THE PARADIGM SHIFT — May 28 — OKCupid power point investor/partner pitch. Evidently Match.com has only 1.2m active users every 8 weeks. Meetic only has 400,000 active users and no other dating sites in the industry break 100k active members in two month time span! Okcupid supposedly has 500k "active members" and PlentyofFish is excluded.
The full article was originally published at The Paradigm Shift, but is no longer available.
CALGARY HERALD — May 24 — Canadians seem to love being in love, a new survey by Ipsos Reid has found. 7 in 10 Canadians are romantically in love right now — with more women (80%) than men (67%) feeling amorous. The poll also found that 16% of Canadians had found love online, with the younger demographic having more success. Only 7% of those aged 55 and older had started a relationship online. But Markus Frind, founder of online dating site PlentyofFish.com, says the average age of his members is 37. "It's so obvious that people would use online dating over other methods," said Frind. "If you're 35 and single, what are the chances of you meeting someone at a bar or a grocery store who is exactly what you want?"
The full article was originally published at Calgary Herald & other sources, but is no longer available.
PR NEWSWIRE — May 20 — PEER 1 Network Enterprises, a provider of online IT infrastructure, is the recipient of four Telly Awards for outstanding achievement with its original short online videos. The winning videos, episode one of "Growing Pains" and the PEER 1 PlentyofFish.com customer testimonial, were selected among thousands of entries for their humor and creativity. PEER 1's PlentyofFish.com video customer story won three bronze awards in the Video categories of Infomercial, How-To/Instructional and Comedy. The story focuses on the PlentyofFish.com business, as the largest free online dating site. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE
ONLINE DATING POST — May 1 –Alex Moskalyuk draws a bead on online dating advertising spend: Spending for the top ten dating services represents 91% of total spending for this industry ($356.5 mln of the $379.6 mln total), according to Nielsen. Match.com led the way, spending $145.5 mln in January – October 2007, almost doubling its budget from the same time period in 2006. On the other hand, the number two advertiser eHarmony.com, cut spending 16 percent, reaching $88.1 mln, and gave up its number one position. PlentyofFish isn’t even on the list, good for Markus. When he shows up on it we’ll know the decline has started. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE DATING POST
TECH CRUNCH — Apr 24 — In the internet dating space, bigger is not always best. According to the latest U.S. numbers from Hitwise, the top niche dating sites are steadily gaining market share while their big mainstream counterparts stagnate. In March 2008, the top 5 overall sites held 7% less market share than they did in 2007 (Plentyoffish and Singlesnet were the only sites to buck this trend individually). Meanwhile, the top sites (Adam4Adam, Manhunt, Gay.com, BlackPeopleMeet, BlackSingles, BlackChristianPeopleMeet, ChristianMingle, JDate, and ChristianCafe.com) from the top five major niche dating categories made considerable gains. The biggest niche in terms of total traffic is casual dating, which consists of sites like Fling, AdultFriendFinder, and SexSearch. While the top 10 mainstream dating sites gained only 0.01% of total Internet traffic over the past year, the top three casual adult sites gained 0.07%. That's a hefty 56% increase in the traffic. (Authored by Mark Brooks)
FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
NMA — Mar 17 — The UK and Germany are Europe's largest online dating markets, worth 66m Eur las year, according to Jupiter. PlentyofFish, Gaydar, DatingDirect and Match dominate the UK's online dating market, according to Hitwise. Offline matchmaking service Dateline, which has been operating in the UK for more than 40 years, has launched an online dating site Dateline.co.uk. WhiteLabelDating.com has been appointed to provide the platform for the site.
The full article was originally published at NMA, but is no longer available.
TRADING MARKETS — Mar 11 — Jangl, a company connecting online profiles and mobile phones, has unveiled a new mobile media initiative with Pudding Media and advertising agency Ogilvys Digital Innovation Group. Jangl services already enable SMS, calling and voicemail for Facebook, Bebo and Plentyoffish. Jangl and Pudding Media tested pre-roll spots prior to calls on its free direct services and recently tested ads appended to SMS messages in Bebo and Facebook. Jangl is now working on new campaigns that leverage the interactive response capabilities of its voice services to deliver links and additional information via SMS to customers that respond and opt-in to promotions.
The full article was originally published at Trading Markets, but is no longer available.
THE PROVINCE — Mar 9 — Markus Frind, the sole owner of PlentyofFish, works two hours a day and makes as much as $10 million a year. That's why he is already considered a dot-com legend at the ripe old age of 29. Guy Kawasaki hails Frind a personal "hero." But Frind is by no means the first British Columbian to become an Internet mogul. Fellow Vancouverite Kevin Ham has an Internet portfolio of domain names worth an estimated $300 million, while Richmond blogger John Chow found online riches through his popular blog. Then there's Vancouver couple Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, creators of photo-sharing site Flickr, which was sold to Yahoo in 2005 for a rumoured $40 million. Frind's success is largely due to the fact that he's figured out a way to run his site on autopilot. Markus has his eyes set on moving into the Chinese and European markets one day. "I'm driven," he concedes. "It's just fun winning. I feel like I'm playing a video game. There's always another level."
The full article was originally published at Canada.com, but is no longer available.
OPW — Mar 2 — Match is doing well in Europe. Meetic is the local leader. Parship is picking up market share. Dating Direct and Plentyoffish lead in the UK market. But this is not an easy market to get traction in. Europe will never be the 'United States of Europe'. There are more divides. Case in point, check out this amusing article on 'What Europeans Think Of Each Other'. (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of Courtland Brooks)
EMEDIAWIRE — Feb 19 — DateHookup.com now offers advertisers the ability to target its ad inventory by specific demographics, including age range and gender, thanks to Google's new demographic bidding feature. Google's demographic targeting feature recently entered beta testing.
The full article was originally published at eMediaWire, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Both sites are growing gangbusters. DateHookup.com, like Plentyoffish, is also run by one person. Plentyoffish also offers ad targeting via Google Adsense. Direct advertising deals for top tier dating sites are available on Plentyoffish now, btw. (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of Courtland Brooks)