OPW — June 19 — Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyofFish is on The Today Show this morning. One man, one (simple) site, #1 in Canada, #1 in U.K. (for heterosexual dating) and #4 in U.S.A. He said he wanted to be the top dating site in the world…and he’s actually doing it! One guy (and his girlfriend, Annie) !!! He’s an inspiration. Is he a threat to YOUR business? What to do? Your comments please…
Category: POF
Finding a Cheap Date
NEWSWEEK — May 31 — The wave of the future, perhaps: free internet dating. In April, Craigslist saw 2.6 million personal ads posted, up from only 970k two years ago. PlentyofFish.com, a free dating site that was launched in 2003, now brings in 200k U.S users a day – and $5 million to $10 million in advertising a year according to Markus Frind, who runs the site by himself. "I think all the paid sites are going to go away, he says" Even Match.com is offering discounts to subscribers: six months free, if you don’t find Prince (or Princess) Charming in the first six months. While the online dating industry has been enormously successful so far.
OKCupid Opinion Poll
PR WEB — May 22 — 49% of all Internet users have partaken of an online dating Web site in one form or another. Of the 49%, 20% were committed users, either by paying for a subscription or using a free service. Another 29% admit to at least browsing profiles, even if they don't take that final step of signing up and making a connection. Those who do commit tend to stick around – 62% trying their luck for two months or longer. 68% of respondents prefer services that provide personality questionnaires, analyze compatibility and offer matchmaking recommendations. And users want that service for free. Free sites are preferred over subscription services at a ratio of five-to-one. 72% still feel there is a social stigma to online dating. Nearly two-thirds will admit that, upon meeting their significant other online, they would tell the truth if asked about how they met. Online daters are highly selective. 58% rely primarily on photographs to quickly filter matches. Deal breakers that tend to cause prospects to be rejected include smoking, 23% say no, and having children, 32% aren't interested. 45% will reject someone because of their weight. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB
Mark Brooks: PlentyofFish has introduced a personality profiling system, btw. See the PlentyofFish Compatiblity Predictor here.
PlentyOfFish Owner Has the Perfect Bait For a Huge Success
WSJ — May 23 — The headquarters of what may be, on a per-capita basis, the busiest, most profitable site on the entire World Wide Web is on the 16th floor of a brand-new Vancouver building with panoramic views of the nearby Canadian Rockies. It happens to be the apartment of Markus Frind, the owner and sole employee of PlentyOfFish.com, a free online dating site and a model for the next generation of Web entrepreneurship.
- For the week ended April 28, PlentyOfFish.com was the 96th-busiest Web site in the U.S. (HitWise)
- Busy Web sites like these usually require scores of people. Mr. Frind says people often don't believe him when he says PlentyOfFish is all his.
- Nielsen/NetRatings says that by some measures, such as the time its members spend on the site, it ranks second after eHarmony.
- A few months back, he posted on his blog a picture of a check from Google for nearly $1 million for a two-month period. Google confirmed the check was for real.
- Mr. Frind says the site brings in between $5 million and $10 million a year.
- Many companies would respond to competitive pressure by hiring someone. Mr. Frind says he has no plans to do so.
Chemistry.com in Spat With eHarmony.com
THE WASHINGTON POST — May 16 — A name-calling catfight, complete with accusations and counter-accusations, has broken out between eHarmony.com (13 million registrants since 2000) and an offshoot of Match.com over a subject familiar to any luckless dater. Rejection. Chemistry's (2 million registrants since 2006) TV commercials and magazine ads feature young men and women wondering why their applications to join eHarmony were turned down. No fair, says eHarmony, concerned that its rival's ads suggest that eHarmony is being arbitrary or discriminatory in turning people away. It wants Chemistry.com's ads changed or dropped. eHarmony’s legal counsel, Lanny Davis (who spun the media for President Bill Clinton during his “relationship problems” with Monica Lewinsky), last week asked NBC and People magazine to stop running Chemistry.com's current ads, or at least insist on some fine-print qualifiers about what “1 million rejected” really means. (As of Friday, NBC hadn't responded to Davis; People magazine said that it wasn't taking sides in the feud and that it would continue running the ads.) eHarmony turns people away for controversial reasons. One is being gay. CEO, Greg Waldorf says eHarmony's matching system is based on psychological research about heterosexual relationships. Because it doesn't have similar data on gay people, he says, the company isn't confident that it can offer successful matches to same-sex couples. “I'm not saying anything precludes us from going into the same-sex market in the future,” he says, “but it's not a service we offer now.” Firing back, eHarmony accuses Chemistry's parent company of hypocrisy. It notes that IAC made formal overtures to buy eHarmony in 2004, but a deal never came off.
Mark Brooks: These days the best kind of advertising spawns press, word-of-mouth, and riles up the competition. Match.com has kicked off on every level with their campaign. This year we should surely see a free version of eharmony startup. Perhaps the fresh faced (new) Mary.com or LTR.com, or the current dominant free dating market leader PlentyofFish.com. Beyond that, MyPartnerPerfect.com is due to launch shortly as the quality, long term focused, personality profiling, all gay matchmaking site, headed by the young Patrick H.Perrine.
Userplane Upgrades IM, Adds Presence and Buddy List
PRESS RELEASE — May 15 — Userplane released Webmessenger 2, a major enhancement to the world's most widely used Web-based instant messaging platform. The new offering integrates IM, user presence and buddy list, giving online communities three products in one. Members of participating online communities can now display when they are online, easily manage buddies, find other online users and launch IMs. "Online communities turn to Userplane Webmessenger to build that real sense of belonging," said Michael Jones, Userplane’s CEO and VP of AOL. "The cost for all the new functionality still starts at free." Enhancements include:
- Presence, the ability to detect which site members are online at any given time.
