LA TIMES — Dec 28 — Online personals websites are experiencing a major boost. Craigslist personals postings and eHarmony.com registrations have each seen 20% increases in 2008. Match.com's memberships were 22% higher in Dec than they were in Dec '07. Both eHarmony and Match.com reported especially high traffic on days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted. Money worries are even making them more picky. While Match.com reported a 50% increase in profile views from Nov to Dec, a recent survey of 1,500 members found that 84% of them were "being more selective about first dates." Wendy Rice, a 33-year-old chef from Hollywood, said she'd also experienced an unusually high frequency of daters playing "chicken" with the bill. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
Category: Outlets – LA Times
eHarmony Agrees To Provide Same-sex Matches
LA TIMES — Nov 19 – eHarmony will begin providing same-sex matches under as part of a settlement with New Jersey's Civil Rights Division. Under terms of the settlement, the company can create a new or differently named Web site for same-sex singles. In addition, eHarmony will pay the division $50,000 to cover administrative costs. It will pay McKinley $5,000 and give him a free one-year membership to its new service.
The full article was originally published at LA Times, but is no longer available.
Latest Dating Tool: Your Cell Phone
LA TIMES — Nov 10 — Tech-savvy singles are now relying on cell phone-based services to find new dates and friends. Americans send about 75 billion SMS a month. In the U.S., about 143m wireless subscribers have GPS on their phones, according to Nielsen Mobile, and there were 43.3m active mobile Internet users in August. Juniper Research projects that the mobile dating industry will see $1.4 billion in global revenue by 2013, from $330m in 2007 (much of that business currently comes from Japan, where mobile dating is already very popular). MeetMoi is a mobile dating service that shows singles which potential mates are nearby so they can text each other to meet up. Mobile companies such as Loopt and Earthcomber help members use their phones to search for others nearby with similar interests, such as cycling or hiking.
The full article was originally published at Statesman.com, but is no longer available.
Gayness Is A Sexual Orientation, Not A Political One
LA TIMES — Aug 28 — Manhunt.net is one of the most popular gay websites in the world, with 1m registered members in the U.S. alone and 400,000 unique visitors a month. As its name implies, it's a site where many gay men go to find casual sexual encounters.Two weeks ago, news emerged that Jonathan Crutchley, the co-founder of Manhunt.net, had contributed $2,300 to the presidential campaign of John McCain. Uproar ensued. "I believe McCain will be a better commander in chief than Obama, who also opposes gay marriage," Crutchley wrote on a website that covers the online personal ad industry. That explanation might not please every gay activist, but there are gay people of all races, income levels, occupations, body types and, yes, political beliefs. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
Do I Smell Sexy?
LA TIMES — May 19 — Dating website ScientificMatch.com plays matchmaker using DNA and smell. ScientificMatch.com launched in December and is now offering a discounted lifetime membership fee of $995, boasts a panoply of "member benefits" for its scientifically matched opposite-sex couples: better sex, increased fertility, healthier kids, less cheating and more orgasms. FULL ARTICLE @ LA TIMES
Mixi Strong in Japan
LA TIMES — Dec 25 — Mixi's highly specialized online shopping circles, 900,000 virtual communities are nurtured within the 6-million-strong empire of Mixi users. In Japan such communities have become so strongly linked to the real world in recent years that they now can affect the behavior of consumers at venues as diverse as pet shops and noodle bars. MySpace is determined to muscle in on this scene. In November, MySpace announced a joint venture with Internet and telecommunications group Softbank in a move that should see a fully localized PC-based version of MySpace operating in Japan in March. Mixi is invitation-only and receives 750 million hits per month from PC users, and nearly 2 billion hits from Japanese accessing the service on their mobile phones.
Mixi Strong in Japan
LA TIMES — Dec 25 — Mixi's highly specialized online shopping circles, 900,000 virtual communities are nurtured within the 6-million-strong empire of Mixi users. In Japan such communities have become so strongly linked to the real world in recent years that they now can affect the behavior of consumers at venues as diverse as pet shops and noodle bars. MySpace is determined to muscle in on this scene. In November, MySpace announced a joint venture with Internet and telecommunications group Softbank in a move that should see a fully localized PC-based version of MySpace operating in Japan in March. Mixi is invitation-only and receives 750 million hits per month from PC users, and nearly 2 billion hits from Japanese accessing the service on their mobile phones.
Online Dating Service Turns Attention to Married Couples
LA TIMES — FEB 6 — eHarmony launches an Internet service aimed at strengthening marriages Monday. "We call it a marriage wellness service," said founder Neil Clark Warren, 71. eHarmony Marriage is not a substitute for counseling, Warren said, but a customized program to deal with routine conflicts. The fee: $75 per couple. Additionally, a series of instructional, online videos hosted by Warren can be added to the package, bringing the total to $239.
Mark Brooks: eHarmony's quick response to Dr Phil joining forces with Match.com.
Sites Help Get E-Daters From Here to E-Ternity
LA TIMES — Feb 5 — In a survey by the Wedding Channel of 4,700 newly engaged or married people who registered, 12% found love online. Last-minute travel website Site59 in October launched a feature called "Meet Me In ." Travelocity is planning to roll out "Meet Me In ." on its website by the end of March.
The full article was originally published at LA Times, but is no longer available.
Does Evolution Explain the Dating Game?
