PR NEWSWIRE — May 16 — The new BlackSingles launches with over 250,000 active members and enhanced searching capabilities. Spark Networks operates ~25 online personals communities focused on religious, ethnic or special interest groups – JDate, AmericanSingles, Relationships, PrimeSingles.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
PR NEWSWIRE — May 10 — JDate, the leading online community for Jewish singles, took the top prize in the 10th Annual Webby Award competition for outstanding social/networking site, beating out MySpace.com, Bebo, Flickr and Xfire.
Mark Brooks: Can someone pleeeaase explain this to me.
SPARK NETWORKS NEWSROOM — Apr 27 — JDate revenue and average paying subscribers increased 8% and 13%. During Q1, Spark redesigned and rebranded its Christian community (ChristianMingle.com) as Relationships.com, already the most-visited Christian community. Revenue for Q1 2006 was $16.8 million, up 2% on Q1 2005. Spark has reduced spending for AmericanSingles in order to lower customer acquisition costs. Net income was $710,000. EBITDAS profit of $3.4 million, the best to date, up 10%. Direct subscriber acquisition costs for JDate was $13.20, up 47%, and $35.19 for AmericanSingles, up 37%.
The full article was originally published at Spark Networks website, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: One can argue that niche dating sites could be quashed by the big dating sites improving their search capability (e.g. reverse search). However, that argument doesn't take into account the power of a niche dating brand; the attraction of a focused site geared towards a particular demographic, interest, fetish, etc. E.g. Jdate (Jewish), Webdate (first date on a webcam), ChristianCafe.com (Christians), DateMyPet (Pet Lovers), Sexsearch (Sex Lovers?). All are powerful brands, worlds apart. Specific interest dating sites will endure and enjoy especially good word-of-mouth marketing efficiencies, if they do a good job. Spark (American Singles) has recognised, 'if you can beat 'em, might as well join 'em,' and is shifting it's attention to it's niche dating sites.
PARAMUS POST — Apr 8 — Cacus, a 23-year-old college student, is a geek. She turned to gk2gk.com (geek to geek), a Web site that encourages members to list their favorite board games and rate how important "Star Trek" is in their lives. Niche dating sites; datealittle.com (for little people), datingforsmokers.com, starmatch.com (astrology), veggie-romance.com & veggieconnection.com & happycow.net & veggiedate.org, goodgenes.com & rightstuffdating.com (snobs), philanderers.com (cheating bastards), sportsfanmatch.com & athleticwomen.com, spiritsingles.com, maydecember.net (for those who prefer someone much older or younger). Jdate.com, with some 300,000 single Jewish members in the US, and Gay.com, with several million members, are among the largest niche sites. In the BBW (Big, Beautiful Women) category; greatbigdates.com, BBWdatefinder.com, plussizepersonals.com, BBWpersonalsplus.com, largeandlovely.com, overweightdate.com. FULL ARTICLE @ PARAMUS POST
SPARK NETWORKS NEWSROOM — Feb 16 — "2005 was a turnaround year in which we made significant strides towards right-sizing our cost structure and generating cash flow from operations," stated David Siminoff, Spark Networks CEO. "We begin 2006 newly listed on the American Stock Exchange. We are energized by recent technology improvements and are poised for balanced growth with significant operating leverage." "Our next level of growth will come from leveraging the communities we acquired in the MingleMatch acquisition in order to move quickly into new vertical markets…"
Record results for JDate. Revenue grew 9%, to $26 million. Other Businesses segment grew by 72%, partially driven by the purchase of MingleMatch in Q2. Q4 revenue was $16.6 million, down 3%. 2005 revenue was $65.5 million, up 1%. Q4 net loss was $403,000, compared to a net loss of $1.6 million. 2005 net loss was $1.4 million, compared to a net loss of $11.6 million for 2004. The net loss for 2005 includes compensation expense related to share options of $2.7 million. EBITDAS (EBITDA adjusted to remove share compensation expense) for Q4 was $2.0 million, compared to $7,000 for Q4 2004. EBITDAS for 2005 was $6.0 million, compared to an EBITDAS loss of $6.0 million in 2004.
Q4 2005 revenue for AmericanSingles was $6.7 million, down 22%. 2005 revenue was $29.2 million, down 17%. Jdate average paying subscribers was 73,700, during Q4, up 8%. AmericanSingles average paying subscribers in Q4 was 91,900, down 29%. Q4 average paying subscribers for Other Businesses
was 58,600, up 88%. Total Q4 average paying subscribers for Q4 was 224,200, down 2%.
