REUTERS – May 15 – It’s Just Lunch International, a matchmaking service, will face a nationwide class-action lawsuit by clients who claimed they were defrauded into paying $1K+ for the services the company did not deliver. Tens of thousands of clients can now seek to collectively try to recoup fees and recover damages.
by Jonathan Stempel
See full article at Trust.org
DIGITAL TRENDS – Aug 10 – Facebook's Graph Search feature has recently been making waves in the online dating industry for its ability to return a list of users that fit the bill (romantically), and more matchmakers are experimenting with it to provide their clients with matches. Matchmakers mainly used social media to let people know their services exist and are reputable. “We use Facebook and Twitter to promote events and build awareness about our company, but not until Graph Search did we use it to reach out to people for dates.” exclaims Anni Powers, COO and Executive Matchmaker for Northern California of The Real Matchmaker. We do not use Graph Search to find matches for our clients as we only match our clients with other It’s Just Lunch users,” says Irene LaCota, Spokesperson for It’s Just Lunch International. This protocol may be due to the results of their survey where 54% users say that they never interact with a love interest on social media, 44% prefer to keep their personal relationships out of cyberspace, and 34% wait for their date to friend them on Facebook before initiating online contact.
SUN SENTINEL – July 22 – Matchmaking service It's Just Lunch agreed to pay $1M to settle allegations of sex discrimination against men who wanted to be dating counselors for the company. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission also reached a settlement on behalf of Lynda Twist, the dating service's former human resources director. The EEOC alleged Just Lunch retaliated against Twist for opposing the service's hiring practices. For the next three years, It's Just Lunch will be required to train managers and report to the federal government its compliance with anti-discrimination laws and to track job applicants and whether they are hired or not and why.
LA TIMES – Feb 14 – "Matchmaking should have been dead by now," said Mark Brooks of Online Personals Watch, a site that's been tracking Internet dating since 2004. Instead, the opposite has happened, he said. Matchmakers not only have survived but are thriving, having been aided and legitimized by the entity that was supposed to have killed them off — the Internet. Like social networking, which had many dating industry experts inaccurately predicting the demise of paid Internet dating sites, Internet dating hasn't killed matchmaking, but fed it. In fact, the three go hand in hand, leading relationship-minded singles to ever higher levels of paid service. Though social networking sites such as Facebook may bring people together and do it for free, there's no guarantee that those brought-together people are available and looking for a relationship. Matchmakers charge $1,000 to $100,000, depending on the exclusivity of the service, the number of matches and how willing they are to go the extra mile.
"You're the therapist, the mother, the best friend, the sister, the nonsexual girlfriend. You have to be everything," said Patti Stanger, star of the TV series "The Millionaire Matchmaker" and proprietor of the L.A.-based Millionaire's Club matchmaking service. Stanger charges men $25k+ a year and female "millionairesses" $55k for 28 months of unlimited introductions. (She finds her female clients take longer to match.)' "
Increasingly, Internet dating is bringing in a matchmaking component. Match's Daily 5 delivers "five matches based on our prediction of which two people would most want to engage in a conversation together," said Match CEO Greg Blatt. Another matchmaking feature called Singled Out, is for "when we have a match with a stronger likelihood of connecting and want to highlight that to our users," Blatt said. "A lot of people put their relationships on the wrong course because they select the wrong people," said Gian Gonzaga, senior director of R&Dfor eHarmony. "A lot of the things that are powerful forces for initial attraction are different from what makes a relationship successful."
"Women are very attracted to the [matchmaking] concept because it's private. They can't be browsed," said Julie Ferman, founder of Cupid's Coach in Westlake Village, a matchmaking service that charges $2,500 to $25,000 annually for an average of 2.2 introductions per month and takes both women and men as paying clients. Matchmaking is strongest among thirty-, forty- and fiftysomethings, according to Ferman. Her average client splits the difference at a median age of 46 and makes at least $50,000. There's thousands of singles using hundreds of matchmakers — eLove, It's Just Lunch, the Millionaire's Club.
