The full article was originally published at Reviews.com, but is no longer available.
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Category: POF
80% Of Millennial Singles Have Been Victims Of ‘Ghosting’
FORTUNE – Mar 28 – A new survey released by dating site POF finds that 78% of single Millennials have been "ghosted" at least once. The term "ghosting" refers to a situation where one person ceases communication with the other with no explanation.
Tinder Is The Darling Of The Press
OPW – Feb 23 – The press just loves Tinder. In our "Best And Worst Press Coverage" overview, Tinder was the absolute winner in 2015. The mobile dating app appeared in the news on a daily basis with mainly positive press hits (except when CEO Sean Rad was interviewed;).
Here is the list of dating sites/app with best press coverage:
- Tinder
- Match.com
- eHarmony
- Grindr
- POF
- OKCupid
- Happn
- Bumble
- The Grade
- Hinge
The worst press coverage:
On the other site, for AshleyMadison 2015 was an exceptionally horrendous year. The site was hacked, members data was leaked online, and lawsuits followed; without a doubt AshleyMadison was the company with the worst press coverage of all.
Founder Of Lavalife Interviews Founder Of POF
BETAKIT – Jan 30 – Bruce Croxon, founder of Lavalife, sat down with Markus Frind, founder of POF, for an interview. While Lavalife had 400 employees and a paid service, Frind worked on the site alone and made it the largest dating site in the world. Frind said he wasn't too focused on beating Lavalife, and instead turned toward the US market. Lavalife was sold in 2010 for ~CAD$ 200M. POF was sold to The Match Group for ~CAD$ 800M ($575M).
Match Group Files For IPO
WSJ – Oct 16 – Match Group, owner of Tinder, OkCupid and Match.com has filed to go public on Friday. Their shares would be listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MTCH. The preliminary filing indicated Match would raise up to $100 million. Match Group's parent company IAC will retain over 50% of voting rights after the IPO.
The company logged $888.3 million in revenue in 2014, up about 11% from the previous year, according to its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Match's net income for 2014 was $148.4 million, up 18% year over year. All Match's dating properties have more than 59M MAU and approximately 4.7M paid members.
by Georgia Wells & Maria Armental
See full article at WSJ
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Most Dating Sites Have Bad Password Practices
FORBES – Sep 10 – An analysis of the security practices of 24 leading online dating sites has concluded that only seven use secure-enough password practices. Password management company Dashlane assessed each site on 19 different criteria, including the minimum length for a password to be acceptable, and whether there was a requirement for a mix of letters and numbers. Only Zoosk and OkCupid score ~50%. Most mainstream Internet services generally get 75 or above; Apple scores 100%. eHarmony scores 38, while Match.com, Gleeden and Adult Friend Finder all get 30%. At the bottom end of the scale, Badoo and POF with 22.
Plenty Of Fish Targetted By Cyber Criminals
DAILYSTAR.CO.UK – Aug 21 – People who visited PlentyOfFish in the last few days are likely to have had malicious spying software installed on their computers, which would have then tracked all of their keystrokes. This means hackers can see everything a person is typing – including when they log in to their online banking.
Markus Frind Invested In Grouplend
BUSINESS IN VANCOUVER – Aug 20 – Markus Frind, CEO and Founder of POF is keeping busy after agreeing to sell his company for $575M to The Match Group. Frind, along with Peer 1 Hosting founder Lance Tracey, are leading a $10.2M funding round for a Vancouver tech startup – Grouplend. The financial tech company was founded 10 months ago and uses data analytics to calculate different loan rates for customers depending on their history.
IAC Looks For Love In PlentyOfFish
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR – Aug 14 – Last month Match Group, agreed to buy POF for $575M in cash, the highest price it has ever paid for any of its various dating sites. To industry watchers, the high price that POF fetched was not all that surprising. IAC controlled 22% of the U.S. market before adding POF’s 4.9% share. According to Mark Brooks, Internet dating industry consultant and editor of Online Personals Watch, POF deal was mostly about timing. "Buying PlentyOfFish took one question off the table: What about the pressure from free sites, from POF? Now the answer is, 'We bought it.'" Many people looking for love will maintain profiles in several places at once. "One thing we know is that if we can't convert someone on one site, we can usually get them on a competing brand," says Brooks. "There are people who won’t try Match.com, but they will try PlentyOfFish." Analysts are eager for the spin-off. Chris Merwin, a senior U.S. Internet analyst at Barclays in New York, commented that IAC had been held back by Ask.com. "Now that there will be a true value for the Match Group in the marketplace, we think IAC will be able to unlock tremendous value." Brooks, too, feels shareholders are excited that Match Group will now be something "they can touch and feel."
by Lila MacLellan
The full article was originally published at Institutional Investor, but is no longer available.
Dating Apps Are Popular To Build But Not The Easiest Businesses To Sell
INSTITUTIONAL INVESTOR – Aug 14 – When Match bought POF for $575M in July, smaller dating sites felt encouraged. Mark Brooks, an Internet dating business consultant who has worked with POF, says the news prompted one start-up to approach him with a business plan. "They told me they'd like to get purchased by Match in six to nine months," Brooks says of the would-be clients. He had to set them straight, explaining that the POF acquisition was many years in the making. POF had impressive back-end features and 100M users. Bill Pescatello, a partner at Lightbank, a VC firm in Chicago, feels very optimistic about online romance. "It's crazy looking back to see how Tinder and other mobile apps have changed the game," he says. Tinderites may be anywhere from age 18 to 35, the younger set being those not yet interested in marriage prospects and likely to stay with the service for a longer time, notes Brooks. Another popular apps are Coffee Meets Bagel and Hinge. Dawoon Kang, CMB co-founder, says she believes her site will grow to rival Match. That kind of confidence made it easy for her to turn down Mark Cuban’s offer to buy the company for $30M.
by Lila MacLellan
See full article at Institutional Investor
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