Direct subscriber acquisition costs for JDate in Q4 was $12.25, up 15%. For 2005 it was $12.70, up 57%. "…the marketing mix has shifted from a primarily online, direct marketing effort to one that now includes a wide mix of offline initiatives…" stated Siminoff. Subscriber acquisitoin costs for AmericanSingles in Q4 was $36.66, compared to $36.52 for Q4 2004. For 2005 it was $35.16, down 19%, compared to $43.29, for 2004. And for Other Businesses in Q4 it was $29.73.
The full article was originally published at Spark Networks website, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Spark is focusing more on it's niche businesses and Minglematch sites. They are admirers of Friendfinder's business model.
NY PRESS — Jan 18 — JDate is a Jewish dating service but does not exclude gentiles. A surprising number of its purported 300,000 members aren't of the tribe. In particular, many goyishe women seem to join with the hopes of bagging a successful doctor or lawyer. Some disenchanted JDate members have complained to me that the site seems to draw an especially mercenary female crowd. Appledates.com: A new site that's attractive, well-designed and singular, run by an employee of the New York Press. That said, it offers something that no other internet dating site offers: It asks members to pick events from local lists that they wish to attend. At present, though, it has few members.
The full article was originally published at NY Press, but is no longer available.
Jan 17 — I'm reviewing annual reports and noticed Spark Networks now has a lot of niche sites under it's wing after acquiring Minglematch. 3 month Alexa ranks are in brackets. AdventistSinglesConnection.com (59k), AmericanSingles.com (767), AsianSinglesConnection.com (174k), BBWPersonalsPlus.com (37k), BlackSinglesConnection.com (14k), CanadianPersonals.net (163k), CatholicMingle.com (54k), ChristianMingle.com (5k), CollegeLuv.com (83k), Cupid.co.il (4k), Date.ca (9k), Date.co.uk (46k) DeafSinglesConnection.com (86k), FaceLink.com <discontinued> (109k), Glimpse.com (41k), GreekSinglesConnection.com (55k), IndianMatrimonialNetwork.com (160k), InterRacialSingles.net (43k), IranianSinglesConnection.com (298k), ItalianSinglesConnection.com (132k), JDate.co.il (3k), JewishMingle.com (27k), LatinSinglesConnection.com (37k), LDSMingle.com (12k), MilitarySinglesConnection.com (145k), MuslimMatrimonialsNetwork.com (18k), PrimeSingles.net (186k), SilverSingles.com <forwards into American Singles> (767), SingleParentsMingle.com (5k), UKSinglesConnection.com (256k)
Mark Brooks: Why did Spark kill off Silver Singles I wonder? (It's 'powered by' American Singles now). Seniorfriendfinder.com (9k) is now the 50+ category leader.
PR NEWSWIRE — Dec 1 — Joe Shapira, one of Spark Networks founders and executive chairman of the Board of Directors, has decided to resign. Mr. Shapira will continue to be a director and serve as Chairman of the company's Board of Directors. Mr. Shapira launched JDate from his home in 1997. He plans to spend his time developing other business ventures.
PR Newswire — Dec 1 — JDate announced that it will host JSoiree, a six city event expected to draw over 2,000 Jewish singles to some of the nation's coolest clubs. Atlantic City: House of Blues, Chicago: House of Blues, Las Vegas: House of Blues, Miami: Shine, New York: Duvet, San Diego: House of Blues
Mark Brooks: What did you do on the weekend…I went to an awesome party hosted by Jdate. People love to talk about these kinds of parties, which is great if it was a great party, and bad news if it was a bad party…or even mediocre. The trick is to run really, really good parties. Then it becomes worthwhile…but tough to track the ROI. Parties are a lot of work.
JTA Global News Service — Nov 29 — For all the nice Jewish boys looking for other nice Jewish boys – and nice Jewish lesbians looking for love – JDate.com has come to the rescue. The popular Jewish online dating site expanded its search capabilities this month to allow gay men and lesbians to seek matches. Gail Laguna, VP Communications, said the Web site's revision came at the request of many Jewish singles. In less than a month, 700 members have registered for same-sex searches.
Mark Brooks: Will be interesting to see which Christian focused site will follow suit? Bigchurch.com?? perhaps? Christian Mingle would be most likely as they are now owned by Spark Networks, parent of JDate. I can't see ChristianCafe.com going gay.