan led the round, which was the first outside funding for Bharat Matrimony, a nine-year-old company whose matrimonial service focuses on serious relationships rather than dating. This is Yahoo's first investment in India other than in its own development center in Bangalore. Bharat Matrimony claims to have facilitated more than 500,000 marriages, including that of CEO Murugavel Janakiraman. "We will use the funds for expansion as we target the Indian diaspora in the U.K. and Southeast Asian countries," said Mr. Janakiraman. It charges $10 to $15 per month for its services and provides 40 physical stores for customers without Internet access. It also runs jobs, real estate, autos, and general classifieds sites, and will put the new funding toward developing these verticals as well as opening hundreds of stores. In March, Sequoia Capital India, then called WestBridge Capital, invested $8 million in People Interactive, which runs a matrimony portal, Shaadi.com. As of Tuesday night, Yahoo India Matrimony was still syndicating personals from Shaadi.com, even though it's a close competitor of Bharat Matrimony.

Mark Brooks: I'm most interested to see how Bharat's roll out of more physical locations in India goes. Singles will pay more to get more services. Great Expectations, The Right One/Together Dating, Table for Six and It's Just Lunch lead the way in high end service oriented matchmaking/dating services for the masses. However, they still only reach a small portion of the potential market that online dating sites are captivating. Online services fall short for service. Singles don't want online dating. They just want to date suitable, potential suitors. A sizable portion of the online dating market want a little more handholding, more service, and will pay for it if it leads to more (good) dates. I don't think they will pay $3000+ a year, en masse. I do think they will pay $500-$1000 a year. That price base would support some phone based assistance and matchmaking. Let's see what happens this year, with Yahoo learning from Bharat.

Daily Mail Makes two Acquisitions to Expand Online

Posted on May 11, 2006

Loopylove_logo234x60_2REUTERS UK — May 8– UK publisher Daily Mail & General Trust added the dating sites LoopyLove and GirlsDateForFree (Allegran) to its growing online media empire. Two acquisitions worth up to 46.5 million pounds. Its Associated Newspapers division acquired Allegran and 62.5% of Data Media and Retail (Carsource.co.uk) with a three-year earnout with its management to acquire the remaining 37.5%. Daily Mail's initial payments totalled 32.5 million pounds.Like its peers in the struggling newspaper sector, Daily Mail has been aggressively investing in online properties.

Mark Brooks: Newspapers are suffering and playing catchup, by acquisition. This is good news for online personals site valuations.