- Userlist, the friendly face of Userplane Presence, enables users to upload images and icons, set custom here and away messages, manage their buddies and IM each other, all from one easy-to-use, brandable space.
- Improved rich text, voice, and video IM communication.
More than 150,000 social networking communities, media entertainment properties and niche communities deploy Userplane Webmessenger, enabling millions of daily users in more than 30 countries to communicate. Userplane offers free, ad-supported Userplane Webmessenger 2 packages and is planning to launch an advertising revenue-sharing program in the next 60 days.
Mark Brooks: I had lunch with the CEO of World Friends Networks today. They also use Userplane, along with PlentyofFish, MySpace and a virtual who’s who of internet dating and social networking.
Hot or Not Tears Itself Apart, Reinvents
TECH CRUNCH — May 8 — Until last month, HotorNot was free until that last crucial stage when two people wanted to meet each other. At that point, one of the members (usually the man, Hong tells me) must have been a paid subscriber, which costs $6/month. Founder James Hong says their conversion rate was extremely high – 15% of active users eventually upgraded to premium accounts. The premium revenue, plus advertising and fees for virtual flowers topped $600,000 per month. Nearly all of that was profit for the two founders, who reportedly pocketed $20 million or so between them over the years. The company has never raised outside funding. Competitors have popped up (see yesnomayb) and free dating sites started to eat away at traffic. Hong and Young decided to remove the requirement for members to have premium accounts to talk to each other. A month ago, the requirement was turned off, and about $500k/month in revenue disappeared overnight. HotorNot is running on reserve cash of a few million dollars. Traffic jumped 60% – 10 million people visited the site in the last month, up from 6 million the month before. Advertising and virtual gift revenue spiked, and the site is now break even. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
Mark Brooks: I think the founders are gunning for PlentyofFish.
Lavalife Celebrates 20th Anniversary
PR NEWSWIRE — May 1 — Lavalife, originally called Teleclassifieds, was founded in 1987 by five young Toronto-based entrepreneurs who had been experimenting with IVR technology. A brief timeline outlining 20 years of Lavalife:
- 1987 Teleclassifieds began with phone-based classified services that included personals, pets, furniture and apartments
- 1988 Teleclassifieds becomes Telepersonals, with only a phone-based personals service that allows singles to meet and talk via phone
- 1994 Traditional dial-up systems (CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access. The World Wide Web begins to enter private homes.
- 1997 Webpersonals launches, allowing singles to come together online in new ways.
- 1999 Telepersonals expands during the 1990s from its home in Toronto to over 40 cities in North America and Australia.
- 2001 The Lavalife brand launches across Canada, the United States and Australia.
- 2004 Lavalife Mobile debuts, allowing singles to expand their interaction to mobile devices.
- 2006 Lavalife Magazine launches, offering a new style of magazine on the internet with special content just for singles.
The full article was originally published at Free Press Release, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Webpersonals.com was started in 1994 by Dr Andrew Conru who sold it and then went on to start FriendFinder. Lavalife is strong in Canada, but it's top spot as the country's leading dating site has been supplanted by free dating site PlentyofFish.com
Lavalife Celebrates 20th Anniversary
PR NEWSWIRE — May 1 — Lavalife, originally called Teleclassifieds, was founded in 1987 by five young Toronto-based entrepreneurs who had been experimenting with IVR technology. A brief timeline outlining 20 years of Lavalife:
- 1987 Teleclassifieds began with phone-based classified services that included personals, pets, furniture and apartments
- 1988 Teleclassifieds becomes Telepersonals, with only a phone-based personals service that allows singles to meet and talk via phone
- 1994 Traditional dial-up systems (CompuServe, AOL, Prodigy) begin to provide Internet access. The World Wide Web begins to enter private homes.
- 1997 Webpersonals launches, allowing singles to come together online in new ways.
- 1999 Telepersonals expands during the 1990s from its home in Toronto to over 40 cities in North America and Australia.
- 2001 The Lavalife brand launches across Canada, the United States and Australia.
- 2004 Lavalife Mobile debuts, allowing singles to expand their interaction to mobile devices.
- 2006 Lavalife Magazine launches, offering a new style of magazine on the internet with special content just for singles.
The full article was originally published at Free Press Release, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Webpersonals.com was started in 1994 by Dr Andrew Conru who sold it and then went on to start FriendFinder. Lavalife is strong in Canada, but it's top spot as the country's leading dating site has been supplanted by free dating site PlentyofFish.com
Study of 50,000 Female Online Daters Reveals the Demi Moore Effect
PR NEWSWIRE — Apr 30 — A study of over 50,000 women daters aged thirty and over on PlentyofFish.com from April 19th-25th, 2007 reveals that 35% contacted men 5 or more years younger than themselves. Markus Frind, Founder and CEO of PlentyofFish says, "It's not just men who want to date a few years younger these days. Women in their thirties, forties and older are pursuing younger men on dating sites." In the USA, of the 23,024 women who initiated contact with men, 38% sought out men at least 5 years younger, and 10% messaged men at least 10 years younger. In Canada, of 17,684 women, 31% emailed men at least 5 years younger. In the UK 41% contacted men at least 5 years younger. Mr. Frind says, "Demi and Ashton were the exception a few years ago, but by proving it works, more women than ever are comfortable looking to younger men for love." Founded by Markus Frind in 2003, PlentyofFish has grown to be the #1 dating site in Canada and the 5th most popular in both the USA and UK.
The full article was originally published at PR Newswire, but is no longer available.