Category: Outlets – Reuters

USA Love Brokers Eye China

Posted on February 16, 2007
Asian_dating_3REUTERS — Feb 13 — Match.com has secured Love21CN.com , one of China's biggest online dating service providers, as its main target for a potential stake purchase or business partnership. eHarmony is also looking at potential partners in China. In November, China.com said it would team up with Meetic for business promotion. Meetic in July also launched a localized Chinese site called "Mi Tang," or "Sweetie" in English. A Meetic-led venture capital consortium is also expected to invest $20 million in Yeeyoo.  iResearch expects the Chinese online personals market revenue to grow by ~60% annually to 653 million yuan ($84.21 million) by 2008.  MySpace will launch in China within months. GSR Ventures and U.S. fund Mayfield jointly invested $2 million in "Baihe" — "Lily" in English — in late 2005.  In December, Baihe began charging 1,980 yuan per person for its high-end "Golden" service.  Most Chinese dating sites are free.
Mark Brooks: I have an interview with the CEO of Baihe.com lined up for OPW in March. Online dating has a casual connotation in China and is often referred to as 'friends-making.' The Asian internet dating conference is scheduled for May in Shanghai. See idate2007.com. 

Won’t be my Valentine? Fish and Wreath in the Mail

Posted on January 29, 2007

Poison_penREUTERS — Jan 29 — Poisonpen.com, will, for a small fee, send an anonymous poison pen card or letter to a former lover. Their motto is: "When you care enough to send the very worst." Yahoo! Personals dubbed the period between the December holidays and Valentine's Day on February 14 as national break-Up season. They found that couples were more than twice as likely to think about separating during this period than at any other time of the year. At the subversive motivational Web site Despair.com, offerings include a photograph of a red rose with the phrase: "You were meant for me. Perhaps as a punishment." Deadroses.com, sends dead roses.

Won’t be my Valentine? Fish and Wreath in the Mail

Posted on January 29, 2007

Poison_penREUTERS — Jan 29 — Poisonpen.com, will, for a small fee, send an anonymous poison pen card or letter to a former lover. Their motto is: "When you care enough to send the very worst." Yahoo! Personals dubbed the period between the December holidays and Valentine's Day on February 14 as national break-Up season. They found that couples were more than twice as likely to think about separating during this period than at any other time of the year. At the subversive motivational Web site Despair.com, offerings include a photograph of a red rose with the phrase: "You were meant for me. Perhaps as a punishment." Deadroses.com, sends dead roses.

MySpace Launches French Site

Posted on January 11, 2007

Myspace_11REUTERS — Jan 10 — MySpace launches its French site this week as part of it’s move into Europe. A beta site has been running in France for several months and officially goes live on Thursday. MySpace competes against Skyblog — part of a larger company called Orbus. Skyblog grew out of a French rap radio station and has been working on English, Spanish and German blogging services. According to latest data from comScore Media Metrix, Skyblog had 7 million uniques in France in November, compared with 1.3 million for MySpace. MySpace UK had 6.9 million uniques.  In Germany, MySpace’s beta site has more than 2.4 million monthly uniques and is expected to launch in a few weeks. An Italian site should be live within a couple of months.

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch.

MySpace Launches French Site

Posted on January 11, 2007

Myspace_11REUTERS — Jan 10 — MySpace launches its French site this week as part of it’s move into Europe. A beta site has been running in France for several months and officially goes live on Thursday. MySpace competes against Skyblog — part of a larger company called Orbus. Skyblog grew out of a French rap radio station and has been working on English, Spanish and German blogging services. According to latest data from comScore Media Metrix, Skyblog had 7 million uniques in France in November, compared with 1.3 million for MySpace. MySpace UK had 6.9 million uniques.  In Germany, MySpace’s beta site has more than 2.4 million monthly uniques and is expected to launch in a few weeks. An Italian site should be live within a couple of months.

This post also appears on Social Networking Watch.

Meetic Intends to Acquire DatingDirect

Posted on January 8, 2007

Meetic_logo_1REUTERS — Jan 8 — Meetic signed an agreement with a view to acquiring DatingDirect, UK's leading online dating service. Founded in 1999, DatingDirect has 4.5 million members (3.5 million in the UK), 70,000 paying members, 1.6 million uniques a month and £11 million annual revenue. Meetic has also signed an agreement for the acquisition, from the same shareholders, of Chemistry.co.uk which organizes UK singles events. Dating Direct has marketing partnerships with AOL, Channel4.com, HeartFM.co.uk, iVillage.co.uk, NTL and Tiscali. The acquisition of DatingDirect and Chemistry, for £27.3 million, will be carried out entirely in cash once the operation is finalised.

Meetic Intends to Acquire DatingDirect

Posted on January 8, 2007

Meetic_logo_1REUTERS — Jan 8 — Meetic signed an agreement with a view to acquiring DatingDirect, UK's leading online dating service. Founded in 1999, DatingDirect has 4.5 million members (3.5 million in the UK), 70,000 paying members, 1.6 million uniques a month and £11 million annual revenue. Meetic has also signed an agreement for the acquisition, from the same shareholders, of Chemistry.co.uk which organizes UK singles events. Dating Direct has marketing partnerships with AOL, Channel4.com, HeartFM.co.uk, iVillage.co.uk, NTL and Tiscali. The acquisition of DatingDirect and Chemistry, for £27.3 million, will be carried out entirely in cash once the operation is finalised.

Match.com Offers Profile Tips

Posted on December 26, 2006

Matchcom_18_7REUTERS  — Dec 26 — Online dating site Match.com is enlisting a celebrity stylist to advise camera-shy singles how to build a hip, sexy Web portrait of themselves. Match revenue grew 22% to $80 million in Q3. CEO Jim Safka believes a key to gaining new members is helping them find their voice online, whether to unleash their inner rock star or lyric poet in a Web portrait. "People are much more interesting and much more dynamic and appealing than their portraits and profiles often show…The people who have older photos or misrepresent themselves in some way, they are not successful on Match."

Match.com Offers Profile Tips

Posted on December 26, 2006

Matchcom_18_7REUTERS  — Dec 26 — Online dating site Match.com is enlisting a celebrity stylist to advise camera-shy singles how to build a hip, sexy Web portrait of themselves. Match revenue grew 22% to $80 million in Q3. CEO Jim Safka believes a key to gaining new members is helping them find their voice online, whether to unleash their inner rock star or lyric poet in a Web portrait. "People are much more interesting and much more dynamic and appealing than their portraits and profiles often show…The people who have older photos or misrepresent themselves in some way, they are not successful on Match."

MySpace to Offer Technology to Block Sex Offenders

Posted on December 6, 2006

Myspace_6REUTERS — Dec 5 — News Corp.'s MySpace said on Tuesday it will offer in the next 30 days a technology to identify and block convicted sex offenders from the popular online social network. MySpace struck a deal with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp., an expert in background verification, to build the new feature.  'Sentinel Safe,' will let MySpace search state and federal databases to seek out and delete MySpace profiles of registered sex offenders and will be available within 30 days. According to MySpace, there are 550,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S., and the new service will be the first national database that brings together about 46 state sex offender registers.