Category: Outlets – San Jose Mercury News

Engage.com Connects Daters with Matchmakers

Posted on April 9, 2007

EngageMERCURY NEWS — Apr 9 — Engage.com (free, 200k members) is founded on the premise that online dating needs to be more like offline dating. Members are encouraged to seek out matchmakers who have volunteered to act as yentas…and invite friends to join and to vouch for them. The site's old-fashioned approach to courtship is one answer to the disappointment reported by online daters. A 2005 JupiterResearch survey found one in three online daters as "somewhat satisfied." Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com and an Internet dating consultant, said Engage addresses one weakness of the most popular dating sites, the ability to involve one's friends in a budding romance. Brooks said the chance of hooking up with a friend of a friend is one of the keys to the success of social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. People can avoid the awkwardness of actually declaring they are single, but don't want to be. "I love what they are doing, but it's going to take them awhile to be successful," Brooks said. Some of Engage's features are specifically designed to turn off would-be "players" who populate other sites. For example, Engage encourages its members to rate one another on "responsiveness," "politeness" and whether a person is "true" to his or her profile. Mike Murrow has been chronicling his online dating misadventures and said Engage's matchmaker process sounded good but required friends who were extremely committed. "My friends have their own lives; they are not going to scan through the profiles." FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS

Mark Brooks: I think the industry is doing a better job of setting expectations these days. Online dating takes time. The matchmaking industry is doing well because many people don't want to spend time. They just want dates, and they'll pay for them. There's an opportunity in there somewhere. 😉 The clever people at Match are working to meld the yenta and online dating worlds together, but I think it will be a little tougher than they think. I think Match will need to offer a money back guarantee to safeguard their brand, and encourage word-of-mouth, and compete with $3000+ services like Great Expectations, Together Dating/The Right One, and Table For Six.

Engage.com Connects Daters with Matchmakers

Posted on April 9, 2007

EngageMERCURY NEWS — Apr 9 — Engage.com (free, 200k members) is founded on the premise that online dating needs to be more like offline dating. Members are encouraged to seek out matchmakers who have volunteered to act as yentas…and invite friends to join and to vouch for them. The site's old-fashioned approach to courtship is one answer to the disappointment reported by online daters. A 2005 JupiterResearch survey found one in three online daters as "somewhat satisfied." Mark Brooks, editor of Onlinepersonalswatch.com and an Internet dating consultant, said Engage addresses one weakness of the most popular dating sites, the ability to involve one's friends in a budding romance. Brooks said the chance of hooking up with a friend of a friend is one of the keys to the success of social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. People can avoid the awkwardness of actually declaring they are single, but don't want to be. "I love what they are doing, but it's going to take them awhile to be successful," Brooks said. Some of Engage's features are specifically designed to turn off would-be "players" who populate other sites. For example, Engage encourages its members to rate one another on "responsiveness," "politeness" and whether a person is "true" to his or her profile. Mike Murrow has been chronicling his online dating misadventures and said Engage's matchmaker process sounded good but required friends who were extremely committed. "My friends have their own lives; they are not going to scan through the profiles." FULL ARTICLE @ MERCURY NEWS

Mark Brooks: I think the industry is doing a better job of setting expectations these days. Online dating takes time. The matchmaking industry is doing well because many people don't want to spend time. They just want dates, and they'll pay for them. There's an opportunity in there somewhere. 😉 The clever people at Match are working to meld the yenta and online dating worlds together, but I think it will be a little tougher than they think. I think Match will need to offer a money back guarantee to safeguard their brand, and encourage word-of-mouth, and compete with $3000+ services like Great Expectations, Together Dating/The Right One, and Table For Six.

Pals Playing Matchmaker

Posted on January 21, 2007

CoupleMERCURY NEWS — Jan 18 — Singles on the lookout for a partner are setting aside Internet searches and returning to the matchmaker. Unlike the gossipy Yenta of "Fiddler on the Roof," today’s matchmakers are often tech-savvy amateur cupids who run through a range of social circles. Relationship expert Jeff Cohen, author of Dating Inc., says that the diminished novelty of online dating, along with the perception that not everyone is completely honest in their profiles, has prompted more people to put their faith in a matchmaker and try blind dating. "In the last five or so years, online dating was huge, but now you’re starting to see a shift back to this way of meeting people," says Cohen.

Mark Brooks: Match is moving towards high end, hands on, matchmaking. Will the movie ‘Hitch,’ with Will Smith, inspire a new billion dollar industry in the USA? 

Pals Playing Matchmaker

Posted on January 21, 2007

CoupleMERCURY NEWS — Jan 18 — Singles on the lookout for a partner are setting aside Internet searches and returning to the matchmaker. Unlike the gossipy Yenta of "Fiddler on the Roof," today’s matchmakers are often tech-savvy amateur cupids who run through a range of social circles. Relationship expert Jeff Cohen, author of Dating Inc., says that the diminished novelty of online dating, along with the perception that not everyone is completely honest in their profiles, has prompted more people to put their faith in a matchmaker and try blind dating. "In the last five or so years, online dating was huge, but now you’re starting to see a shift back to this way of meeting people," says Cohen.

Mark Brooks: Match is moving towards high end, hands on, matchmaking. Will the movie ‘Hitch,’ with Will Smith, inspire a new billion dollar industry in the USA? 