It's worth dropping $5k to $10k on a matchmaker if you've got the cash and are looking for a serious relationship, but online sites that charge or have extensive questionnaires can also be a good option, Brooks said. Nonetheless, matchmakers may not have many prospective dates for men in their 20s or women in their 60s, he added.
"The Internet dating services are flawed because they lack service — they have great price, great choice, but not a lot of service," Brooks said. "The matchmaker services are severely flawed because they lack choice."
FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
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PRESS RELEASE — Sep 14 –'It's Just Lunch' and American Way in flight magazine reveal that when it comes to dating, there's little time to make a good impression. On a first date, 66% of daters will decide in a half hour whether they will see the other person again. 16% make the decision in the first five minutes, and 5% know immediately. Particularly speedy was the 21-39 year old sub-set of survey-takers, 20% of whom need only 5 minutes. The 40-49 year olds are slightly more patient, with 33% allowing their dates more than one hour.
The full article was originally published at Reuters, but is no longer available.
EXPRESS NEWS — Aug 10 – Wayne Greene had joined It's Just Lunch before he was laid off from his job. At first, he stopped going on dates because of the expense. Then he figured: "What the heck. If somebody's willing to go out with me when I'm unemployed, maybe I did find the right person." It's Just Lunch ($1,800 for a year-long membership) has experienced more than 16% growth in membership over the past 6 months. Tanis Carpenter paid up front for 60 dates at Together Dating, a national matchmaking service. She declined to specify the cost, but said it was in the thousands of dollars. She met Adam Carpenter on her 2nd date. They married June 28. Together Dating was a bit pricey for Adam but he signed up because he saw the money as an investment.
The full article was originally published at SA Life, but is no longer available.
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COURIER POST ONLINE — May 26 — There are about 93m single people in the U.S, according to the U.S. Census Bureau but only three million use online dating services. And then there are countless others who turn to professional matchmaking companies. The Right One prides itself on an effective approach that results in a match nationally every 17 minutes and a wedding per day. It’s Just Lunch International, doesn’t release statistics but the company’s president, Irene LaCota, points to its continued expansion in and outside the country as solid proof that its program for the last 18 years indeed works. Both companies agree that the majority of their clients are in their 30s, 40s and 50s, and come from all walks of life. The Right One declined to disclose pricing of its packages, and It’s Just Lunch International said its lowest-tier package starts at $1,000. There are many singles that avoid online dating services because they don’t want to sacrifice their privacy.
The full article was originally published at Courier Post Online, but is no longer available.
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE — Feb 9 – "When the Dow is down, dating and love are up," said Barbie Adler, president of Selective Search, a matchmaking service based in Chicago. Selective Search charges $15,000 fee for a full year of service. The personal touch is also fueling growth for It's Just Lunch, a matchmaking service launched in Chicago seventeen years ago with offices in 100 locations. Members pay $1,800 a year to be matched for lunch, drinks or brunch. Chicago sales climbed 8% in 2008, and January was up 4% from the prior year.
The full article was originally published at Chicago Tribune, but is no longer available.
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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.
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CANWEST — Aug 16 — A growing number of Canadians are willing to pay for services such as online dating, speed dating, singles groups and matchmakers. Kim Hughes, editor-in-chief of Lavalife, says there are two key reasons that people pay to date: efficiency and customized searches. It's Just Lunch is a matchmaking service that works with upscale restaurant partners and charges $1,995 for one-year membership. Meet Market Adventures is a more casual singles service. It is a "pay-as-you-play" model with no membership fee, but individual fees are charged for each event. Meet Market organizes approximately 35 to 45 events every month. Justin Parfitt was single and looking to improve on existing speed-dating models when he founded his company, FastLife, in Australia in 2003. FastLife is now based in Toronto and has expanded into Canada, the U.S., New Zealand, the U.K. and China. The price of a standard event is $79 and includes an open bar.
The full article was originally published at The Windsor Star, but is no longer available.
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