Category: POF

Dating Sites Hang On Despite Increasing Competition

Posted on September 23, 2008

Idate_logo_2008 IDG SERVICE — Sep 23 — Owners and companies running dating Web sites are meeting Monday and Tuesday at the Internet Dating Conference in London to discuss challenges in their industry. The top dating sites in the U.K. for June were PlentyofFish, followed by Meetic, Match.com, Gaydar.co.uk and GirlsDateForFree, according to comScore. In North America, the top sites in June were PlentyofFish, Singlesnet, eHarmony, Match.com and Yahoo Personals. The number of page views for dating sites are falling, and people are spending less time but revenues are growing. The main revenue model is subscription. Other dating sites are offering premium services used by traditional matchmaking companies. A site in China, Zhenai, charges $200 a year for access to its online site and team of match matchers who work with singles over the phone. That's far less than fees charged by traditional matchmakers, which can cost $5,000 or more a year, said Mark Brooks, who runs a consultancy focusing on social networks and dating sites. FreeDating.co.uk is free, and makes money by showing ads. It's the same model used by PlentyofFish, a relatively simple site that debuted in 2003 and has surged to the top spot in the U.S. and U.K. markets. FULL ARTICLE @ PC WORLD

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Nielsen Internet Dating Rankings Update

Posted on September 16, 2008

Nielsen_online_logo_nove OPW — Sep 16 — We have updated Nielsen Online U.S.A. internet dating rankings. Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and Singlesnet maintained their 1st, 3rd and 4th position respectively. TRUE ousts MSN Dating from it's 5th position. PlentyofFish jumped from #9 to #7. AOL Personals went down to #8 from #7. Mate1 and MSN Dating slide off the top 10.

Top 30 Techvibes StartUp Index

Posted on September 5, 2008

Plentyoffish_logo MARKET WIRE — Sep 4 — The Techvibes StartUp Index  lists the hottest online startups across Canada based on monthly website traffic scores. The Techvibes.com StartUp Index creates a hybrid score based on the overall rankings from both alexa.com and compete.com. The startups to make the coveted index list for September include PlentyofFish, Adhack and Now Public, which was named a 'Top Site of 2007' by TIME Magazine.

FULL ARTICLE @ MARKET WIRE

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How HotOrNot Bootstrapped Its Way To Profit

Posted on August 8, 2008

Hotornot_logo VENTURE WIRE — Aug 8 — HotOrNot.com, launched in 2000, became an Internet sensation, providing an early example of viral marketing and online advertising revenue before Google AdSense. The company never took any funding and sold earlier this year to Avid Life Media for a rumored $20m. Many entrepreneurs bootstrap their start-ups, going without outside investment and using their own resources. Other successful bootstrapped technology companies include Craigslist, AdventNet and PlentyofFish. FULL ARTICLE @ WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Dating Sites: What Consumers Really Think

Posted on August 5, 2008

Viewpoints_logo PR WEB — Aug 5 — Viewpoints, a consumer review site has consumer based reviews and rankings of 40 dating sites on the site. OKCupid has the highest rating, 3.58 on a 5 point scale. PlentyofFish is second.  However, the poll is completely unscientific as the these two site’s ratings are based on only 12 reviews and 15 reviews respectively. eHarmony and Match.com have the most reviews at 47 and 24. Christian Café got a perfect 5.0 rating . . . with one review. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

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Plentyoffish.com #1 Dating Site In North America And U.K.

Posted on July 29, 2008

Plentyoffish_logo PR NEWSWIRE — July 28 — The latest comScore Media Metrix numbers now rank the free dating site Plentyoffish.com as the leading dating site in both North America (U.S.A. + Canada) and the U.K.

Top 10 North American Dating Sites by Total Visits (000's)
PlentyofFish 36,825
Singlesnet 29,896
eHarmony 19,269
Match.com 18,329
Yahoo!Personals 16,365
People Media Sites 12,340
TRUE.com 10,716
SparkNetworks 9,124
Mate1.com 4,847
Humor Rainbow, Inc 3,714
comScore Media Metrix. June, 2008, age 2+ universe

Top 10 U.K. Dating Sites by Total Visits (000's)
PlentyofFish 8,052
Meetic 4,024
Match.com 2,724
Gaydar.co.uk 2,617
GirlsDateForFree 1,392
WhiteLabelDating.com 1,120
EasyDate 1,110
Smooch.com 1,102
QuickFlirt 1,054
LoopyLove 853
comScore Media Metrix. June, 2008, age 15+ universe

On Monday 14th July, the CEO and Founder Markus Frind opened up his 26th floor office in downtown Vancouver. Plentyoffish.com has hired its first six employees, the first six of a planned thirty person team that is being assembled to help roll out new advertising programs.

