Category: Match.com

Match.com to Use Anonymous Voice Chat

Posted on November 1, 2006

Matchcom_18_6CDT — Oct 31 — Online dating services may be convenient, but they're not the most personable way to meet a potential mate. What's been lacking, Match CEO Jim Safka believes, is a way for would-be couples to hear each other talk. Free for basic subscribers beginning Thursday, matchTalk will let users go online and signal if they're interested in speaking to each other anonymously, and securely, over their telephones. The system uses new computer-based phone technology that allows each person to call in to a central conference call of sorts, Safka said. The matchTalk system assigns the couple a unique number that they can use to talk to each other without fear of giving away their real telephone number or other personal details. Safka said such features are important to the future growth of Internet dating services. "Voice is really critical in determining whether you have chemistry with someone."

Mark Brooks: We'll see more online dating sites add voice connection services soon.  I'm working with Vumber.com on a service designed for internet dating sites to offer voice connections and anonymous calling.  A super simple, and higher converting service. Past services have been too complicated. I'm adding MatchTalk to my (CEO's eyes only) 45 point review of 17 other competing services (Grand Central, Jangl, Jajah, Useplane) right now.  The most amusing service I came across recently was Getmooh.com.

Strategy Analysis – Match.com Turns Dating Into ‘Live’ ad

Posted on October 23, 2006

Matchcom_18_5DIGITAL BULLETIN — Oct 20 — One male and one female Match (UK) member had the chance to find love through Match.com, and appear live on peaktime TV. Ads were shot immediately before transmission, in front of a live studio audience, and then transmitted as live ads. The first saw the host introduce the lucky winners, the second gave the winning man the opportunity to sell himself, and the third saw the winning woman's turn. Before the TV activity, contestants uploaded videos to a special "Live Love" Match.com microsite, comprising a 30-second pitch describing why they shouldn't be single. Other Match.com users then judged the entries, with two winners going forward to the final TV stage. More TV activity surrounded the event itself, including ten-second promo TV ads. After the "climax" live ads, the winners were interviewed on regional ITV, and their dating progress tracked on the live ad website. RESULTS: PR coverage featured in The Sun, the Daily Star and The Express. The day after the live ads aired was the highest month forsubscriptions in Match.com's (UK) history, 3.5% higher than the best-performing month for the year. The success was due to the combination of PR, search and the MSN partnership.

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

Top Five Wired Nations

Posted on October 12, 2006

Nations IMB — Oct 11 — SINGAPORE, 3.54 million people, 60% internet users, DENMARK, 5.4 million people, 69% internet users, CANADA, 32.5 million people, 64% internet users, USA, 296 millione people, 67.8% internet users, SWEDEN, 9.04 million people, 74% internet users. FULL ARTICLE @ IMB

Mark Brooks: Last year I was contacted by a group that were interested in promoting internet dating as part of a government program to get people hooking up (and mating, and making babies). Singapore's population has a population problem in that people are having fewer kids. PlentyofFish is doing well in Canada. Match and Yahoo Personals still lead the way in the USA market. Match has done well in Sweden lately, so I'm told. Parship and Meetic also have presences there.  Now, who has the rankings for internet dating companies in Scandinavia?  I'd like to list them on OPW?

Lavalife Launches Magazine

Posted on October 3, 2006

Lavalife_3CNW — Oct 2 — Lavalife Magazine charts dating, relationships, sex, life and style among urban singles, featuring regular lifestyle stories, advice columns, pop culture digressions and opinion pieces infused with humor and common sense. Editor, Kim Hughes is a widely published writer and editor whose work has appeared in NOW, The Globe & Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Report On Business, Salon, Amazon.com and Billboard. Features include "A History of Sex Toys," "Dating after the Death of a Partner" and "How to Avoid Dating a Jerk."

Mark Brooks: Adding compelling content to your dating site is a good move. Their are two methods.  1. Pay writers, 2. Encourage users to write. Match and Lavalife have gone with option 1.  FriendFinder and PlentyofFish have gone with option 2 in the form of a user contributed magazine where readers vote up the good articles, and in the case of PlentyofFish, user forums. 

Comscore’s Canadian Internet Dating Rankings

Posted on September 28, 2006

Comscore_3 OPW — Sep 28 — The Canadian internet dating rankings are now in. Both Lavalife and PlentyofFish edge out further against their competition. Canoe ReseauContact and Mate1 move one spot to #3 and #4 as Spark reduces it's traffic and relegates to the #5 spot.  NETCLUB.FR and Yahoo Personals move up one spot in a similar fashion. LoveHappens reduces it's traffic and relegates itself down from #6 to #9. Match grows a little stronger and moves up into 10th spot. 

OPW Experiment – Changing Credit Cards

Posted on September 21, 2006

CreditcardOPW — Sep 21 — I signed up for eHarmony, Sexsearch, TRUE, Yahoo Personals, American Singles and Match in November 2005. I ran an experiment starting in July 2006. What would happen if I cancelled the card instead of cancelling with the service? Would they cancel the service automatically, email me for my new card number, or transfer the charges to the new card. Here's the results three months later.

