BIG THINK – Dec 15 – OkCupid’s blog is convincing readers that they should never pay for online dating. The basis of their argument is that there are just too few subscribers on fee-for-service dating sites to make it worth while. According to a study it turns out that a person’s preference for the online date is correlated with how much they had invested in the service. For example, the length of time men chose to commit to the date was 28 minutes when the cost was $0, and 49 minutes when the cost was $50. The length of time women in the study chose to commit to the online date was 13 minutes when the cost was $0, and 28 minutes when the cost was $50. FULL ARTICLE @ BIG THINK
Category: OkCupid
Affordable Dating Sites
UWEEKLY – Dec 1 - Sam Yagan, one of OkCupid's founders and CEO, helped create the site in 2004 after he and friends decided there was a gap in the online dating market. "First, the dating sites didn't do a good job of predicting who would be good with who. Second, we thought it should be more fun and easy to navigate. And third, it should be more affordable to college students", says Yagan. OkCupid counted 5.6M members in Aug '10. OkCupid may have opened the gates for younger online daters, but it is not the online option out there. A new site getting ready to launch called Kikini.com dedicated to college-aged members.
The full article was originally published at UWeekly, but is no longer available.
Holiday Season: People Get Motivated To Fnd Someone
BOSTON HERALD – Nov 29 – Being single during the holiday season is such a downer, that by the first of the year, enrollment on dating sites shoots through the roof. “I call it the holiday effect,” said Sam Yagan, co-founder of OkCupid.com. OkCupid.com, which boasts 7M members, has seen an uptick after the holidays for the six years it’s been running. Match.com's enrollment from Dec. 26 through February increased 23%.
The full article was originally published at Boston Herald, but is no longer available.
The Science Behind Profile Pictures
OPW – Nov 21 -There is a science to which photos attract the most attention. Sam Yagan, CEO of OKCupid, explains the importance of a good profile picture.
Q: How did you collect the data and what are some of the most surprising things you’ve discovered?
A: We grabbed 7,000 pictures and manually went through and tagged each photo on 3 really important characteristics – face expression, where the picture was taken and how suggestive the picture was.
Q: What were the most surprising things that you found?
A: The first was it doesn’t really matter if you smile or not and it doesn’t even matter whether your face is clear in the picture. The most surprising thing is it doesn’t really matter how pretty the picture is. What really matters is if it starts a conversation. “A picture is worth a thousand words".
Q: What about gentlemen? Do the same rules apply? Do women want to see men flirting with the camera? Does it matter if the man is up on a mountain or in the backyard or whatever?
A: So some of the rules are the same and some are different. One tip for men, don’t look straight into the camera. Women don’t like men who stare at them at bars and women don’t like men who stare at them online. If you have good abs show them off.
Q: How often should one update their profile?
A: Pretty regularly, keep your profile fresh and interesting.
Big Think Interview With Sam Yagan
BIG THINK – Nov 10 –Q: What’s new about OKCupid?
A: I think of OkCupid as an online bar. Imagine if you had a video camera in every bar in the country and you could watch every interaction that took place. Imagine how much could you learn about people and dating. We’ve got that on our online bar.
Q: What has the reaction been to OKCupid’s approach?
A: We have published some things that have made other dating executives worry about us and wonder why we’re "hurting the industry." For example, we published the average response rate on OKCupid is about 33%. Our entire brand is about transparency. We want that data out there because if you are only getting one in three messages replied to, you’re normal.
Q: How is OKCupid different from other dating sites?
A: We believe that people are single and therefore turn to online dating, not because they don’t know what they’re looking for, but because they don’t meet enough people in their day-to-day life.
A: We believe that people are single and therefore turn to online dating, not because they don’t know what they’re looking for, but because they don’t meet enough people in their day-to-day life.
A: How do you make money?
Q: From advertising.
Q: What have you learned about human behavior by looking at online dating patterns?
A: Men lie about their height by almost exactly two inches. We also looked at what words people use in their profiles. And we categorized those by race and gender. White men use "Tom Clancy", white women "The Boston Red Sox", black women reference spirituality.
