HUFFINGTON POST – June 8 - According to a survey of racial exclusion patterns in Internet dating, the most excluded categories are Asian men and black women. American women would rather opt for black men than Asian males (including East Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi. At the outset, Asian men are far fewer in numbers than black or Latino men, which restricts their exposure, availability and access to white women. They are also culturally alien to white women in a way that black or Latino men are not. It is also interesting that the reasons why Asian women are sought after by white men who care to date or marry outside their racial confines, are conversely the reasons why Asian men are probably excluded from white female preferences. Several studies found white men prefer Asian women because they are seen as "homely" — obedient and faithful — as compared to Asian men, who are possibly unappealing because of their reputation for being domineering, hierarchical and illiberal. Unlike Asian women, Asian men tend to be much more authoritarian, conservative, religious and profess fealty toward their cultural values that are often incompatible with Western mores.
Category: Outlets – Huffington Post
Clique: Matchmaker With Help From Social Media
HUFFINGTON POST – May 5 – Clique, a new dating site, eliminates the uncertainty of the purely anonymous by matching singles to friends, and friends of friends. Christy Purington, founder of Clique, said of her reasons for starting the site. "The best dates I was going on was through friends of mine. There had to be a way to access this network of people my friends had that you're not regularly exposed to unless you're at a party with them or they set you up." Though Clique started out as an invitation-only site, it's now open to all comers. But the major feature that distinguishes the site from other dating sites is one simple policy: you can only interact with people who are at least two degrees of separation from you.
by Amy Lee
See full article at Huffington Post
Mark Brooks: Engage.com tried this in the past, but I like this new guise and branding of the 'friends matchmaking' concept.
iWould: Facebook Dating App
HUFFINGTON POST – Apr 14 – iWould is a crush wish-list launched last month. The app allows you to go through your friend list and select anywhere from one to ten people you'd be interested in romantically. The application cross-references your list with those of your friends also using the app. If someone you selected put you on their list, you'll both get a notice of the match. The company recently received a valuation of $750K from a private investor.
Cyberstalkers Take To Social Networks Over Dating Sites
HUFFINGTON POST – Apr 11 – According to a new study by the British Electronic Communication Harassment Organization (ECHO), cyberstalking has become more prevalent than real-world stalking. Researchers surveyed 250 participants between the ages of 14 and 74, and considered harassment that occurred via social networks, email and mobile phones. According to the study, most of the victims' ages ranged from 20 years old to 39 years old. Only 4% reported being stalked by a former partner, compared with victims of face-to-face stalking, where around half are former partners. Victims told researchers that stalkers commonly used social networks as channels for harassment and intimidation. 20% of victims said they were tracked through their social networks, compared to 4% who said they were targeted via dating sites.
by Catharine Smith
See full article at Huffington Post
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch
eHarmony CEO On The Limits Of Online Dating And The Future Of Love Online
HUFFINGTON POST – Aug 26 – eHarmonycelebrated its 10th anniversary and a major milestone: 540 weddings in
the U.S. every day. Here is the interview with Greg Waldorf, CEO of
eHarmony.
Q: Where do you see social media fitting in with online dating?
A:
Social networking is such a powerful experience on so many levels, but
it's about a lot of different things. I think paid dating creates a
private environment.
Q: Do you see social media as an asset for paid dating sites?
A:
Social media and paid dating coexist very well as long as the paid
dating sites are very mindful that you'd better be delivering a lot of
value when people are paying you.
Q: What does "real life" dating offer that you can't yet get online?
A:
I think the hardest thing is the shared social experience of dating.
That makes dating easier. If you're nervous about asking out that person
at a party, you might have more courage if you can walk up with a
friend.
Q: And what does online dating offer that you can't yet get in "real life"?
A: It gives you more efficiency and it's purposeful.
Q: Why does eHarmony have a separate site for gay couples?
A: We thought we'd be more successful.
Q: Do you measure the marriage rate for gay couples?
A: I don't think it'd be showing up as a significant number if you think about how few states you can get married in.
Q: You track marriage rates, but do you measure divorce rates?
A: We don't. But we're working on it.
Q:
Have you done research to see whether the qualities that make for
compatible, heterosexual couples are the same for same-sex couples?
A: We haven't yet, but we're getting closer to that.
FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST
Virgin Dating Site ‘You And Me Are Pure’ Launches
High-End Matchmakers
HUFFINGTON POST – June 4 - Men make up the majority of a high end
matchmaker's clients. Women are generally not the clients but potential
matches for the men; and in most cases, they simply pay an application
or interview fee. Matchmaker Richard Easton charges his clients $50K to
find the life partner. He does offer a $10K starter rate for young Wall
St. and Silicon Alley/Valley types as well. Janis Spindel launched her
agency in New York 11 years ago, then set up an office in L.A. after
going there to produce the TV show based on her life, "Miss Match." In
order to get on the "roster," women must be very attractive, fit, be
either book smart or street smart, and have a successful career of some
sort. Most women are under 40, with some exceptions. FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST
Mark Brooks: The demise of matchmaking services was predicted, with the rise of idating services. But the opposite is happening. Users are getting used to opening their wallets to find love. When they don't find love through idating, they open their wallets further, for fuller service offerings. But, high-end matchmaking services offer great service but are flawed for lack of choice. Dating sites on the other hand are flawed for lack of service. I'd like to see dating sites offer a membership to matchmakers to enter their clients and represent them.
Story Of Craigslist Sex
HUFFINGTON POST – Apr 9 - The Craigslist casual encounters section
offers a no-strings-attached experience that's expedient and anonymous.
The section started in 2000 and now accounts for 2% of all Craigslist
postings, which run in 570 cities and 50 countries and get more than
50M visitors a month. In fact, the New York Times reports that traffic
to all Craigslist personals sections is higher than for Match.com,
eHarmony and Yahoo personals. In 2006, Nassau County set up a
prostitution sting operation focused on Craigslist. As a result, last
year, Craigslist reached an agreement with state attorney generals to
charge a $5 fee and require a phone number for people posting "erotic
services." The move led to an immediate 80% drop in postings to that
section. FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST
The Need for a Sexual Facebook
THE HUFFINGTON POST — June 8 — We need a Facebook.com-like “social networking” site designed with the primary purpose of facilitating casual sexual encounters among educated young people. Online social networking as it currently exists is largely a waste of time because it serves no explicit pre-existing need and doesn’t help fulfill any goal except maybe the research of future, present, and past sexual partners.
The full article was originally published at Huffington Post, but is no longer available.
eHarmony Agenda Gets Called Out
HUFFINGTON POST — May 3 — eHarmony is run by someone with an unabashed religious and social mission? A company that by its own admission has rejected over a million people for reasons that range from not being "happy enough" (on a happy-meter they handily provide) to being divorced too many times, to being gay. eHarmony isn’t just a brand; it’s an ideological vessel, a brandologue. A Christian-founded, marriage-oriented matchmaking website. It’s legitimate for a competitor to call eHarmony out on its agenda. This week, Chemistry.com launched an advertising campaign that takes on eHarmony boldly and directly. TV commercials and print ads challenge eHarmony’s agenda and invite women and men who are seeking a relationship on their own terms to join Chemistry.com (View them on YouTube). FULL ARTICLE @ HUFFINGTON POST
Mark Brooks: eHarmony is getting beaten up for being discrimantory. However, they have a brand to build and a brand needs to be focused to be successful. I’m surprised they haven’t tried to launch new sites under new domains to cover the market more thoroughly, like Spark Networks, or FriendFinder or Zencon Technologies. This strategic blunder points towards their underlying mantra. They’ve left wide open areas of the market up for grabs.