American Singles – cancelled, no more charges
eHarmony – cancelled, no more charges
Match – cancelled, no more charges
Sexsearch – cancelled, no more charges
TRUE – cancelled, no more charges
Yahoo Personals – carried on charging the new card
(Yahoo also continued charging for Overture. Google Adwords cancelled out)

I called in to Yahoo Personals to see how lenient their refund policy was. They cancelled the membership but were rigid on their refund policy, despite the card number change. August and September charges were not refunded. Interesting. So, how lenient should your membership refund policy be?

Membership to my little Silicon Valley social club, Ace Club, is $19.95 a month with a 90 day no quibble money back guarantee. 1 in 200 takes me up on refund within the 90 day period. Short refund policies and long refund policies work best. So, 3 to 7 day trials and 90 day money back guarantees. The people who request refunds within the 90 day period should provide you with good feedback/service improvement information for your service. If they're not happy, you need to know why. A 90 day money back guarantee will open up that feedback channel. Listen intently. The keys to the future profitability of your internet dating service are within that feedback. 

I've heard some internet dating services have considered going free. No need. Just try a 90 day refund policy. Your conversion numbers will be favorable. Your long term return rates will be favorable. Just find a way to track them. See what happens 😉 Your comments please.  – Mark Brooks

Who Wears The Pants?

Posted on September 19, 2006

Matchcom_18_4PR NEWSWIRE — Sep 18 — In anticipation of National Singles Week (September 18-24), Match.com conducted a new survey of 1,500 single Americans.  86% of both men and women say they would rather have equality than wear the pants in their relationship. 76% of women and 71% of men are looking for someone of equal intelligence. ~60% of men and 40% of women say income doesn’t matter when looking for love. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS.CON

Online Personals Newspaper Partnerships

Posted on September 9, 2006

Graph_1RATE OR DATE — Sep 6 — Take a look at this Alexa graph of two sites going in different directions, plentyoffish.com vs. americansingles.com.

Unlike many industries, where market share is a costly trophy for top executives, here, share and momentum are about survival. In a recent report by Kelsey (Newspapers Should Bolster Online Alliances) senior analyst Michael Boland says, "Partnering with online players to etch out a strategy is something that we've seen work, and we  recommend that partnering with an online player is a good move." The report goes on to state that newspapers need to re-think their emphasis on offline conversions, when new technologies offer more potential for online conversions.  Here's a list of U.S.newspapers.
 

Dating Site/Network Paper Partners,
Weighted Total
eharmony.com 18.33
perfectmatch.com 14
people2people.com 13.5
fastcupid.com 7
match.com 4
americansingles.com 3.33
relationshipexchange.com 2
ahsventures.com 2
yahoopersonals.com 1
relationshipnetwork.com 1
heart2heartnetwork.com 1
900 number 1
jdate.com 0.33
n/a 31.5
SUM 100

 

Dating Site/Network Top 3 Partners,
by circulation
eharmony.com usatoday.com
latimes.com
chicgaotribune.com
people2people.com washingtonpost.com
stltoday.com
tampabay.com
perfectmatch.com philly.com
miami.com
kansascity.com
fastcupid.com sfgate.com
seattletimes.com
signonsandiego.com
match.com dallasnews.com
pe.com
fresnobee.com
americansingles.com latimes.com
chicgaotribune.com
newsday.com
relationshipexchange.com denverpost.com
buffalonews.com
ahsventures.com chron.com
mysanantonio.com
900 number nytimes.com
yahoopersonals.com boston.com
relationshipnetwork.com mcall.com
heart2heartnetwork.com jacksonville.com
jdate.com sun-sentinal.com

Almost 1/3 of newspapers have no online-personals partner. Partnerships at the parent-company-level were not as coherent as one might expect. Only Gannett stands out for their unwavering faithfulness to eHarmony, a partnership that spans over a dozen papers in the Top 100 list. Compare that to The McClatchy Company, who is primary linked with PerfectMatch, but whose portfolio companies also appear to include one-off deals with eharmony.com, match.com and americansingles.com. But at least those companies are in the game, which is more than one can say for Advance Publication. Despite having four papers in the U.S. Top 100 list (cleveland.com, nj.com, mlive.com, al.com), no online-dating partners could be found on any of their sites.

Best Integration – Boston.com / Yahoo! Personals – Yahoo provides several content sections, Boston.com has their own Personals forum, and Boston.com Personals has even held their own events and contests.

Events Ticketing/Calendaring System

Posted on September 8, 2006

Ws_logoPC4MEDIA — Jun 20 — Whizspark is an event marketing and ticketing service which allows white labeling and offers the ability to track, enable and manage online, affiliate and word of mouth marketing. Our next step is to develop a network of online personals partners that drive attendance to events by marketing events to their members on a cost per action or cost per lead basis. Match and a few other dating sites tried to create their own branded events. Their goal was to drive subscriptions, while mostly breaking even at the events. Events were a bastard step child marketing tool for the subscription service. Dumb. People spend so much more money on events and offline entertainment than they do on dating subscriptions. The permission asset and traffic that these dating sites have could be leveraged for additional revenue streams: marketing ALL KINDS of events. FULL ARTICLE @ PC4MEDIA

Mark Brooks: I'd recommend online personals sites consider partnering with existing events vendors of high quality events and adding calendars to their schedules of events suitable for singles.  It can give them ideas for dates, more interesting than the usual coffee date.