A: Men lie about their height by almost exactly two inches. We also looked at what words people use in their profiles. And we categorized those by race and gender. White men use "Tom Clancy", white women "The Boston Red Sox", black women reference spirituality.
Q: What statistics and trends should online daters be aware of?
A: We did some research that showed that the very first word of your message that you send a girl can have a very accurate prediction of whether you’re going to get a reply. If you just say, “Hi.” You’re much less likely to get a reply than if you say, “Howdy,” for example.
Q: What would you say to someone who’s having trouble succeeding at dating online?
A: The first thing we’d suggest is, read the blog, look at the tips that we’ve got. The second thing to do is invest in your profile. Take the time to write a very careful profile.
Q: Is online dating changing us?
A: Online dating will have an impact on the way people match up and ultimately marry and ultimately reproduce.
Q: What role will technology play in the future of dating?
A: Online dating is going to continue to become mainstream. And much like online shopping. Also dating is going to become more mobile. I’m not as bullish on video mostly because, at least in our current state, women tend not to like videos of themselves nearly as much as men do. Women tend to be much more self-conscious about themselves on video.
The full article was originally published at Big Think, but is no longer available.
Daughter Of Operation Match Founder To Be Married To OKCupid President
NY TIMES – July 11 - Jennifer Davis Tarr is to be married today to Christopher Roger Coyne. Roger is working on the development of OkCupid.com, an Internet dating service, of which he is the president. He was a founder in 1999 of TheSpark.com, a humor Web site, and of SparkNotes, a series of condensed versions of classic literature, world history, math, economics and philosophy study guides. He also graduated from Harvard. Jennifer's father, when he was at Harvard in the 1960's, was a founder of the first computer dating service, called Operation Match, for which applicants would send in a paper form, which would be turned into punch cards and six weeks later they would get a list of names and phone numbers.' FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
Mark Brooks: Coincidences or fate? This is old news from 2004, but interesting news.
Gay Sex Vs. Straight Sex
– only 0.6% of gay men have ever searched for straight matches.
– only 0.1% of lesbians have ever searched for straight matches.
– only 0.13% of straight people's profile visitors are gay.
Another common myth about gay people is that they sleep around, but the statistical reality is that gay people as a group aren't any more slutty than straights. OKCupid asked 252,900 straight people have you ever had a sexual encounter with someone of the same sex? ~25% answered 'yes'.
FULL ARTICLE @ OK TRENDS
Mixergy Video Interview With Mark Brooks
Q: How are you managing your company from Malta?
A: 3 years ago I took a trip to Shanghai. There was an Internet dating conference in Shanghai, and I decided to stay there for 2 months. And business grew. I learned that my clients did not care where I was based as long as the work got done. I brought 15 people onto my team.
Q: What exactly do you do when you consult online personal sites?
A: We help Internet dating companies make more money. And also companies that want to talk to them. We do PR, business development, and strategic advisement.
Q: Can you tell people a little more about the blog?
A: In 2004, when I was working with FriendFinder, I noticed that I was getting great snippets of information from the press. And I consistently didn't have time to read all of the articles. So I thought it would be nice if somebody could summarize and extract the best intelligence out of what the press were writing about. So in June of 2004, I started OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. The idea is that we condense three hours of reading into three minutes of reading a day. In January of 2005, I had three jobs offers on the table, so I decided to take all three. And that is how Courtland Brooks started. At a point from there, I knew a lot of people that I thought could do a better job than me. So, I hired them.
Q: Is there still money in the dating world? It seems to me like most people either go to one of the top sites or they go to Facebook.
A: The reason dating sites have a future is because it's one thing to be single and another to be single and available. And it's even another thing to be single and available and looking. You don't find that on Facebook. Yes, you can find people that say they are single. But are they really single? Are they dating? Are they really available?
Q: But Markus at PlentyofFish has blogged that social networks are taking customers away from dating sites.