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

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‘Worth Keeping’ Test From PlentyofFish.com

Posted on July 7, 2008

Plentyoffish_logo PR NEWSWIRE — July 7 — The new "Worth Keeping Test" from the free dating site PlentyofFish.com is a 28-point questionnaire designed to tell you whether to reel him or her in, or to cut bait. The test is for those thinking of entering a relationship, or are in a new relationship. The scoring ranges along four points from strong disagreement to strong agreement and measures on four determining characteristics on a sliding scale. "If it is a struggle and there are too many differences, get back on PlentyofFish.com and find a better fit. Nothing is more important to your long-term happiness than finding a good mate," said Markus Frind, founder and CEO of PlentyofFish.com. 

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

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PlentyofFish Survey

Posted on June 24, 2008

Plentyoffish_logo THE PARADIGM SHIFT — June 23 — Over 100,000 users have taken the paid dating survey I sent out last night. 15.23% of daily active US users are currently active paying subscribers of other dating sites. 30% of people admitted clicking on ads. Most said they look at the ad and than check out the site later and signup. Normally around 300,000 users from the US log into Plentyoffish every day, representing 45,690 paying subscribers with 58,727 active subscriptions given an ARPU of $130 that is around $8,000,000. The longer they've been on Plentyoffish the higher the probability they have a paid subscription elsewhere. 3% of POF users have two paid subscriptions. Given that there are 1 to 1.4 million US paid subsribers monthly  we reach between 10% to 20% of them.

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

Mark Brooks: Your comments please… (Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of Courtland Brooks)

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Top 5 Free Dating Sites

Posted on June 17, 2008

OPW — June 17 — It seems that there are more free dating sites starting than paid these days, but I can't help thinking that the growth of Plentyoffish.com is somewhat of an anomaly.
Here's the line up of the top 5 free dating sites on Compete (by visits).
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I thought DateHookup was going to give Markus a run for his money but it seems their growth ran short of steam last month. Still, POF continues to surge as Markus chews on the UK market. I work for Markus and I've still not figured out how he does it. The answer I give is, POF has grown largely because 'it works.' They don't send bogus winks, or deny people access until they sign up. Dud profiles are kicked off the system regularly so there's less chaff for users to dig through before they get to the wheat. And the site is simple a la Craigslist (with the addition of ads).* Customer service is non-existant on the site, but its so darn simple, there's not an awful lot to need explaining, and because POF it's free there's no billing related issues to deal with.  Can anyone stop this juggernaut? Google could, of course. But the dating industry would immediately stop its Adwords spends then, right!  Your comments please. (Disclosure: POF is a client of Courtland Brooks) – Mark Brooks

*Talking of Craigslist, I worked with another site run by a one man band (hi Rob!) in 1999, called Hypermatch.com. We had a deal on the table with Craigslist for it to become the personals section on Craigslist.  There were two stipulations, we weren't to make money from memberships, or from advertising. We were stumped, so the site was sold to EZboard who slowly killed it off.

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Matchmaking Sites Work Harder To Attract Clients In Slump

Posted on May 29, 2008

Dating_sites_loga_hodne DALLAS NEWS — May 29 — Along with the high-profile pay sites such as Match.com and True.com, a flood of free sites, such as PlentyofFish.com, niche sites and even social networks vie for amorous clicks. Match.com's nearly $350m in revenue and 1.35m paying subscribers place it atop the industry. True.com doesn't disclose revenue figures but its Internet traffic fell the most of any of the top 20 dating sites measured by ComScore in March, down 39% over last year. "The market for paying users of online dating is nearing its natural limit", said Jupiter Research analyst Nate Elliott. Free sites and niche sites for ethnic or gay daters are a greater lure, he wrote.

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