Profits Don’t Always Woo Investors

Posted on November 2, 2006

AdultMERCURY NEWS — Nov 1 — In Palo Alto, Andrew Conru looks like a typical Silicon Valley entrepreneur. The bespectacled, sandy-haired 38-year-old Stanford Ph.D. runs one of the best-known but least discussed Web destinations, Adultfriendfinder.com (25 million users, #58 on Alexa). In comparison, Facebook (9.5 million users, #56 on Alexa) is for sale for ~$1 billion. Most investors can't do anything about Various other than watch it expand. Many firms have "sin clauses'' with their financial backers that outline the types of companies they are strongly discouraged from backing, such as adult entertainment outfits. An IPO is an option, but stocks of publicly held adult content companies get discounted heavily because so many investors, like mutual fund managers, can't buy the shares. There also aren't many potential purchasers and Conru says his company is worth more than they can afford. There's no easy way to "exit'' Various. He employs 300 people, including 100 programmers. According to one former employee of Various who asked not to be named and his company has been making money since 1996, mostly through Adultfriendfinder.com and Alt.com. Conru owns 90% and is worth $100 million+ (The other 10% is owned by Lars Mapstead, whose start-up, Cams.com, was acquired by the company last year.)

The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: I worked for Andrew in 2003 as his PR manager, amongst other things. Tough role, great guy. After working with Friendster I realised I needed to work for a real company and learn the ropes.  Whenever I advise my clients I often ask myself, "what would Andrew do." I heard Various will bring in $400 million this year. I'm sure AdultFriendFrinder will contribute well in excess of $100 million to that revenue number. In 2003 the official, but very rarely mentioned revenue number was $75 million. That number was, if anything, conservative.  Here's what Matt Marshall of VentureBeat had to say…

Owner of Adultfriendfinder Raking in "$100s of millions"

We're left with some questions. We're not sure why Conru needs the cash if the company is profitable and raking in so much revenue. The article says Adultfriendfinder is the 58th most popular site on the web, just behind Facebook, citing Alexa web-measurement data. Alexa data is notoriously unreliable — especially when it is used to compare something against Facebook. Alexa can be seriously gamed, because it relies on software downloaded by relatively small number of people to track traffic patterns.  Perhaps there's no one else willing to track this area? 😉 FULL ARTICLE @ VENTURE BEAT

Mark Brooks: He doesn't need the cash. But, he'd like to take a break. But, there's noone he can trust (besides Lars and Charlyn) to run the company. It's no small entity. Andrew knows every single corner, facet and feature and is master of his kingdom. The real problem is, he's a genius. Which makes his job of replacing himself rather tough. The thorn in Andrew's side, of late, is the sexier, sleeker, rising star SexSearch.com which is slowly but surely, using every means possible, stealing away adult/casual dating market share.

Social Networking Services at CTIA

Posted on September 15, 2006

MERCURY NEWS — Sep 14 — Standing next to buckets of chilled wine and beer, the FunkySexyCool.com girls certainly got the attention of executives attending the wireless convention this week. The Australian-born company sells a game in which users rate one another on whether they are funky, sexy or cool and has signed up 125,000 users, mainly aged 16 to 24, in Australia since launching a year ago. Niche social networking products have been everywhere at the conference. Juice Wireless allows users to take pictures or videos on their mobile phones and immediately upload them to a Web site or share them with other mobile phone users. Mapquest launched a service that finds addresses and provides turn-by-turn, voice-guided directions for subscribers, turning the mobile phone into a global positioning navigator for $10 a month, on a couple of high-end Sprint/Nextel phones.

The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.

Start-up to Offer CD-Swap Network

Posted on March 8, 2006

LalacomMERCURY NEWS — Mar 7 — A Palo Alto start-up is launching a service that is a mix of social networking, Internet swap meet and music store.  It's MySpace.com meets eBay meets iTunes.  Lala.com opens this summer. (The company is offering 1,000 early memberships at http://www.lala.com/invite/sj beginning at 6 a.m Tuesday.) Lala.com has $9 million from Bain Capital Ventures and Ignition Partners, presents itself as an online music co-op that allows members to trade CD.

The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.

Where Singles Click

Posted on September 13, 2005

DatemypetcomMERCURY NEWS — Sept 11 — Wendell Loyd has gone on plenty of bad dates. He wasn't meeting the right woman so the former software developer created http://www.realidate.com, which helps singles meet through volunteer activities benefiting Bay Area charities.  "A lot of people don't tell the truth," says Wendy, who met her boyfriend through www.datemypet.com. "With the big sites, you're getting at a demographic that's just, well — everybody. There's no pre-screening for people who might have the same interests or what you're looking for." Sandler, of San Francisco, is working on www.asoundmatch.com, which matches music-loving singles. 

Mark Brooks: If you have a particular 'thing' that you are looking for, there's probably an online personals site that caters to your needs. However, I recommend choosing from the top 15 if you don't have a particular preference. 

GoingOn Aims to be Social `Network of Networks’

Posted on July 26, 2005

MERCURY NEWS — July 22 — GoingOn, will work on an open-standards platform, is expected to launch this fall, and will mix social networking and blogging.  Perkins and Canter said they want the company to be a "network of networks" — a platform open for integration with other social networking players, such as Tribe or Friendster, and other large media companies, such as Yahoo, and even other corporate sites. All these players could create their own networks on GoingOn.  Being interoperable is not entirely new. SXIP sells a product that allows the same user name/password information to be used across many networks.

The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.

Site Helps Teens Find Old Friends

Posted on May 4, 2005

Myspace_2SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS — May 3 — Move over, Friendster. There's a hotter site on the Web.  Teens are turning to Myspace to keep in touch; 14 million users.  Myspace is more than a personals site. Some musicians are creating pages dedicated to their work. The site dedicates a section of its home page to 'Myspace Music,' where unsigned and popular bands alike are profiled with links to their Myspace sites.  It even released a single by the rock group Oasis that could be heard only on www.myspace.com/oasis 

The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: MySpace has empowered their users with far more customization options.  They live up to the name 'my space' and that's something worth talking about apparently…to the tune of 14 million users!  What can online dating companies learn from MySpace?  Your comments please…