A: Yes. It is taking attention. But people want a more focused experience. There are two surprises that we have had in the dating industry. The first one is that social networking didn't kill the dating industry. And the second one is that Internet dating didn't kill the matchmaking industry.
Q: What about the idea that there are already enough established players out there that it is really hard to come in with a new site?
A: It is. Without a doubt.There are thousands of Internet dating services. I rather think it is like starting a restaurant. It's not that difficult, you would think, to start a restaurant. But there's a lot more moving pieces that go into building a successful restaurant than meets the eye. And the same with Internet dating.
Q: Let's say Casey Allen, who I see here in the audience, decides that he is going to start an online dating site. What's the first thing that you'd recommend that he do?
A: First question is, is he a marketer or a technologist? If Casey is a marketer then he should go down the white labeling route and use a service like White Label Dating, DatingFactory.com or EasyDate.
Q: What if Casey Allen happens to be a technologist and he can code something up? What would you advise him at that point?
A: There are two extra routes that he can take. Number one is to use an off the shelf software like BoonEx and another option is use a programming outfit that has already built dating sites in the past.
Q: How do you bring people into a site today?
A: All of the major dating sites spend a lot of money on PPC. So, Overture and AdWords are an absolute mainstay of the industry. PlentyofFish is a wonderful place to run ads. If you can pay an extra 50 cents to a network, then you can get 10 times more traffic. Commission Junction and ShareASale have a good reputation.
Q: What else brings people in?
A: SEO. Also I'm a big fan of affiliates. The problem with affiliates, by the way, is there are rogue affiliates that will send junk traffic. The only way to deal with them is you've got to understand their position. They want to make money. And affiliates tend to be short-term based. They don't care too much about the brand, because they will just switch out to a different brand. So, the only way to really manage rogue affiliates is by laying down guidelines.
Q: We talked about how to get people in the door. What about getting them to multiply? By multiply, we mean viral marketing, getting them to bring their friends..
A: Let's start with Zoosk. They are one of the great, recent, success stories. On a typical dating site, you sign up. You've got to put in all your information. With a Facebook based social dating site such as Zoosk, some of that information can be sucked over. And so that really improves the initial conversions and efficiency. Plus, you know, the kinds of people that are on Facebook are going to be a little bit more social. When people talk about a good or a bad experience they think of as Internet dating. They don't tend to think of it so much as, it's Zoosk. It's Match.com. It's FriendFinder or Fling or whatever. I think the industry as a whole needs to make sure that they have a good experience. That means not allowing scammers. Scammers are actually very good for short-term conversions, funnily enough.
Q: How is that?
A: Because they are very active about communicating with people and getting them to convert.
Q: Do you have a sense of what percentage of sales these scammers are responsible for?
A: I don't know. I think for some sites, it is quite significant. For sites of integrity, it is very small, because they kick them off.
Q: What else do people do to multiply?
A: I am a big fan of success stories. ChristianCafe.com is very good with success stories. So is Match.com and PlentyOfFish.com. Now, there is a bit more to be said for social media these days and mobile.
Q: Can you give me an example of one company that's doing social well and how they are doing it, and then one company in mobile and how they are doing mobile well?
A: PlentyofFish does well as a social dating site in and of itself. In terms of social media, well, actually, Zoosk is a good example. They have had some music videos that have been featured, and so has PlentyofFish. PlentyofFish has been in a video on Lady Gaga. So, that's quite a new thing for the industry. I think OKCupid has the best blog in the industry. Again, they have got material that is extremely compelling, extremely interesting. And so they are getting the press talking about it.
FULL ARTICLE @ MIXERGY
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See all posts on Cupid plc See all posts on OkCupid
See all posts on BoonEx
OKCupid Analysis Reveals Interests Of Different Races
MASHABLE – Sep 8 - According to OKCupid's blog, OKTrends, the website took 526,000 of its members’ profiles and split them into groups based on race. It then highlighted popular and unique words and phrases within each group to create the below graphics, which apparently reveal the inner desires of the various denizens of OKCupid. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Online Dating Matches Don’t Come As Advertised
The full article was originally published at NY Post, but is no longer available.