Category: Outlets – USA Today

More Singles Finding Love After Age 45

Posted on June 30, 2008

Oldercouple USA TODAY — June 27 — A USA Today analysis of Census records of Americans ages 45-55 shows that the percentage of those who said they had never been married in 2006 had doubled since 1990, and the percentage of those who were currently married had dropped by 9%. According to the most recent data from the federal Survey of Income and Program Participation, which includes marriage, 13% of those who wed in 2003 were 45 and older. Internet dating has largely made it possible for many of these later-life first marriages. Yahoo Personals reports a 33% increase from January 2006 to November 2007 among users ages 45 and over who say they have never been married. Match.com reports an increase of almost 10%.

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

Mark Brooks: Things are looking up for the internet dating industry, and singles are getting more choosy. Jupiter Research predicts the internet dating industry to grow to $1.9B revenues in 2012, up from $900 million in 2007.

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Headhunters For The Heart

Posted on February 14, 2008

Untitled USA TODAY — Feb 12 — Matchmakers seem to be popping up all over the country, many targeting their personalized services to eligible businessmen. Matchmaking has become such a buzzword that some dating websites use it in their marketing. In December, Match.com unveiled Match My Friends, which allows friends and family to play matchmaker. Engage.com came up with that premise when it launched in 2005. Matchmaking as a field also has grown since the 2003 opening of the Manhattan-based Matchmaking Institute, which sells a home study kit for $1,500. LaRosa's research suggests there are about 1,600 matchmakers in the USA, and about 100 are added each year. It is a very difficult business because matchmakers are dealing with emotional currency and extreme expectations. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Are you Hot Enough?

Posted on March 23, 2007

HotenoughUSA TODAY — Mar 22 — HotEnough.org is an online version of Studio 54; for "fit, good-looking" people.  Prospective members submit three pictures, including one body-shot, and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the club. Once they are in, they are permitted to e-mail other "hotties" for $9.95 a month.  25% of applicants make the grade. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: Nice concept. Quantcast.com shows HotEnough at 4200 uniques a month. If only I were hot enough, I could get in and tell you more about the site.

Are you Hot Enough?

Posted on March 23, 2007

HotenoughUSA TODAY — Mar 22 — HotEnough.org is an online version of Studio 54; for "fit, good-looking" people.  Prospective members submit three pictures, including one body-shot, and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the club. Once they are in, they are permitted to e-mail other "hotties" for $9.95 a month.  25% of applicants make the grade. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: Nice concept. Quantcast.com shows HotEnough at 4200 uniques a month. If only I were hot enough, I could get in and tell you more about the site.

Caller Privacy For Dating Sites

Posted on November 28, 2006

Jangllogo_1USA TODAY — Nov 27 — Are you ready to get Jangl'd? Michael Cerda, the co-founder of Jangl, a telephone service start-up, sure hopes so. "We give consumers the ability to call each other without giving out phone numbers," Cerda says. Go to Jangl.com, and sign up for a free account. Provide an e-mail address and telephone number. Create a "Jangl ID." Once you have your Jangl ID, Cerda says, "You can stop giving out your phone number and just Jangl." Callers must go to the Jangl website and key in their Jangl ID. To be accepted, callers have to provide enough personal information so that the Jangl system — which is bi-directional — can connect you with that caller. Once the required information has been keyed in, the Jangl system hands over your contact "phone number." In reality, however, it's a unique telephone ID for that particular relationship. As soon as the call is placed, Jangl forwards it to your real phone number. The privacy protection is bi-directional, so recipients don't know the real numbers of callers, either, Cerda notes. For security reasons, each call is announced with a short preamble that includes the caller's name. Recipients can accept, reject or block any call. Jangl is a natural for online dating services, which have long favored anonymous e-mail systems to protect the identity of users. On Nov. 2, online dating giant Match.com started offering Jangl as a free service, called "matchTalk."  Jane Thompson, a Match VP, says response to the feature has been "extraordinary."  She says 275,000 people already have used the feature.  One surprise: Match.com had expected the service to be used mostly by younger romance seekers, she says. But so far, 50% of users have been in the 35 to 49 age bracket. About 8% are over 55. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

uTube Sues YouTube

Posted on November 2, 2006

UtubeUSA TODAY — Nov 1 — Industrial tubing company, uTube, (17 employees, $12 million revenue) had to shut down its website because it was overwhelmed by 68 million hits on it's site in August. The lawsuit asks that YouTube stop using youtube.com or pay Universal Tube's cost for creating a new domain. It did not specify damages. "We were there first by 10 years," uTube CEO said. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Sony Pictures Buys Video-Sharing site, Grouper.com

Posted on August 24, 2006

GrouperUSA TODAY — Aug 23 — Sony Pictures Entertainment announced today that they have acquired video sharing site Grouper.com, for $65 million, in an effort to compete with the online video boom. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: Guba, BitTorrent, YouTube and Revver are competitors.

Level 3 to Provide Video Hosting for MySpace

Posted on August 21, 2006

Myspace_19USA TODAY — Aug 20 — Fiber network operator Level 3 will transmit Internet content, including video to MySpace. "We selected Level 3 because of the proven performance of its network and ability to support increasing high bandwidth demand," said Aber Whitcomb, CTO of MySpace.  MySpace’s video site had 20 million visitors last month, trailing Yahoo’s site, which had 21 million (comScore). FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

AOL, Start-ups Emerge to Challenge MySpace

Posted on May 23, 2006

Myspace_19USA TODAY — May 22 — MySpace's user base quadrupled to nearly 80 million over the past year, with as many as 270,000 joining every day. CollectiveX launched this month as a network for professionals and other pre-organized groups. Famoodle started in April as a MySpace for families. Tagged and Varsity World are billing themselves as safe havens for teens. AOL's AIM Pages is building upon its IM user-base of 49 million. A Microsoft spinoff company plans to launch Wallop later this year. FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY

Mark Brooks: The social networking snowball keeps on rolling. 

Osama Bin Laden fan Clubs Build Online Communities

Posted on March 13, 2006

OrkutUSA TODAY — Mar 8 — Al-Qaeda sympathizers are using Orkut to rally support for Osama bin Laden, share videos and Web links promoting terrorism and recruit non-Arabic-speaking Westerners.  The largest bin Laden community has more than 2,000 members.  Google, which operates Orkut, tries to keep intervention to a minimum. Orkut, with 13 million members, is particularly popular overseas, notably in Iran and Brazil. Iranian traffic was curtailed in January when the government banned Orkut and several popular blogging tools that carried anti-government content, Reporters Without Borders noted. More than half of Orkut’s users claim, upon registration, to be ages 18-25, and more than 75% say they are under 35.  FULL ARTICLE @ USA TODAY