Category: Match.com

IAC Reports Q1 Results

Posted on May 4, 2006

IacINTERACTIVE CORP — May 2 — IAC has 35% growth in revenue. Personals (Match, Kiss, Udate, Chemistry) revenue grew 23% worldwide.  International paid subscribers grew 20%; with notable growth in Scandinavia and Spain. Profit margin declines reflect higher marketing spending and operating costs related to Chemistry.com, which launched Q1.  RELEASE @ INTERACTIVE CORP.

Mark Brooks: Europe is hallowed ground, virgin territory, which is why I’m basing myself out of Europe for a while.  I’m in Krakow, Poland this week. Programmers are ~$800 a month here.  180,000 students out of a population of 750,000.  …the weather’s great in summer, the people are friendly and the castles and old square are dreamstate.

Ultimate List of Dating Industry Jobs

Posted on May 4, 2006

May 4 — I'm rolling the list of internet dating, social networking and business networking industry jobs links into a handy little list.  Please let me know if you have any new links for the list by emailing me at mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com.  Thanks.  – Mark

CommunityConnect
Cupid
Friendfinder
Friendster
Hi5
Lavalife
Match
Mate1
Meetup
MySpace
PerfectMatch
PlanetOut/Gay
Shaadi
Spark Networks
Webdate
Yahoo Personals

Romancing by Phone to Become the New Dating Trend

Posted on May 4, 2006

Matchcom_18PRESS ZOOM — May 4 — Match.com offers wireless dating in the US and Japan and plans to launch in the UK by the end of this year. The American service launched in 2003 and has 120,000 subscribers who pay $5 to add it to their existing online service. Users access the site via WAP and search for matches as they would from the desktop – by sending them messages via SMS.  Snog London will offer mini-profiles featuring a photograph alongside four "personality" questions. Match.com's European director Kevin Cornils stated, "nearly half the daters signed up for match mobile are under 25 – considerably younger than the average age on the website."  Three-quarters of Match's wireless daters are male.  Technology exists for dating sites to send you an SMS when a suitable match walks into the same bar. It could even alert you by flashing their photo to your phone.

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

Mark Brooks: Location based dating is coming.  It will be skewed young, and casual, to start with.  Mobile dating will eventually dwarf online dating. I was surprised that few others seemed to agree with this at the mobile dating convention last year.  But, we'll eventually all go 'star trek' with truly mobile computing 'pads.'  One needs only to follow the wifi adoption curve to extrapolate this trend out.  WiMax, Evdo…  I'm using Nokia 9500 now.  It sucks (slow, bad video, incompatible files, patchy connection, poor email), but eventually the likes of Nokia, Intel, Apple, RIM, Verizon, Docomo etc will get this convergence right and we'll move from our laptops to truly mobile devices.  I look forward to the day.    

Romancing by Phone to Become the New Dating Trend

Posted on May 4, 2006

Matchcom_18PRESS ZOOM — May 4 — Match.com offers wireless dating in the US and Japan and plans to launch in the UK by the end of this year. The American service launched in 2003 and has 120,000 subscribers who pay $5 to add it to their existing online service. Users access the site via WAP and search for matches as they would from the desktop – by sending them messages via SMS.  Snog London will offer mini-profiles featuring a photograph alongside four "personality" questions. Match.com's European director Kevin Cornils stated, "nearly half the daters signed up for match mobile are under 25 – considerably younger than the average age on the website."  Three-quarters of Match's wireless daters are male.  Technology exists for dating sites to send you an SMS when a suitable match walks into the same bar. It could even alert you by flashing their photo to your phone.

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

Mark Brooks: Location based dating is coming. It will be skewed young, and casual, to start with. Mobile dating will eventually dwarf online dating. I was surprised that few others seemed to agree with this at the mobile dating convention last year. But, we'll eventually all go 'star trek' with truly mobile computing 'pads.' One needs only to follow the wifi adoption curve to extrapolate this trend out. WiMax, Evdo…  I'm using Nokia 9500 now. It sucks (slow, bad video, incompatible files, patchy connection, poor email), but eventually the likes of Nokia, Intel, Apple, RIM, Verizon, Docomo etc will get this convergence right and we'll move from our laptops to truly mobile devices. I look forward to the day.    

European Online Dating: An ‘Ideal’ Web Business

Posted on April 24, 2006

Meetic_2INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE / NY TIMES — Apr 24 — Mark Simoncini, Meetic CEO, built a company in four years with 17 million profiles in 13 countries speaking nine languages.  The idea behind Meetic emerged in 2000, after Simoncini sold iFrance, iEspana and iDeutschland to Vivendi for 182 million Euros ($224 million).  Meetic raised 100 million Euros from its October IPO.  Annual results released in March showed a doubling of revenue to 43 million Euros in 2005 (net profit 5.7m Euros).  Both Meetic and Match claim to have the largest online dating community; each has roughly 275,000 users on the Continent.  Simoncini argues that the American approach to relationships gets lost in translation overseas.  Match.com has local sites for 31 countries in 18 languages.  Europe's acceptance of such dating services has been accelerated by the proliferation of social networking, according to Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch.  "The Europe online dating scene is still in the growth phase, which is why I am basing myself out of Prague right now," said Brooks.  "American sites have had some trouble moving into other cultures,  which has opened opportunities for Meetic as well as single-country players in Europe."  Meetic last year started Ulteem.  A high-end service costing 99 Euros for a three- month subscription.  Meetic recently bought Lexa (100,000 users), a dating service in the Netherlands and Yeeyoo (4 million users), a youth-oriented Chinese site.  Competition among youth-oriented sites like Superlol is fierce.  FULL ARTICLE @ INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE

Mark Brooks: Meetic started Ulteem to compete with Parship.de, in similar fashion to Match starting Chemistry.com to compete with eHarmony.

