Category: Match Group

Match Bought POF, And Cements Its Position As Market Leader

Posted on July 16, 2015

Match pictureMARKETWATCH – July 15 – The Match Group announced that it will buy PlentyofFish for $575M in cash before going public. "In this industry, size really matters," says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch. "The Match Group gains very sizable key strategic assets and very effectively cements its position as market leader." The US online dating industry is dominated by IAC, with 21.8% market share. While each site has its own secret set of algorithms, the industry is consolidating and becoming more efficient from a business perspective.

"Making ideal matches is a virgin science," Brooks says. "We don't really know when we've been successful, so we don't really know when the algorithm has actually worked." That will soon change with the popularity of location-based apps and mobile technology, he says. "We'll be able to survey singles before and after dates." "Dating algorithms do exactly what they're designed to do, which is to match to sets for data,"” says Amy Webb, author of "Data, a Love Story: How I Gamed Dating to Meet My Match." Some dating sites beg to differ: "eHarmony has only a divorce rate of 3.86%, well below the national average of 40% to 50%."

by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at Marketwatch

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Match Group Buys PlentyOfFish For $575M

Posted on July 14, 2015

Pof logo smallTECH CRUNCH – July 14 – Match Group has agreed to acquire PlentyOfFish (POF) for $575 million in cash and expects to close early in Q4. Tinder flicked the monetization switch this spring. Singles are a core demographic for marketing other types of self-improvement services where Match/IAC also plays.

"As more people than ever use more dating apps than ever with more frequency than ever, PlentyOfFish’s addition both brings new members into our family of products and deepens the lifetime relationship we have with our users across our portfolio," said Sam Yagan, CEO of The Match Group. "I look forward to working closely with Markus and extending the company’s impressive growth trajectory." The acquisition adds 3 million daily actives to IAC’s digital media portfolio of more than 150 brands and 20 operating businesses. Match Group covers ~50 brands in the dating, education and fitness space. IAC reports 370 million unique monthly users and 2.5 billion monthly visits to its entire portfolio.

by Natasha Lomas
See full article at Tech Crunch

Mark Brooks: Recently Markus said he was at a $100 million revenue run rate. Match bought Singlesnet, OKCupid, then Datehookup.  So the writing has been on the wall for some time. It was just a matter of price. Tinder showed that Match Group could seed and grow a credible threat to the POF business. It's a good time for Markus to join with Match Group, and cash in his chips.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

The Match Group Spin-Off Preliminary Bullish Thesis

Posted on July 14, 2015

Match group logosSEEKING ALPHA – July 13 – IAC is planning to spin-off its Match Group and pursue an IPO for the new company. IAC has a history of successful spin-offs of significant business such as Expedia, LendingTree, TicketMaster and Home Shopping Network. The Match Group dominates ~50% of the $2.2B eDating market. 88% of Match group revenues are generated in the dating business. Tinder held ~70% of the mobile dating market and tripled its reach between Nov '13 and Mar '15. If Tinder could convert ~2% (typical freemium conversion rate) of its 50M users to a $20 per month, it could drive an additional $240M per year, which is ~25% of Match Group dating revenues in 2014.

by Lior Ronen
See full article at SeekingAlpha

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Match Group Could Fetch ~$1.2B From Its IPO

Posted on June 28, 2015

Match ipoBLOOMBERG – June 26 – IAC’s Match Group plans to to sell ~20% of its common stock this year. The sale could fetch $600M to $1.2B if 10% – 20% of the business is sold to the public, according to Cowen and Co., valuing the division at $6B or more. IAC bought Match.com in 2003. Meetic joined in 2009 along with People Media. In 2011, IAC spent $50M for OKCupid. In 2012 came Tinder which "gamified" the online dating process. "There’s a lot of people that just weren’t prepared to get onto Internet dating," says Mark Brooks, a dating-website analyst and consultant at Courtland Brooks. "Tinder warmed people up to the psychology that it’s not a dating site. Everybody is on it; it’s fun. That’s really the thrill ride here." But free and fun dating apps can be volatile, while cannibalizing customers from such paid services as Match.com, Brooks says. Last year, as the popularity of free-to-use Tinder grew, paid subscriptions at Match fell by ~100K in the Q4, compared with Q3. Now IAC is trying to make money out of Tinder.

by Alex Barinka
See full article at Bloomberg

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Match Group’s IPO Could Be A Success Story

