Category: Outlets – BusinesWeek

Microsoft Gets Social

Posted on April 18, 2006

EurekstercomBUSINESS WEEK — Apr 14 — Social search is a way of making Web search more relevant by incorporating the preferences of like-minded surfers. Microsoft will unveil a Q & A social-search tool in the coming months allowing users to direct questions to friends, rather than get automated results from a generic search engine. Eurekster combines search, though a partnership with Yahoo, with information culled from social-networking sites, such as Friendster.com. A Friendster user searching for "skin care" gets results that reflect community reviews and preferences.

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

Facebook’s on the Block

Posted on March 29, 2006

The_face_book_4BUSINESS WEEK — Mar 28 — Owners of the privately held social-networking site hope to fetch as much as $2 billion. And media giants like Viacom may make a good match. They have turned down a $750 million offer.  www.facebook.com has become the seventh-most heavily trafficked site on the Internet, according to comScore Media Metrix. It racked up 5.5 billion page views in February.  MySpace had 37.3 million unique and logged 23.5 billion page views, making it the second-most trafficked site after Yahoo, which had 30 billion.  MSN had 18 billion.  Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and the video-oriented YouTube, are a primary form of communication for younger people who can spend an hour or more a day at such sites. 

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

Must Love Wing Tips

Posted on February 15, 2006

Truecom_1BUSINESS WEEK — Feb 20 — A third of all online daters are over 45, and 19% make more than $100,000 a year, says Web tracking firm Hitwise. Match reports 7% of its 8 million members call themselves executives (the government classifies 4% of the workforce as managers).  They’re more likely to be divorced (36%), have dogs (30%), and enjoy wine tastings (20%) than other singles. In Washington D.C., the women have high financial expectations: 44% of female execs want a match who makes more than $150,000. In Raleigh N.C., 37% of the male execs want a woman who rakes in that much.  Execs are sexually adventurous. TRUE offers a sexual compatibility quiz that puts people into one of eight categories, from “traditionalists” to “mavericks.” 16% of executive members are mavericks, vs. 12% overall. “They’re willing to do just about anything,” says TRUE founder Herb Vest, “within the normal parameters.”  And yes, older men want younger women. Match says male execs in L.A. typically seek women 13 years younger. 25% of eHarmony’s men 55+ are interested in women 40 or younger.

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

Dr. Warren’s Lonely Hearts Club

Posted on February 14, 2006

Eharmony_5BUSINESS WEEK — Feb 20 — EHarmony is now celebrating its sixth year.  Traffic rose 8% in December, to 1.3 million visitors, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.  Subscribers pay up to $59 a month for the service, which Warren claims resulted in 16,000 marriages last year.  eHarmony's has an $80 million annual advertising budget. The half-a-billion-dollar-a-year online dating industry has slowed to 6% annual growth from 70% a few years ago.  On Feb 6, he introduced a new online service designed to help married couples stay that way. EHarmony's "marriage wellness program" has a 310-question quiz designed to determine the relationship's strengths and weaknesses and 20-minute follow-up exercises, for $239 per couple. Plans include an IPO to provide funds for international expansion and the launch of new products such as counseling for parents. Warren is not a big believer in the idea that opposites attract (even if they do, he argues, they won't last). No one under 21 can join, because marriages between younger people are twice as likely to fail, he says. Nor will he allow people on his site who have been divorced more than three times. Warren won't match taller women with shorter men, because he believes that's a difference difficult to overcome in a relationship. And he won't fix up same-sex couples.

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

New CEO at eHarmony: A Sign of an Upcoming IPO?

Posted on February 10, 2006

Eharmony_4BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE — Jan 10 — eHarmony has a new CEO. Long-time CEO Greg Forgatch, married to a daughter of Dr. Neil Clark Warren has stepped down "to pursue other interests." This executive change marks the end of eHarmony operating like a family-run business and could mark the beginning of eHarmony as a public company.  The new CEO, Jaynie M. Studenmund has established relationships with various banks and has been a board member since August 2005.  Studenmund was the COO for Overture Services, now part of Yahoo!, and prior to that, president and COO of PayMyBills.com. 

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

eHarmony Names Jaynie Studenmund President and CEO
LA BUSINESS NEWS — Jan 11 — Studenmund brings 25 years of executive operating and marketing experience.  She has managed businesses ranging from $100 million to $1 billion in revenue. Earlier in her career, Studenmund was a management consultant with Booz, Allen & Hamilton and she holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Economics from Wellesley College.  

The full article was originally published at Daily Business News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: eHarmony raised $110 million in VC money in 2004.

