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Category: Outlets – Reuters
Meetic Intends to Acquire DatingDirect
REUTERS — 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
REUTERS — 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
REUTERS — 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
REUTERS — 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
Markus Nails One of America’s Most Wanted
Homicide fugitive seeking online love arrested
REUTERS — Nov 20 — A fugitive, wanted for a double homicide in Arkansas, was arrested on the weekend in Wisconsin after he posted his name, picture and address on PlentyofFish.
Man sought in Arkansas double slaying captured in Wisconsin
ASSOCIATED PRESS — Nov 20 — Wisconsin authorities arrested Calvin A. Bennett, 26, on Sunday after a segment on the killings was aired Saturday night on the television show "America's Most Wanted." The television viewer's tip led police to PlentyofFish, run by Vancouver based CEO Markus Frind. A U.S. Marshal e-mailed him Saturday night. Within 10 minutes, Frind had gathered messages sent by Bennett to five women on the site ranging from "call me" to "I'd love to talk to you and get to know you," Frind said. From the messages, Frind could tell Bennett had moved into a home of a site user. He also found Bennett's cellular phone number. With that information, an Arkansas State Police investigator contacted Wisconsin authorities. About a dozen officers arrested Bennett as he tried to leave a home in Rothschild, Wis. Frind said he has removed Bennett from the dating Web site. But he cautioned that the arrest shouldn't dissuade people from attempting to find matches online. "I've made 112 million introductions since the site started," Frind said. "One in 8 million people get hit by lightning in the U.S."
Mark Brooks: Markus happened to stay in Saturday night and caught the email from the US Marshals and was able to quickly turn it around. What might have taken hours at some dating sites, took minutes…and the bad guy got nailed. Nice! Well done Markus.
MySpace to Launch in Japan with Softbank
Mark Brooks: The Asian internet dating convention in May of 2007 will either be in Shanghai or Tokyo.
YouTube Mobile in 2007
REUTERS — Nov 2 —YouTube, the popular online video sharing site, said Wednesday it hopes to launch a service for wireless devices within a year. Chad Hurley, YouTube CEO, said video services on mobile phones was a key opportunity for the company. "Within the next year we hope to have something on a mobile device, it's going to be a huge market, especially for the video mind-set we're dealing with, it's a natural transition," said Hurley. In May, YouTube To Go launched, enabling users to upload clips directly from their mobile phones. Over 100 million clips are viewed on YouTube every day. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
Mark Brooks: Mark my words, the future online dating leaders who figure out how to mesh webcam based services with mobile phones. Mobestar (new, tanked stock), Enpocket (enabled Match), Trilibis (enabled Webdate), Plutolife (enabled Lavalife). These are the companies you should talk to if you want to take your dating site mobile.
Online Daters Turn to Matchmakers
REUTERS — Nov 1 — Online daters, disappointed by potential partners lying about their age, weight or marital status, are paying thousands of dollars to matchmakers to discreetly "headhunt" and vet the perfect partner. "So many people have had nightmare experiences with people misrepresenting themselves," said Christie Nightingale, principal of New York-based Premier Match LLC. Her agency employs a team of women to scour social and business events for potential matches. Nightingale hand outs a list of "do's and don'ts" to her clients before they head off for dates — such as turn off your cell phone and don't talk about former partners. Some top-end US matchmakers — who charge up to $25,000 — also organise makeovers and relationship coaching for clients. The US-based Matchmaking Institute also trains matchmakers. FULL ARTICLE @ CHINA DAILY
Mark Brooks: Real world matchmaking services are severely flawed due to a lack of selection. Online dating services are severely flawed due to a lack of service. Who will get the marriage of the two right, first? The race is on. LoveAccess is working on it. Match is working on it. Great Expactations would love to do a deal. GE is making good money from converting leads generated from dating sites. Building a matchmakers infrastructure throughout the USA is no easy feat. But, the phone is your friend 😉 It's possible to roll out a quality, well priced phone-borne matchmaking service nationwide. I would love to see a hybrid service offer a ~$2500 a year service with a money back guarantee. Crazy, but possible, and very viral.