Hooking Up in the Information Age – Mobile dating

Posted on April 24, 2006

WebdatemobileWIRELESS WEEK — Apr 15 — In 2004 Webdate Mobile launched with U.S. Cellular. Several months later Match.com Mobile got on deck with Cingular Wireless and Sprint. Lavalife signed Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.  Webdate has since launched with Boost Mobile and Sprint Nextel and Webdate CEO Abe Smilowitz says he's pleased with the amount of revenue being generated.  Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com, estimates there are currently fewer than 1 million mobile daters, compared with 5 million users of mobile flirt applications. He draws a distinction between mobile dating applications – which typically feature photos, profiles and the ability to send messages back and forth – with simple social networking applications that let users flirt via texting. "Mobile dating applications are focused more on getting people together," Brooks says. "There's far higher adoption of chat, because it doesn't require much of an application. That's a very different animal than mobile dating." Most are available for a flat monthly rate of $4.99. Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly says 42% of MatchMobile customers are 18 to 25 years old, 81% are between 18 and 35.  Webdate Mobile gives customers access to Webdate's database of 6 million profiles. "It's seamless. Mobile and online are virtually the same. That's been our approach and continues to be our approach," abe says. Osmak doesn't see much future for Bluetooth-enabled matchmaking, mainly because no billing systemis in place for such transactions.  And if having Bluetooth-enabled phones is the only thing the individuals have in common, what's the point? "The real value is in finding suitable people, not just people," says Brooks.

Hooking Up in the Information Age – Mobile dating

Posted on April 24, 2006

WebdatemobileWIRELESS WEEK — Apr 15 — In 2004 Webdate Mobile launched with U.S. Cellular. Several months later Match.com Mobile got on deck with Cingular Wireless and Sprint. Lavalife signed Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.  Webdate has since launched with Boost Mobile and Sprint Nextel and Webdate CEO Abe Smilowitz says he's pleased with the amount of revenue being generated.  Mark Brooks, editor of onlinepersonalswatch.com, estimates there are currently fewer than 1 million mobile daters, compared with 5 million users of mobile flirt applications. He draws a distinction between mobile dating applications – which typically feature photos, profiles and the ability to send messages back and forth – with simple social networking applications that let users flirt via texting. "Mobile dating applications are focused more on getting people together," Brooks says. "There's far higher adoption of chat, because it doesn't require much of an application. That's a very different animal than mobile dating." Most are available for a flat monthly rate of $4.99. Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly says 42% of MatchMobile customers are 18 to 25 years old, 81% are between 18 and 35.  Webdate Mobile gives customers access to Webdate's database of 6 million profiles. "It's seamless. Mobile and online are virtually the same. That's been our approach and continues to be our approach," abe says. Osmak doesn't see much future for Bluetooth-enabled matchmaking, mainly because no billing systemis in place for such transactions.  And if having Bluetooth-enabled phones is the only thing the individuals have in common, what's the point? "The real value is in finding suitable people, not just people," says Brooks. 

Online Dating in Switzerland is Blossoming

Posted on April 18, 2006

SwissflirtchSWISS INFO — Apr 14 — The most popular Swiss dating agencies – swissflirt, friendscout24, meetic and match.com – each have up to 260,000 registered users.  Switzerland’s population is ~7.4 million – with ~five million over 18.  The top 20 worldwide dating sites receive ~90 million hits a month.  Swissflirt, which claims to be Switzerland’s largest dating site, has ~90,000 female users and twice as many male users.  FULL ARTICLE @ SWISS INFO

Mark Brooks: Europe is hot!  I’m in Prague right now.  Expect more Euro content and luminary interviews.  😉

Online Dating Grows 30% Within Three Months

Posted on April 5, 2006

Datingdirect_5NET IMPERATIVE — Apr 4 — Online dating has grown by more than 30% since December 2005 with ~ten million users seeking partners online during February 2006 – ComScore, The UK online dating market grew 30% to 9,495,000 uniques in February compared with December. DatingDirect.com was the most visited sites with one million uniques accounting for 11% of the UK industry total. Yahoo! Personals was second, followed by Loopylove.com and Match.com.

Mark Brooks: Hitwise graciosuly provide OPW the monthly UK rankings.  See left bar.  You can get to OPW more easily using opw1.com btw. 

Romancing the Phone

Posted on March 27, 2006

Matchcom_17THE GUARDIAN UNLIMITED — Mar 23 — You can pull out your mobile phone and fire off an SMS to your internet dating website. A few minutes later it will send you five pictures of potential dates – all within a 10-minute walk of your local.  This may be the future of online dating. With more than 2 million Britons signed up to singles sites, the industry is keen to explore and exploit the marriage between mobile phones and the net.  Dating sites use mobile telephony to enable subscribers to send "text flirts" – SMS messages. Snog London is trialing this technology to offer "instant dates". Match.com already offers wireless dating in the US and Japan, and plans to launch in the UK by the end of this year. The American service, launched in 2003, has 120,000 subscribers who pay $5 to add it to their existing online service. Match.com's Europe director Kevin Cornil: "Nearly half the daters signed up for match mobile are under 25 – considerably younger than the average age on the website."  FULL ARTICLE @ THE GUARDIAN UNLIMITED

Mark Brooks: And Webdate.com, and Lavalife.com.  Webdate has the nicest mobile application.