Category: Match.com

Dubai Blocks iDating, But Lets People Discovery Sites Off The Hook

Posted on November 3, 2012

Dubai pictureOPW – Nov 3 – Irena and I
were in Dubai for a few days so we thought we'd see which dating sites
were blocked and which made it past government filtering. Specifically
any 'Internet Content that contradicts the ethics and morals of the UAE
including Nudity and Dating' get blocked. iDating doesn't fit the
religion and culture of UAE. Matrimonials sites, on the other hand, are
ok.

Match, Plentyoffish and OKCupid were blocked. I thought
World Singles Arablounge.com might make the cut, but no. It was
blocked. China dating sites Zhenai, Baihe and Jiayuan were all blocked
as well. We got through to Facebook and thought we'd have more luck
with people discovery services. Badoo was blocked but Tagged and Meetme
were ok. Matrimonials sites made the cut. Shaadi, Bharat Matrimony
and Jeevansathi were all available in Dubai. We were especially pleased
that Online Personals Watch and Social Networking Watch were available
as well. Of course, as soon as I fired up my VPN I could get to
everything. Dubai Internet City also enjoys open access and alternative
ISP Du is more lenient than Etisalat. [Full Disclosure: POF and Meetme
are clients of Courtland Brooks]

Match.com Partners With Stellar For Customer Care

Posted on November 1, 2012

Match.com logo dalsiCALLCENTRECLINIC – Nov 1 – Match.com has partnered with Stellar to provide customer care and billing inquiries & support. Stellar is a leading contact center and business process outsourcing provider. The partnership began on September 24, 2012.

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

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IAC Reports Q3 2012 Results

Posted on October 31, 2012

Iac logoPR NEWSWIRE – Oct 31 – IAC has reported its Q3 2012 financial results. Total revenues were $714.5M, up from $516.9M in Q3 2011. Match.com accounted for $178.2M of that revenue, up from $132.3M in Q3 2011. IAC has posted strong double digit growth in Revenue and Operating Income Before Amortization for 11 consecutive quarters. IAC completed its acquisition of The About Group on September 24, 2012 for $300M.

The full article was originally published at Yahoo Finance, but is no longer available.

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Researching Dates Online: Addition To Modern Dating

Posted on October 25, 2012

Match.com logo dalsiTIMES OF INDIA – Oct 25 – Match.com's annual LoveGeist report found that 62% of singles now research their dates online before they meet them. 71% of people 18-24 investigate their date prior to meeting. Search engines like Google are used by 30% of those contemplating a first date, while 20% check out a partner's Twitter account. Facebook is a major source of information with 71% of those suffering pre-date doubts while 36% use dating sites for the research.

See full article at Times of India

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Let’s Get Digital: An Oral History Of Online Dating

Posted on October 25, 2012

Cupid digitalBULLET – Fall 2012 –

JON BOEDE, CO-FOUNDER MATCHMAKER: In 1984, my friend and I were running [dating] bulletin boards. The Internet obliterated the bulletin board world. Boede converted the business to a website. Lycos bought for $44.5 million. By 2004 there wasn’t much left of it.

GARY KREMEN, FOUNDER MATCH: I started Match in ’93. I needed to get married. I wrote some software that matched people through email and attached profiles. Kremen partnered with VCs who sold Match.com to Cendant for $7m in 1998. Nine months later, Cendant sold it to IAC for ~$50m.

JONATHAN CRUTCHLEY, FOUNDER MANHUNT.NET: Jonathan was a successful Boston real estate investor. In 1992, he bought half of a popular gay telephone chat line that became Manhunt.net. Phone-line revenues peaked ~year 2000. We organized events at gay bars and advertised in gay newspapers in new York and Philadelphia.

ANDREW CONRU, FOUNDER FRIEND FINDER: In 1993 I started WebPersonals.com. It had ~150k members by the time I sold it in early ’95. Conru then focused on FriendFinder. People started uploading risqué photos. I put a link on the site: “If you’re looking for erotic relationships, click here” to a duplicate of the site, AdultFriendFinder. Conru sold for $500m in 2007.

MANDY GINSBERG, PRESIDENT MATCH: I don’t know how to prove it, but there’s been a shift. We started to see a lot more people who felt comfortable putting out personalized things, commenting on things, uploading their own pictures of things.

SAM YAGAN, CO-FOUNDER OKCUPID: We’re helping erode the stigma for the entire industry. I think it helps that we’re free, which makes it all seem less intentional.

MARKUS FRIND, FOUNDER PLENTYOFFISH: The reason for our success is that we actually helped people meet. Our mobile traffic was around 6% in the under-30 category. Now it’s sitting at 70%.

The future of online dating might very well be its own demise, a movement toward a place where the distinction between meeting in the real world and meeting online no longer exists.

by John Ortved
The full article was originally published at Bullet, but is no longer available.

