REDNOVA — Apr 27 — Lock and Key Events turn an evening at a bar into an icebreaker. All of the men get keys, the women locks, on a chain to be worn around the wrist or neck. People search for the key and lock that fit together – and when they find a match, they get a raffle ticket for a drawing as well as a new lock or key to continue the game. Christan Marashio, owner of LockandKeyParties.com, got involved after working for a speed dating company. With "Click at a Flick" for the price of a movie ticket, singles get to mingle and enjoy free martinis from Svedka for an hour and a half before the movie begins. Presented by Loews Cineplex and Lavalife. Chris Gonsalves knew he had found a need in the Boston area when 42 people showed up to his first planning meeting for a singles club. Known as funfunfun.org, the club has grown in seven years to reach 80 towns and has about 500 members, from the 20s on up. Members plan activities, from game nights to ski weekends to hikes. You don't have to be single to join the Boston Young Professionals Association, but it does provide some singles events along with its other activities. The association boasts more than 9,000 members, all ages 21-40, who choose from three to five events per week.
Category: Lavalife
Willing to Buy a Little Help in Finding Love
TORONTO STAR — Feb 19 — It’s Just Lunch is a growing operation with annual revenue of more than $30 million, 70-odd franchises, and plans to expand all over the world. Websites like match.com and lavalife are reportedly runaway successes and business darlings. Tory Howat started Equal Chemistry in 2004 after deciding to turn her knack of knowing who would love whom into a business. The focus of her business is fitness: those people who are serious about sport and training (therefore have something in common right away). FULL ARTICLE @ THE STAR
Mark Brooks: Many predicted the demis of traditional dating services with the rise of online personals. Both seem to be faring well.
Picky Suitors Narrow Search to Niche Sites
SAN FRANCISO CHRONICLE — Feb 14 — Would-be entrepreneurs are opening niche sites because it would be virtually impossible at this point for them to compete head-on with established sites like Match.com or Lavalife. A dating site for everyone. http://www.datingforsmokers.com, http://www.veggiedate.com, http://www.singleparentmeet.com, cfpersonals.com (Childfree Personals), http://www.datemypet.com, http://www.paganconnection.com, http://www.disability-dating.com, http://www.datealittle.com  FULL ARTICLE @ SFGATE
Online Personals Sites Customer Experience Ranking
BUSINESS WIRE — Feb 14 — Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and True.com provided the best search functionality and dating information, earning the highest customer experience rankings. Yahoo! Personals, AmericanSingles and eHarmony ranked highest among prospective customers. The Keynote Customer Experience Rankings are based on research with 2,000 customers and 2,000 prospective customers using American Singles, Black Planet, eHarmony, Friend Finder, Friendster, Lavalife, Match.com, PerfectMatch, Tickle, True and Yahoo! Personals. "Consumer satisfaction with online dating sites is considerably lower than satisfaction levels seen with other online services. However, these diminished satisfaction levels are driven primarily by the personal expectations of the customer and their interaction with other members," said Dr. Bonny Brown. The best sites were well organized and easy to use. Poorer sites were cluttered with ads or heavy text. 83% of start at a search engine. A clear advantage for Yahoo! Personals; 40% started at Yahoo. eHarmony was the most common destination for Google searchers. 50% of customers expressed interest in personality tests, 50% in physical attraction testing. 45% interested in background checks. 30% of online dating service customers in the study were married or living with a significant other/partner! Tickle is considered the "fun" site; 73% described the site that way. Yahoo! Personals is considered the "friendly" site (76%), and True is the "safe" site (69%).
Mark Brooks: How did Keynote end up with a sample set containing 30% non-singles?
Mobile Dating Services Through Sprint
RED NOVA — Feb 7 — Sprint is offering its customers access to mobile dating services. Two mobile dating services are available today to Sprint customers with select Sprint PCS Vision(SM) handsets: SMS.ac and Match.com Mobile. Three services are offered with SMS.ac: Flirt – search profiles for 25c per text. Clubs – join mobile communities to chat on any topic, 25c per message received. Channels – receive the news, horoscopes and more for $.25 per text message. With Match.com Mobile, powered by Enpocket's Eden dating engine, users can sign up, explore and find matches for free. When users decide to communicate with their matches, they will be asked to subscribe for only $4.99 a month. Coming soon, Sprint will offer access to dating services from Lavalife.
The full article was originally published at Red Nova, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Check out the upcoming mobile/wireless dating conference in San Francisco July 19-20.
Internet Dating Advice
THIRD AGE — Jan 27 — In 1727, Helen Morrison, a lonely spinster in Manchester, England, placed the first lonely hearts personal, advertising for a husband in the local weekly newspaper. In response, the town mayor committed her to a lunatic asylum for a month. Internet dating is here to stay, and it's only going to grow. Just like bars or clubs, different sites tend to attract different types of people, but that isn't often obvious until you've read a number of profiles. Make sure your profile serves you well. Be honest when creating your own profile, and keep your radar up when reading others'.
The full article was originally published at Third Age, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Dr Andrew Conru created one of the earliest online personals ads in 1994 when he added his post to webpersonals.com, which he later sold to a company that was eventually rolled in to what is now Lavalife. He then went on to create the FriendFinder sites in 1996.
Lavalife Announces Partnership With Canada’s Leading Portal
NEWSWIRE — Jan 13 — Lavalife today announced a five-year exclusive integrated personals partnership with Sympatico.MSN.ca. The new partnership gives singles the opportunity to access Lavalife content and services across all Sympatico.MSN.ca properties, including its portal, MSN Hotmail and MSN Messenger providing Lavalife with access to more than 85% of all Canadian Internet users.
Lavalife Australia Helps Singles Click
SYDNEY, CNW-AsiaNet — Dec 8 — Lavalife today announced the launch of Lavalife Australia (www.lavalife.com.au), offering users access to more than 100,000 local members. With Lavalife's new web experience designed specifically for use by Australians and New Zealanders, singles can effortlessly connect with singles in their own region – without having to click through multiple pages first.
The full article was originally published at Yahoo News, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Singles want to meet local singles, easily. We'll see more international and 'local' expansion from the online dating industry leaders over the next year. It's the next logical step.
Lavalife Mobile; Color, Picture Wireless Dating
NEW YORK and TORONTO, Aug. 23 /CNW/ – The newly enhanced full color, graphic premium WAP(x) version of Lavalife Mobile allows members to seek out and exchange messages with other active singles wherever, whenever, conveniently using their mobile phone… "We are excited to build on the success of Lavalife Mobile, by offering an enhanced color, picture version of the service," said Lavalife CEO Bruce Croxon… $4.99 a month subscription service.
MemberWorks Reports 2004 Q4 Results; Including Lavalife
STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 28, 2004–MemberWorks Incorporated (Nasdaq: MBRS – News) …reported revenues of $133.2 million, compared to $119.2 million reported in the fiscal 2003 fourth quarter. The fourth quarter 2004 revenues were positively impacted by our acquisition of Lavalife which reported revenues of $17.7 million for the fiscal 2004 fourth quarter.