Move Over MySpace

Posted on December 20, 2005

Myspace_6 BUSINESS WEEK — Dec 16 — Brad Greenspan started his first business from his dorm room at UCLA and helped launch MySpace in 2003. Today he's backing video based social network site Vidilife, MySpace for the video crowd. Traffic has been promising so far: 220,000 unique users in October, six weeks after launch in September. A far cry from MySpace's 24.3 million unique users but not bad for a site with no marketing. Greenspan was forced from the company he founded, eUniverse, only months after he spent $1 million to finance MySpace's launch. Greenspan battled with board members, who changed the company's name to Intermix Media shortly after his departure. Among the disputes: restated earnings during his watch that prompted an informal Securities & Exchange Commission accounting investigation (now closed) and a temporary delisting of its stock by NASDAQ. Separately, both the company and Greenspan settled charges with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in September that they inserted spyware on unknowing consumers' Web pages. Neither admitted guilt.  Greenspan twice tried to retake his company in proxy battles, including a futile gambit in September to trump a $580 million bid by News Corp. He made $47 million from the News Corp. acquisition.

Friendster Revitalisation

Posted on November 9, 2005

Friendster_2BUSINESS WEEK — Nov — In its hunt for new members, Friendster has dusted off my recommendations and reissued them to my friends. Who says I'd want to recommend Friendster now? And who says those people are still my friends? (They are, but I'm making a rhetorical point.)

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

Mark Brooks: Friendster has been making up for lost time.  Have you seen it lately?  A new look and lots of new features.  New CEO Taek Kwon has got the Friendster team jamming!  Who would have thought Friendster would have been playing David and Goliath with Myspace?!

Connections, The Wireless Way

Posted on June 30, 2005

BUSINESS WEEK — June 29 — SMS.ac and other mobile social networks help users find dates, keep in touch with friends, share photos, and update their blogs via cell phone. SMS.ac claims 40 million users; 14% in U.S. Most other services only have thousands of customers, who typically pay a $5 monthly subscription fee. Popularity should skyrocket as telcos, which get a cut of fees, roll out more of these applications later this year. Sprint began offering SMS.ac, Match.com Mobile and Lavalife Mobile several months ago. U.S. subscription revenues should rise from $31.4 million this year to $215 million in 2009, according to Frost & Sullivan.  Additional revenues from forwarding SMS and MMS messages could double that amount. These social networks typically cater to 18-35-year-olds.  There are 2 billion cell phones in the world, vs. fewer than 700 million PCs. No wonder online heavyweights such as Google, Match.com, and online social networking sites are ramping up their efforts in the mobile social networking market. Friendster is testing Friendster Mobile in the Philippines. Google acquired Dodgeball.com. In July Match.com will debut a more advanced mobile dating service in Japan. Members will be able to post multiple photos with their profiles, receive daily or weekly lists of matches, and perform complex searches.

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

Mark Brooks: See you at the mobile internet dating convention.

Connections, The Wireless Way

Posted on June 29, 2005

BUSINESS WEEK — June 29 — SMS.ac and other mobile social networks help users find dates, keep in touch with friends, share photos, and update their blogs via cell phone. SMS.ac claims 40 million users; 14% in U.S. Most other services only have thousands of customers, who typically pay a $5 monthly subscription fee. Popularity should skyrocket as telcos, which get a cut of fees, roll out more of these applications later this year. Sprint began offering SMS.ac, Match.com Mobile and Lavalife Mobile several months ago. U.S. subscription revenues should rise from $31.4 million this year to $215 million in 2009, according to Frost & Sullivan.  Additional revenues from forwarding SMS and MMS messages could double that amount. These social networks typically cater to 18-35-year-olds.  There are 2 billion cell phones in the world, vs. fewer than 700 million PCs. No wonder online heavyweights such as Google, Match.com, and online social networking sites are ramping up their efforts in the mobile social networking market. Friendster is testing Friendster Mobile in the Philippines. Google acquired Dodgeball.com. In July Match.com will debut a more advanced mobile dating service in Japan. Members will be able to post multiple photos with their profiles, receive daily or weekly lists of matches, and perform complex searches.

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

Mark Brooks: See you at the mobile internet dating convention.

Why MySpace Is the Hot Place

Posted on May 31, 2005

Myspace_3BUSINESS WEEK — May 31 — Only 20 months old, MySpace has 14 million uniques a month. Friendster started three years ago and has 1 million uniques. "We're crushing it," says MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe, 39. Bands can create their own home pages, with photos, tour dates, and as many as four songs — all for free.  Now, MySpace has become something akin to the hippest bar in town.  They need to boost revenues, which come largely from ads from companies ranging from Procter & Gamble to NBC. Complicating matters is rising competition from Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL who are moving into social networking.  Yahoo (112 million) plans to launch Yahoo! 360 this fall.  MSN (88 million users) launched 'Spaces,  in April, and signed up 10 million users in a matter of weeks.  Blake Irving, VP for MSN communications says it will offer e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking all in one place. "I think people will want one digital profile that says: 'This is my digital self.'"  These networks are part entertainment — a substitute for TV.  Myspace is developing into a powerful way to reach 16 to 30 year olds, one of the most sought-after and elusive demographic segments.  Friendster, with its smiley-face logo, has focused on fostering safety and trust. MySpace has let its members do whatever they want.

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

Mark Brooks: I know, I know, yet another article on MySpace…but it's Business Week already!  Friendster still has shot at stealing back some of it's thunder.  I will interview the new Friendster CEO, to try and get some insight on his plans, for a feature on OPW at the beginning of July.