Parship – Page 5 – Online Personals Watch

Wake-up Call, eHarmony Sold For A Song

Posted on October 30, 2018

OPW – Oct 30 – ProSiebenSat.1 bought eHarmony for $85 million. A real deal. They'll run on a common platform in the future. eHarmony will do roughly $90m revenues, and $0 profit in 2018. Customer lifetime value for eHarmony is $200, whereas Parship is at $570. More info here. Brand recognition for eHarmony stands above Tinder and on par with the likes of Instagram and American Airlines.

See full article at the Courtland Brooks blog.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Post by Mark Brooks, CEO IDEA

How Much Was eHarmony Sold For?

Posted on October 30, 2018

FINANCIAL TIMES – Oct 30 – ProSiebenSat.1, one of Germany's largest media groups, has agreed to buy US dating site eHarmony as part of its drive to create the world's biggest online matchmaker. ProSieben already owns stake in Parship Elite, a successful German dating business. ProSieben, which will merge eHarmony with Parship Elite did not disclose financial terms of the deal. But one person briefed on the acquisition said it valued eharmony at $85M – making it a surprisingly cheap date compared with rival Match, which has a market value of $13.7B. eHarmony, which raised ~$100M during just one fundraising round 15 years ago, has spent ~$1B on marketing in recent years, according to the person.

by Matthew Garrahan
See full article at Financial Times

Mark Brooks: eHarmony was sold for more than $85 million, that's for sure. Its brand value alone is worth double that. I'd put them at North of $300 million valuation.

UPDATE: Turns out FT's source was right on. eHarmony was indeed sold for $85m, so I need to eat my proverbial hat. Additional commentary on the Courtland Brooks blog.

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the IDEA team

Germany’s ProSiebenSat.1 Media (Parship) Acquires eHarmony

Posted on October 29, 2018

REUTERS – Oct 29 – Germany's ProSiebenSat.1 Media has bought eHarmony, in the first significant deal since it carved out a new e-commerce joint venture with General Atlantic. eHarmony expects 2.8 million new users this year, and complements ProSieben's own Parship dating franchise which is the market leader in Germany. Terms were not disclosed. Parship and sister brand Elite Partner, count 2 million registrations a year. eHarmony has brand awareness of nearly 90% and a very big user base that can be served better from a common platform. ProSieben is pushing to diversify away from its core commercial TV franchise, where ad revenues are flat and the sector is being disrupted by streaming platforms like Netflix. The Munich-based broadcaster bought eharmony via its newly created Nucom division, in which investor General Atlantic took a 24.9% stake in February. Nucom owns 94% of Parship. eharmony raised $113 million in two funding rounds. Most recently in 2004, Tuputele Ventures, TCV, Sequoia Capital and Fayez Sarofim & Co. eHarmony CEO Grant Langston will continue to run the business while representatives of Parship will join its board.

by Douglas Busvine & Joern Poltz
See full article at Reuters

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Parship’s Parents Company ProSieben Wants To Double Its Market Value In 5 Years

Posted on October 15, 2018

REUTERS – Oct 14 – The CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media wants to double the market value of the German broadcaster in the next three to five years. Max Conze said he sees ProSieben's portfolio of Internet investments in companies such as online dating agency Parship or online beauty retailer Flaconi as the main lever for a higher market capitalisation. "That was nothing five years ago, today it is worth 2B euros ($2.31B) and should double in five years," he said.

by Emma Thomasson
See full article at Reuters

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Summarized by the IDEA team

Parship: Online Dating Is Becoming Increasingly Popular

Posted on May 31, 2018

PARSHIP – May 29 – According to Parship, every second German has ever searched online for love (53%). In 2017, 90% of singles actively seeking a partner using the Internet (97% of people aged 35-44 use the Internet to search for partner, vs 47% of singles aged 18-29 years old). In 2017 there were 3.5M couples who met online. This means that more than every fifth German citizen (21%) has met the current partner on the Internet. The Internet is also one of the top flirting hotspots. 33% of Germans like to flirt on the Internet.

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Summarized by the IDEA team

General Atlantic Buys 25% Of ProSieben’s €1.8B Digital Business

Posted on February 23, 2018

PRIVATE EQUITY NEWS – Feb 22 – U.S. private-equity firm General Atlantic has bought a 25% stake in NuCom Group, the digital business of German media company ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. The deal valued NuCom at €1.8B, including debt, ProSieben said in a statement. The unit consists of 10 businesses, including online dating site Parship Elite Group and energy price-comparison business Verivox, and generated ~€650M of revenue in 2017. As part of the deal, ProSieben and General Atlantic have bought the minority stakes in Verivox and Parship held by Oakley Capital. The London buyout firm retained minority stakes in both businesses when it sold them to ProSieben in 2015 and 2016 respectively. Parship delivered an nearly five-times return on Oakley's invested capital, while the Verivox investment returned two and a half times its money.

by William Louch
See full article at Private Equity News

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This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.

Summarized by the IDEA team

Singles Pay 38Eur/Month For Online Dating In Germany

Posted on February 9, 2018

BUSINESS INSIDER – Feb 9 – A survey of 1K singles by the digital association Bitkom found that 1 in 3 German Internet users searches for a partner online. The most popular are paid services like Parship, eDarling or ElitePartner. On average, they spend ~38 euros per month. In addition, many singles use several apps at the same time: 59 percent of respondents say they use not just one service, but two or more services.

by Hannah Schwär
See full article at Business Insider

Summarized by the IDEA team

Why Are Investors So Afraid Of Dating Apps?

Posted on March 21, 2017

GRUENDERSZENE – Mar 20 – Mayze, a new Munich-based dating app, has been launched recently. Marianne Kraai, the app's founder, calls her app "Parship for the young generation". While the Tinder aims at young mobile users, who are mainly looking for casual relationships, Parship attracts older users who are looking for serious relationships. Mayze wants to position itself in the middle. The market is crowded. There is Tinder, Lovoo and Spotted but the apps don't attract any investors. Lovoo, for example, did not receive any external money. According to TechCrunch, there were only $47M for dating startups in 2016 – $32M went to a Chinese player. "Investors are often afraid of dating apps," says Romain Lavault, partner of the French VC Partech Ventures who led the investment in Once. "The apps do not hold their users, and it is very difficult to get users to pay," says Lavault. In addition, the exit market for dating startups is quite limited. Anke Hecht from VC Target Global sees a lack of innovation. "The dating market has not changed for years", she says.

by Kim Richters
See full article at GruenderSzene

Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

German Dating Site Parship Gets Face Lift

Posted on October 3, 2016

PARSHIP – Sep 29 – Parship has rolled out a new website and logo redesign. The new design is modern and clean with a new "Love Check" logo, a combination of a heart and check mark.

See full article at Parship website (in German)

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Summarized by the Courtland Brooks team

ProSiebenSat.1 Buys Majority Of Online Dating Group Parship Elite

Posted on September 5, 2016

REUTERS – Sep 5 – German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 is buying a majority stake in German online dating group Parship Elite in a deal valuing the company at 300M Eur ($335M) to expand its digital portfolio. ProSieben is paying 100M Eur for 50% plus one share in Parship Elite Group, which operates Parship and Elite Partner in the German-speaking world. It will also replace loans worth 100M Eur with preferred capital bearing a fixed rate of interest. The previous owners, Oakley Capital Private Equity II and the existing management, will keep just under 50% of shares in the group.