Mark Brooks: The Asian internet dating convention in May of 2007 will either be in Shanghai or Tokyo.
Category: Outlets – Reuters
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.
Newspaper Website Readership up 31%
REUTERS — Oct 5 — The average number of monthly visitors to U.S. newspaper websites rose by nearly a third in the first half of 2006 (to 55.5 million: Nielsen//Netratings), though print readership at some larger U.S. newspapers fell. Report by: Newspaper Association of America. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY
Mark Brooks: Here’s a summary of a great report by Rate or Date on newspaper and internet dating distribution deals.
Craig Newmark – Craigslist Not For Sale
REUTERS — Sep 28 — Craig is not interested in selling out despite MySpace $15 billion valuation. Craig was running his site (back when it was an e-mail list of local events) during the dot-com blowup. He saw stupid companies get stupid money and lose it. Keeping Craigslist a real $20-30 million company is much more satisfying than making it a fake $15 billion one.
The full article was originally published at Valleywag, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Craig is nothing but consistent. Many people have approached him since the site's inception and his answer has always been the same. eBay owns 25% of Craigslist only because one of the founding employees sold their share. I own Markslist.com btw. One day I'll do something useful with it. Any ideas? At one stage it was the social events calendar for Friendster. Now Jonathan (Friendster founder) has started Socializr as a social events social network.
Yahoo Courting Facebook
NY REUTERS — Sep 21 — Facebook is in serious talks to sell itself to Yahoo for an amount that could approach $1 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Facebook also held discussions with Microsoft and Viacom over the past year.
Mark Brooks: Will students on Facebook feel the same with Yahoo or Microsoft as momma bear? MySpace is doing well under News Corp it would seem, but I think that dynamic is very different from the potential dynamic between Facebook and Microsoft. Your comments please?
Senior Citizen a Surprise YouTube Star
REUTERS — Aug 14 — A septuagenarian British widower's soft-spoken, humble manner has won the hearts of young YouTube users. "What I hope I will be able to do is to just to bitch and grumble about life in general from the perspective of an old person who has been there and done that and hopefully you will respond in some way by your comments." 100 million clips are watched every day on YouTube.
Mark Brooks: YouTube is booming. Users are getting their webcams hooked up and actually using them now. It's time for online dating companies to more seriously consider the use of video for profile information, and webcams for video dating. Webcam dating solves the problems associated with users posting inaccurate/old photos.
Boomer’s Social Web Site Comes With Death Alerts
REUTERS — July 31 — A social networking Web site for Americans aged 50-plus went live on Monday complete with an online obituary database that sends out alerts when someone you may know dies. The founder of Internet job site Monster.com, Jeff Taylor, launched Eons.com, a similar site to the popular online teen hang-outs MySpace or Facebook for the 50-plus crowd complete with interactive games to build brain strength, news on entertainment and hobbies for older people, a personalized longevity calculator and tips to live longer.
Mark Brooks: Social networking is splintering into a myriad of niche sites. The big sites will continue to control 95% of the market, but in just the same way singles join 2 or 3 dating sites, social networking users will also join 2 or 3 social networks.
MOG Starts Test of Music-based Social Network
REUTERS — June 20 — MOG is Myspace for music junkies. The free site was started by former MTV marketing executive David Hyman with $1.4 million from private investors, requires users to download its application, MOG-O-MATIC, and catalogs the music on users' computer hard drives and monitors what they play the most.
Daily Mail Makes two Acquisitions to Expand Online
REUTERS UK — May 8– UK publisher Daily Mail & General Trust added the dating sites LoopyLove and GirlsDateForFree (Allegran) to its growing online media empire. Two acquisitions worth up to 46.5 million pounds. Its Associated Newspapers division acquired Allegran and 62.5% of Data Media and Retail (Carsource.co.uk) with a three-year earnout with its management to acquire the remaining 37.5%. Daily Mail's initial payments totalled 32.5 million pounds.Like its peers in the struggling newspaper sector, Daily Mail has been aggressively investing in online properties.
Mark Brooks: Newspapers are suffering and playing catchup, by acquisition. This is good news for online personals site valuations.