SF CHRONICLE – Dec 9 – Zoosk has picked Bank of America to lead its IPO, along with Citigroup and Royal Bank of Canada. Zooks has 40M active members and 2.9 percent market share. Zoosk said in May that Q1 revenue topped $40M and visitors to the website more than doubled from the prior year.
Category: Outlets – San Francisco Chronicle
False Sense Of Security In Users Of Dating Sites
SF CHRONICLE – June 28 – Despite the fact that many online dating sites don't
perform background checks, users feel a certain comfort level that they
won't run into sexual offenders or other criminals because they have
paid for the service. Online dating is big business, projected to
generate $834M in revenue this year, according to IbisWorld, an
independent research firm. IbisWorld predicted the industry eventually
could be "subjected to stricter domestic regulation due to concerns
about Internet privacy and misinformation placed on sites by some
members." Already, some states have moved in that direction. New Jersey
passed the Internet Dating Safety Act in 2008. The state requires
dating sites that don't perform criminal background checks to
prominently disclose that on their Web site. A similar bill in Texas in
2005 never made it out of a House committee. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
Gay Men Meet Up Through Grindr App For iPhone
SF GATE – Mar 19 – Gays are "grinding," the latest verb in the gay lexicon, which refers to the new gay dating app for the iPhone called Grindr. It uses GPS technology to download hundreds of pictures of available men within walking distance. As of this month, Grindr has 500,000 users worldwide and 2,000 more join daily. The free version of the app is supported by ads, and the $2.99 monthly ad-free version allows users to view twice the number of men – 200 – at once. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
eHarmony Settles Lawsuit Over Gay Matchmaking
SF CHRONICLE – Jan 27 - As a result of a 2008 settlement with the state of New Jersey, which sued the company for discrimination, men and women seeking same-sex matches were redirected from eHarmony to an affiliate Web site, Compatiblepartners.net. A separate class-action civil rights lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles in 2007, saying that eHarmony violated California law barring businesses from discriminating based on sexual orientation. The firm would establish a $2M settlement fund, with about $500,000 set aside for gay, lesbian and bisexual Californians who can show they were harmed by eHarmony's policies. The company did not admit wrongdoing. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
See all posts on eHarmony
See all posts on Compatible Partners
Online Dating Looks For Love On Social Media
SF CHRONICLE – Oct 27 – Some argue that social media such as Facebook or Twitter, which provide a more accurate snapshot of users' lives, can lead to better connections. Gelato, a new dating site, lets users create their profiles based on information from Twitter, Facebook, Hulu, Netflix and Last.fm. Thread, a site that opened in September, takes a jab at the awkwardness of navigating the Internet to meet strangers by helping Facebook users connect with the friends of their friends. Zoosk claims to be a combination of social networks and online dating. Co-founder Shayan Zadeh said that the site's platform is the digital equivalent of going out to a bar with friends and meeting new people. Blackbox Republic, another newcomer for sex-positive people, describes itself as a social dating site. It provides an environment where people can create networks they can retain even after finding new love interests. In a way, its goal is to challenge the shop-and-go spirit of the classifieds system, Blackbox Republic CEO Sam Lawrence said. OnlineDatingPost.com editor Dave Evans said "You're always going to have these dominant players, but the interesting stuff is with the edge cases. These guys have created a sexier proposition." FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
See all posts on Gelato See all posts on Zoosk
See all posts on Thread.com See all posts on Blackbox Republic
eHarmony Settlement Erodes Everyone’s Freedom
SF CHRONICLE — Dec 8 — The
decision by eHarmony to settle a sexual discrimination lawsuit last
month by creating a same-sex matchmaking service is no victory for
justice. It did nothing less than allow government to take away the
freedom of entrepreneurs to establish and stick to their own business
plans. eHarmony's business plan was
focused on male-female partnerships. Demanding that eHarmony
accommodate same-sex clients is akin to walking into an Asian grocery
store, discovering they don't have kosher meat, and suing for religious
discrimination. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
Gay Matchmaking Sites Find A Growing Market
SF CHRONICLE — Feb 14 — After eHarmony said its psychological research is based exclusively on heterosexual relationships, a growing number of rival online matchmakers are using their algorithms to find same-sex love as well. "There are just not enough services for creating healthy relationships, and it is a major gap in the gay community," said matchmaker Patrick Perrine, founder MyPartner.com, which caters to "sophisticated, cultured and relationship-oriented gay men. "There has been a long-held stereotype that gay people are only looking to hook up." Matchmakers like Chemistry.com, which estimates that about 10% of its 3.7 million clients are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, say all love is equal, straight or gay. The matchmakers claim "you can actually find people who are compatible, and this is a major advance that is going to keep the industry alive for the upcoming 50 years," said Mark Brooks, an Internet dating and social networking consultant. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
9% Of People Search For Info On Daters
SF CHRONICLE — Dec 17 — About half of the online adult population have looked themselves up, or someone else online, according to a survey published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 36% have searched the Web for someone with whom they’ve lost touch, and 9% have dug up information on someone they were dating. 60% are not worried about how much information about them is on the Internet. The study found that 61% have not felt compelled to limit it, while 38% have taken steps to control it. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE
I Left My Heart In San Francisco
SF CHRONICLE — Aug 2 — The dating scene in San Francisco is as complex and romantic as the atmosphere. City dwellers don’t rely on the typical bar scene. San Franciscans instead sip cocktails beside the turtle tank at the California Academy of Sciences, speed date (complete with dating game show) at Crush Lab, and entertain daytime dates at Farmer’s Market Saturdays. Trendy upscale bars and restaurants, of course, abound and localized social networking sites, not mainstream dating ones, reign supreme. FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE.COM
Jonathan Abrams Knows a Good Party
Photo Caption: In his Friendster days, Jonathan Abrams (right) worked closely with Mark Brooks (center) and Steve Kingsley-Jones.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE — Apr 7 — He co-owns a trendy bar in San Francisco and two restaurants…and founded Friendster, the site that kick-started the social networking phenomenon in 2003. Abrams is back at it with Socializr (Jonathan + two full time employees, $770k angel funding). Like MyPunchbowl and Renkoo, it is positioned as an alternative to Evite. While Evite limits users to its templates, on Socializr, they can personalize their invitations with music and videos. Instead of re-creating their profile, Socializr will find users' photos on Flickr, their profile on MySpace and the latest entries in their Xanga blog, putting them all on one page. Users can see their friends' party plans. "This is something I wanted to do at Friendster but I wasn't able to," Abrams said. "It's something Friendster still hasn't done." FULL ARTICLE @ SF GATE
Mark Brooks: I'm not really the bald guy. I'm on the left in this photo. Friendster was a victim of it's own success. Jonathan will be happy to take a more slow and steady (wins the race) approach this time around.