MASHABLE — Jan 27 — Markus Frind is looking to buy or build a huge paid dating site to
harpoon even his biggest competitors. Frind proclaims, "Given what everyone else in the market is doing
now the only real choice we have is to acquire a mass market paid
dating site or build one myself." FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
THE GAZETTE — Jan 21 — toolazytodoit.com is open to anybody and it's a place where ideas already implemented could be developed for other markets. It offers users a chance to publish their own ideas, or share the ones they love with others. One of the success stories that has already made it onto the site is that of Markus Frind of plentyoffish.com, who launched a completely free dating website five years ago and now collects ad revenues of $10 million a year.
The full article was originally published at Canada Working, but is no longer available.
AOL FRANCE — A French ranking of the webs most successful and richest young (under 30) entrepreneurs features Markus Frind, CEO of Plentyoffish.com.
The full article was originally published at AOL Finance, but is no longer available.
INC — Jan 9 — January's Inc cover features Markus Frind (Plentyoffish.com, age 30) who, with a mix of ingenuity and practiced simplicity has managed to build a $10 million business entirely on his own. Check out this little funny video from INC.
INC MAGAZINE — Jan 8 — Plentyoffish is on track to book revenue of $10M for 2008, with 50%+ profit. Frind can be disarmingly frank. Yahoo, he says, is "a complete joke," Google is "a cult," and Match is "dying." Mark Brooks, a marketing consultant who has advised Frind since 2006 said "I've never known anybody so competitive. He always says exactly what he thinks." Frind made just $5 in his 1st month but by the end of the year he was making $3,300 a month, largely by selling ads to paid dating sites. From March to Nov' '03 he expanded from 40 members to 10,000. By 2006, Plentyoffish was serving 200m pages/mo. In 2008 he rented an office and hired 3 people. Frind estimates, based on exit surveys, that the site creates 800k successful relationships a year. FULL ARTICLE @ INC MAGAZINE
TECH CRUNCH — Jan 7 — Earlier this week IAC (owns Match & Chemistry) launched a completely free dating site called DownToEarth.com. This move is IAC/Match.com's answer to Plentyoffish.com. Apparently IAC believes if someone is going to put Match out of business, it might as well be Match. But Markus Frind fancies his chances with Plentyoffish.com.The top free dating sites in the USA are currently:
#1 Plentyoffish
#2 Adam4Adam
#3 Date Hookup
#4 OKCupid
#5 Mingle2
And in the UK:
#1 Plentyoffish
#2 Person
#3 FriendsReunitedDating.co.uk
#4 Smooch
#5 Freedating.co.uk
NORTH SHORE NEWS — Dec 24 – For some people the online dating world is a boon, for others it is a waste of time and source of more frustration. One of the biggest and apparently best of the online dating sites is www.plentyoffish.com. Plenty of Fish is absolutely free. It might not have the fancy matching logic but it does have volume. You have to love some of the other names for dating sites: LonelyWivesAffairs seems to have promise, kisscafe has a nice Sleepless in Seattle feel to it, and I won't even begin on Sugardaddie.com.
The full article was originally published at North Shore News, but is no longer available.
See all posts on PlentyofFish
See all posts on Kisscafe
See all posts on SugarDaddie.com
MASHABLE — Dec 21 — Plentyoffish.com boasts 900k active daily
members and one solo developer and is actually gaining market share and
distancing itself from seasoned competitors with full staffs and fancy
websites like Match.com and eHarmony. Plentyoffish's US monthly market share in the dating category
continues to rise, now 17%, while Match and eHarmony have
only managed to amass 3 – 5% market share. According to Frind's
Plentyoffish blog, not only is Plentyoffish the top dating site in the
US and the UK, but it's continuing to see steady signups in December, a
month that Frind observes normally sees a 30% decrease. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE
Mark Brooks: In this economy, no wonder. Your comments please. (Full Disclosure: POF is a client of Courtland Brooks)
PARADIGM SHIFT — Nov 29 — Plentyoffish paid virtual goods are now live.
The full article was originally published at The Paradigm Shift, but is no longer available.
OPW — Nov 21 — We have just updated Hitwise US online dating rankings for October. PlentyofFish.com is now the #1 dating site in the US followed by Singlesnet, Yahoo Personals and Match.com. PlentyofFish.com is also the #1 dating site in the UK according to Hitwise.