THE PARADIGM SHIFT — Jan 27 — It’s tough to find dating sites that will actually allow you to
advertise your dating site on them. Plentyoffish allows competitors to
advertise. Markus drives a ton of traffic (millions of dollars/yr) to
dating sites. You can buy age and gender targeted traffic on POF
through Google now. Right here. (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish.com is a client of Courtland Brooks)
Category: POF
PlentyofFish Selected For New Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program
PR WEB — Jan 23 — PlentyofFish has been chosen to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, designed to connect high-potential startups to an extensive support network that provides access to Microsoft people and programs, guidance on future directions, and support to accelerate their success. Companies like PlentyofFish were selected by Microsoft for the program based on their innovation, marketability, growth potential, funding, platform decision and strategic importance to Microsoft.
The full article was originally published at eMedia Wire, but is no longer available.
UK Hitwise Rankings Update
OPW — Jan 18 — We've just updated Hitwise UK Online dating rankings. SexInTheUK is # 1, moving PlentyofFish, Gaydar.co.uk and DatingDirect down to #2, #3 and #4. Pocado.com entered the chart at #6. BeNaughty, GirlsDateForFree and TelegraphDating dropped to #7, #8, #10 from #4, #6 and #8. LoopyLove slides off the top 10.
From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year
NY TIMES — Jan 13 — Markus Frind, a 29-year-old Web entrepreneur, developed software for his dating site, PlentyofFish, that operates almost completely on autopilot, leaving Mr. Frind plenty of free time. On average, he puts in about a 10-hour workweek. Mr. Frind operates the business out of his apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has net profits of about $10 million a year. According to comScore Media Metrix for November 2007, PlentyofFish had 1.4 million unique visitors in the United States. In December, the site served up 1.2 billion page views. PlentyofFish does not need a support structure to handle members' subscription and billing issues because the service is entirely advertising-based. Its tagline is: "100 percent free. Put away your credit card." Its success demonstrates that many consumers will tolerate, and even embrace, advertising when a site offers a free service for which others charge membership fees. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES
January Boom Time For Internet Dating
SEATTLE TIMES — Jan 3 — January is the busiest and most profitable month for online dating services. According to Hitwise, more singles visited dating sites in January 2006 than in any other month that year, mostly due to New Year's resolutions. People start to re-evaluate their lives and they all set their New Year's resolutions to find someone," said Markus Frind, founder of Plentyoffish.com. Plentyoffish.com, with 10,000 members in Washington state, projects a 30 % spike in traffic this month. Perfectmatch.com expects a 15 % jump. "Who are you dating? Are there wedding bells? All those questions get asked at November and December family gatherings", said Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, which tracks the online dating industry.
The full article was originally published at Seattle Times, but is no longer available.
The Big Switch May Turn Off Jobs
GUARDIAN.CO.UK — Jan 3 — Over the past few decades, we've seen a growth of riches in a small slice of the population. YouTube became one of the most popular and fastest-growing websites with just 60 employees. Within two years Skype had signed up 53 million customers and was attracting 150,000 new subscribers every day. Yet Skype employed just 200 people. Even more remarkable is PlentyOfFish, an online dating service. Launched in Canada in 2003, the site experienced explosive growth. By late 2006, some 300,000 people were logging on to the service every day, and they were looking at about 600m pages a month. Only one person, Markus Frind, did this booming business employ. Companies like YouTube, Skype and PlentyOfFish are constructed almost entirely of software. The cost of distributing their goods or services to a new customer is essentially zero, so they can expand vastly without hiring additional employees. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK
Guy Kawasaki Interviews CEO’s Of Hi5 and PlentyofFish At VC Summit
MERCEXTRA — Dec 7 — The highlight of the AlwaysOn Venture Capital Summit was Guy Kawasaki's panel, "Why Take Venture Capital At All." This was a contrarian panel featuring five companies that achieved success without outside capital. Drew Curtis, Founder, Fark, Markus Frind, Founder, PlentyofFish, Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO, Hi5, Blake Commagere, Co-Founder, Mogad. Kawasaki asked everyone how much traffic they were getting. Fark.com has managed to get 52 million page views a month. Markus Frind gets 1.2 billion page views a month from 50 million unique visitors. Markus started the company because he needed to learn ASP.net. Hi5 has 35 million unique visitors and 12 billion pages. Blake Commagere, co-founder of Mogad created the Zombies and Vampires social game. In five month, there have been 20 million users, five million unique visitors who are active and the monthly page views are 500 million.
Plentyoffish.com #1 Dating Site In The U.K.
PR NEWSWIRE — Nov 27 – According to comScore World Metrix, Plentyoffish.com is now the #1 online dating site in UK as ranked by unique visits. Plentyoffish.com received 7,209,000 visits in the U.K. during the month of October, 2007. Meanwhile, the combined total traffic of all the Meetic sites was 4,397,000, and 2,100,000 for Match.com in the same period. PlentyofFish has grown to be the #1 dating site in the world, overall. #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and the 2nd most popular in the USA.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.
Manhunt Parties On
SNW — Nov 27 — In case you hadn't noticed, Manhunt is just chewing up the gay dating/social networking market. Jonathan Crutchley is co-Founder and Chairman. He's a regular attendee of the Internet Dating Conference /Social Networking Conference and likes to throw parties at his houses in Boston and Palm Springs. He's in the picture with Chi Chi La Rue who was DJ at his recent pool party in Palm Springs for Manhunt.net in honor of Palm Springs Gay Pride.
What is Manhunt doing right? In short, they know the gay dating space, intimately. Their customer service is among the best in the industry and they charge just $12 a month. Also, have you noticed how the sites with the most 'playful' names are doing especially well on minimal ad spends. OnlineBootyCall, Manhunt, Plentyoffish. All are playful, tongue in cheek names that travel well by word-of-mouth. Manhunt is full-on and adult and has it's antithesis in myPartner.com which is, essentially, eHarmony for gay men. (Disclosure: Manhunt, myPartner and Plentyoffish are clients of Courtland Brooks) – Mark Brooks
A Kiss-Off To Online Dating
BUSINESS WEEK — Nov 20 — The era of Web 1.0 is over, online dating is dead. Going on sites like Facebook or MySpace it's like going to a bar with your friends, whereas a dating site is like walking past a bunch of animals in cages at the zoo. According to comScore, the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases. I doubt PlentyofFish will ever get to the size or valuation of a Match.com.
The full article was originally published at BusinessWeek, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Match had $89.1 million revenue in Q3. That's ~$360 million a year. PlentyofFish is now making $10 million+ a year. I doubted Markus would ever get into the top 10 when I met him in 2004. I underestimated him. PlentyofFish is #2, Match #4 on the Hitwise USA rankings. On Comscore USA rankings, Match is #2 and PlentyofFish is #8. In the UK, Hitwise ranks PlentyofFish.com as the #2 dating site, and Match comes in at #5. And PlentyofFish comes in at #1 in Canada according to Comscore, with Lavalife at #2 and Match at #13. See the full rankings here. (Disclosure: PlentyofFish is a client of Courtland Brooks)