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IAC Announces Management Changes At Its Match Segment

Posted on October 23, 2012

Iac logoPR NEWSWIRE – Oct 23 – Sam Yagan, co-founder and CEO of OkCupid, has been named CEO of Match, making him responsible for IAC's Match segment, which comprises all of IAC's online dating and related operations, domestically and internationally. Mandy Ginsberg, President of Match.com, has been named CEO of Match.com, with responsibility for the segment's "Core" businesses: Match.com U.S., Chemistry and People Media. Josh Meyers, CEO of People Media, will leave the segment to focus on new initiatives at IAC, specially DailyBurn.

The full article was originally published at Sacramento Bee, but is no longer available.

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A Match Made In Heaven

Posted on October 8, 2012

Greg blatt matchcom CEOmBARRON'S – Oct 7 – Greg Blatt, a deal-savvy CEO, is leading IAC/InterActiveCorp's transformation. IAC retains 23 operating businesses and more than 150 Web and media-related brands, all of which garner 5.91 billion page views per month. Blatt cut his teeth in mergers and acquisitions. In nearly two years as CEO, Blatt has completed nine deals of his own, costing $700M. The wheeling and dealing that defined IAC might well continue, although Blatt predicts that the company's two main businesses—online dating and Internet search—are here to stay. IAC dominates the former through Match.com and 30 other dating sites, and offers search services through Ask.com and dozens of apps. Combined, these businesses accounted for ~75% of the company's $2B in revenue in 2011. Half of Match.com subscribers sign on to the site with a mobile device. But there no longer is a Match.com iPhone app. IAC pulled it because Apple wanted 30% of Match.com revenue generated through an iPhone app, a proportion Blatt calls egregious compared with the 2% to 3% retailers pay to credit-card companies on the Internet. Match.com switched to an HTML5 application.

by Dyan Machan
See full article at Barron's

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Q&A With Peng T. Ong, Co-Founder Of Match.com

Posted on October 1, 2012

Match peng ongWSJ – Sep 28 - Investor and entrepreneur Peng
T. Ong is best known as the designer and co-founder of Match.com. Today,
he is the chairman of Infocomm Investments, a $200M fund in Singapore, a
venture partner with GSR Ventures, and works with select start-ups as
an angel investor and adviser.

Q: You invest in Coffee Meets Bagel – in China and the U.S. Do you approach deals differently in these two regions?
A:
I think the similarities far outweigh the differences. The differences
are cultura. A lot of what I invest in is local, meaning teams that are
doing business where they are also savvy about the culture and the
market.

Q: What does the Chinese start-up scene need most today?
A: The availability of experience is missing in China still.China is way behind. Specifically, Beijing is 20 years behind.

Q: What top three trends are changing the way start-ups can succeed?
A:
When we did Match.com there was not any kind of stack for us to build
on top of, no Java. Now you could put that together in a week, probably.
Also the world has been opening up in terms of financial impact. The
last big trend is global talent.

Q: Does government regulation play a big role in the investment decisions you make?
A: It’s
not the main thing we worry about. But it’s not insignificant. In
China, if a company is creating a lot of user-generated content that’s
targeted at a large audience, then we pay a lot more attention because
regulation is more sensitive here than in the U.S.

Q: Has nonequity crowdfunding taken off in China?
A: In China, I have not seen a company doing what Kickstarter and IndieGogo are doing in the U.S. yet.

Q: What do American start-ups need to do to win in the Chinese market?
A: You will need to have a localization team.

Q: Why do you like investing?
A: I
really like destruction. Every time a new platform breaks through,
everything stops and changes. The most recent one is mobile, that’s
getting very obvious to everyone.

by Lora Kolodny
See full article at WSJ

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Match.com Partners With ITV For Dating Show Girlfri3nds

Posted on September 26, 2012

Match.com logo dalsiTHE DRUM – Sep 25 – match.com will be the partner for new ITV2 show Girlfri3nds, which follows three women as they search for love. The deal includes broadcast and online sponsorship of the show by match.com, as well as digital and social media activity. Hosted by Emma Willis, the show will begin with an audition with a hundred men from all over the country ‘pitching’ themselves to the three women. During each episode match.com’s resident relationship expert, Kate Taylor, will be tweeting dating advice.

See full article at The Drum

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How Smartphones Are The New Wingman

Posted on September 24, 2012

CNN – Sep 23 – Online dating used to be largely a deskbound activity. But in recent years, mobile apps like Blendr have employed constant Internet access and location-based services to turn the smartphone into a wingman of sorts. Today's mobile location apps connect singles based on the proximity. Grindr has been a global success, with 1.1M daily active users in 192 countries. OkCupid also made its own location-aware app last year called OkCupid Local. Match.com and eHarmony have also gone mobile, but their apps are still more like window shopping. Location data isn't required to make the smartphone useful for meeting people. Smartphone owners can use Bump, a mobile app that lets you exchange contact information easily by bumping two phones together. Bump was an early hit in the iPhone app store and has been downloaded ~100M times.

by Heather Kelly
See full article at CNN

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