Posted on June 26, 2015

Iac logoWSJ – June 25 – IAC/InterActiveCorp has followed through on a long-expected plan to pursue an IPO of Match Group. Mr. Diller, IAC’s chairman, isn’t breaking up with Match Group entirely. The company is planning to sell a stake of less than 20% in the division, which includes fitness and educational businesses. Investors cheered the move, sending IAC’s shares up $3.93, or 5.1%, to $81.19. Match Group is IAC’s strongest growth engine, bringing in 29% of overall revenue in 2014. For all the buzz around dating sites, there hasn’t yet been a significant win for VCs in terms of an IPO, said Mark Brooks, CEO of Courtland Brooks, an adviser to dating companies. That’s been a challenge for entrepreneurs. "We need a success story, and I think the Match Group could be a success story," he said. If the IPO doesn’t go over well with investors, "we can kiss the opportunity of future funding goodbye."

by Georgia Wells & Lukas I. Alpert
See full article at Wall Street Journal

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Match Group To IPO This Year

Posted on June 25, 2015

Match group logosPR NEWSWIRE – June 25 – IAC's Board of Directors has approved the pursuit of an IPO of Match Group. Joey Levin, formerly CEO of its Search & Apps business, has been named CEO of IAC and joined its Board of Directors. Greg Blatt will remain Chairman, and Sam Yagan CEO of The Match Group. IAC expects The Match Group to issue less than 20% of its common stock in the IPO, with IAC's remaining stake in The Match Group represented by both high- and low-vote common shares. The IPO is expected to be completed during Q4 of this year.

See full article at IAC website

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

Japan’s Eureka, Developer Of Dating And Couple Apps, Acquired By Match Group

Posted on May 28, 2015

Pairs couples screenshotsTHE BRIDGE – May 27 – Since its launch in 2008, Tokyo-based startup Eureka has developed Pairs and Couples, mobile apps for dating and couples. The company has been wholly acquired by The Match Group. Details of the acquisition price has not been disclosed. Pairs is a Facebook-based dating and marriage hunting app launched in 2012 and has acquired ~1.5M users in Japan and 800K users in Taiwan to date. Couples is a memory-sharing and messaging app for couples, and has acquired ~2.2M users.

by Masaru Ikeda
See full article at The Bridge

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting

IAC Q1 Results: Dating Revenue Up 2%

Posted on April 30, 2015

Iac logoIAC – Apr 29 – The Match Group Q1 revenue increased 13% YOY to $239.2M. Dating revenue increased 2% YOY to $201M. The number of paid subscribers in the dating sector increased 16% YOY from 3.6M to ~4.7M globally. Greg Blatt, Chairman of the Match Group, did not disclose Tinder’s paid subscribers and MAU on the IAC earning call but says Tinder's MAU growth continues to be solid. The Match Group operating income decreased 36% YOY ($25.9M) driven by increased marketing spend.

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

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Match Group’s Sam Yagan On Investment

Posted on February 23, 2015

Match sam yagan feb 15CHICAGO TRIBUNE – Feb 19 – Sam Yagan co-founded OkCupid in 2003 and sold it to IAC in 2011 for $90M. He is now CEO of IAC’s online dating division, Match Group. Yagan also co-founded startup accelerator Excelerate Labs, which became Techstars Chicago. He explains what he looks for as an executive, mentor and investor.

Q: With the influx of dating apps, would you acquire any of them?
A: Until you have a massive amount of usage, it’s just not that interesting to us.

Q: You co-launched a venture fund in 2014 called Corazon Capital. What are your investment criteria?
A: The product, business and market have to make sense. But our No. 1 criteria, by far, is great entrepreneurs.

Q: What have you learned as an investor that you wish you’d known as a founder?
A: I think overestimating the market size is near the top of the list of the things entrepreneurs most get wrong.

Q: What are you doing to help women in tech?
A: A quarter of the founders that have gone through Excelerate and Techstars are women, including Sue Khim at Brilliant, Diane Melville (formerly) at ScholarPro, and Melissa Moline at InRentive. Those are all companies that I’m on the boards of.

by Kate MacArthur
See full article at Chicago Tribune

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IAC Hit By Slowing Growth In Match Group

Posted on February 5, 2015

Iac logoREUTERS – Feb 3 – Match Group reported the slowest growth (4%) in the number of subscribers in several quarters, sending IAC's shares down as much as 6%. Match Group Q4 2014 revenue was $241.5M, up 15% YOY, operating income is down 5% to $73.5M.

by Sai Sachin Ravikumar
See full article at Reuters

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Summarized by Courtland Brooks Internet Dating Marketing Consulting