REUTERS — July 8 — Online entertainment has increasingly moved to the mobile handset. According to the trade association Mobile Entertainment Forum, the global mobile entertainment industry is now worth $32 billion. The industry also remains confident that it can continue to grow strongly despite the current economic challenges, predicting average revenue growth of 28 % for 2010. CCS Insight analyst Paolo Pescatore believes the most popular sites such as Facebook might struggle to charge on mobile as users would still expect the service to be free. Other services that could prove to be successful will be those which offer a core aspect for free and then charge a small fee for premium content. One online and mobile service that has followed this route is Flirtomatic, a fun dating social network that allows users to post their profiles and rank each other from "freak" to "off the radar." Over 1m profiles have been posted so far. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Category: Outlets – Reuters
Zoosk Raises $6 Million
REUTERS — June 12 – Online dating network Zoosk has raised $6m in a third round. The company raised $4m in a second round last June.
The full article was originally published at Reuters, but is no longer available.
Match.com Sued For Deception
REUTERS — June 9 – Sean McGinn, of Brooklyn sued Match.com for misleading members by posting profiles of prospective dates who are unable to respond to any interest in them because they do not have a paid subscription. McGinn accused Match.com of causing "humiliation and disappointment" for some members who feel rejected when their attempt to contact a prospective date gets no reply. Match.com is still reviewing the complaint, but said "we believe this lawsuit is without merit and we will defend it vigorously." FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS. Also read in DALLAS BUSINESS JOURNAL (June 10th), CONSUMER AFFAIRS (June 10th), NY DAILY NEWS, BROOKLYN EAGLE (June 10th), NY MAGAZINE (June 10th), ATTORNEY AT LAW (June 10th), UPI (June 10th), MY STATELINE (June 9th), DFW (June 11th), LAWYERS AND SETTLEMENTS (June 17th), OPPOSING VIEWS (June 17th), KSTP (June 19th)
Mark Brooks: This is a super-important case. We'll watch it closely.
Economic Blues Helps Cupid Find Online Targets
REUTERS — Feb 13 – Unlike other companies where revenues are slumping and layoffs are climbing, online dating sites seem to be resistant to the recession. "In a tough economy, you want someone to appreciate you for who you are and not because of your jobs or material possessions," said eHarmony CEO Greg Waldorf. "When times are tough people want to get together to share the rent and buy groceries together to save costs," said Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyofFish.com. Use of free dating sites has been skyrocketing, according to Matt Tatham, a spokesman for Hitwise.com, which tracks Internet usage. "People are anxious right now," Match general manager Mandy Ginsberg said. "They want to find someone with whom to weather the financial storm." FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
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FriendFinder Files For $460 million IPO
REUTERS — Dec 23 — FriendFinder Networks Inc, an operator of
social-networking websites and publisher of the adult men's magazine
Penthouse, filed on Tuesday for a $460m initial public offering.
FriendFinder plans to use the proceeds of its IPO primarily to pay
off debt, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Falling Stock Markets Spur Searches For Love Online
REUTERS — Dec 8 — As stock markets across the globe have plummeted, more people have opted to try their luck looking for love online as a distraction from financial woes — and to save themselves money, according to dating Web sites. Match.com had experienced its largest membership growth over the last seven years in November. Perfectmatch.com reported a 47% jump in the number of members in the three months to November compared to the previous quarter. A poll conducted on behalf of eHarmony, found that 57% of Americans said the credit crunch made them worry about their love lives with married men the most stressed group with 63% of them concerned. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
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Singapore Men Put Love On Hold On Financial Worry
REUTERS — Oct 16 — Singapore’s bridal agencies are seeing slowing
business as the
financial crisis and a looming recession hit love in the country.
"About 10% of my
customers say ‘The economy is slowing down, I have no money,’" said
Mark Lin, who runs the Vietnam Brides International Matchmaker in
Singapore. Matchmaking is not uncommon in the country, which has a
population
of 4.8 million and a low birth rate, as older men turn to professionals
to find a wife. Some agencies help link up singles, while others —
like Lin’s — help customers find a prospective wife from abroad. For
$5,450, a man can pick a wife from among the women in
Lin’s shop, send her to the doctor, and get his marriage registered —
all in 12 hours. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Brits Value Sex And In-Laws
REUTERS — Oct 6 — Being too tired for sex is less of a problem for
married
Britons than for U.S. or Australian couples, eHarmony has found.
eHarmony says married people in
Britain are also more satisfied with how they share household chores
and how much time they spend together. "Brits tend to be more
consensual," eHarmony CEO Gregory Waldorf told Reuters in an interview.
U.S. couples have
more arguments, get on each others’ nerves more and talk about divorce
more frequently, eHarmony found. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Shaadi Partners With Vodafone
REUTERS — Aug 28 — Online matchmaking services in India have announced tie-ups with telecom service providers, enabling subscribers to view profiles of eligible partners on their mobile phones. Shaadi.com partners with Vodafone and Bharatmatrimony.com with Nokia. In a country with nearly 300m cellphone users, but where only 11m people have access to the Internet, taking matchmaking directly to customers' fingertips makes sense. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Online Dating: How To Spot Duds
REUTERS — Aug 22 — Jane Coloccia, author of "Confessions of an Online Dating Addict: A True Account of Dating and Relating in the Internet Age" says that in her online dating experience married men tend not to post photographs of themselves, often won't give a cellphone number and tend to IM late at night. Jane is also developing an online course on web dating. The growth in the online dating industry has been massive and is expected to continue. Figures Jupiter Research show revenue has almost doubled in the past three years to $1.04 billion in the U.S. alone and is expected to rise 16% a year until 2012.
The full article was originally published at Canada.com, but is no longer available.