MARKETWIRED – Sep 10 – Spark Networks is launching a new Tider-like dating app, called Spark. The app is free, pulling user profiles directly from Facebook. Instead of mindlessly swiping right or left, Spark prompts users to compare two local singles and swipe their favorite. If that person likes the user back, it's a match.
The full article was originally published at Spark.net, but is no longer available.
DEAL REPORTER – Aug 24 – OPW – Aug 24 – As The Match Group moves toward an IPO, it must use its size advantage to overcome the difficulties that have plagued other dating companies that have gone public. FriendFinder traded on NASDAQ and was delisted in 2013 for failing to trade above the USD 1 level. Zoosk filed for an IPO in 2014, intending to raise more than USD 100m, but withdrew the application citing unfavorable market conditions. In the past 2 years, shares of Snap Interactive have not been above the USD 1 mark with stock plunging 85%, and Spark Networks has seen its stock decline 60%, to USD 3.11. Chinese dating firm Jiayuan International has seen its US-listed stock rise 22% in the last year, however, their success is partly a by-product of China's booming economy. "Match's size will be an advantage over other publicly traded dating entities," said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant with Courtland Brooks. Its scale and brand awareness means it probably pays much less to acquire new users. “This is very clearly a game of size,” Brooks asserted, adding that Match.com does not have to pay search giant Google for every new member because it has built a brand through time, helped by TV and radio advertising.
by David B. Wilkerson & Marina Temkin & Louise Bleakley
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ONENEWS NOW – Aug 26 – The dating site has announced it will no longer advertise on the show "Impastor" which is airing on TV Land. That decision comes after OneMillionMoms.com, a division of the American Family Association, launched a campaign urging the dating site to withdraw their financial support.
by Bill Bumpas
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MARKETWIRED – Aug 6 – Q2 Revenue was $12.3M, down 22% YOY, and down 9% from the prior quarter due to the decrease of subscribers. Direct marketing expenses were $5.3M, a decrease of 33% YOY. "By the end of the quarter we began to see real improvements in a number of our subscriber acquisition. In July, our Jewish Network subscriber numbers were up for the first time in a year and our Christian Network subscriber numbers were flat against the end of Q2," said CEO Michael Egan. Net loss was $95K.
The full article was originally published at Sys-con, but is no longer available.
SEEKING ALPHA – June 26 – Spark Networks had been suffering significant losses until mid 2014 when new management came in. Their first action was to cut the marketing spent on ChristianMingle. Almost immediately, the company became profitable, but this strategy is unsustainable. A prolonged period of subscriber attrition can be devastating. However, temporarily propping up the company has given new management time to implement its plan to reinvigorate Spark without having to worry about cash. The plan is simple: upgrade technology and begin redeploying ads dollars for ChristianMingle in a more intelligent manner. ChristianMingle looks to be partnering with mega churches and Christian organizations. CEO Michael Egan also noted that customers who were surveyed mentioned that there was a distinct lack of humor in any of the company's ads.
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MARKETWIRED – May 6 – Q1 2015 revenue was $13.5M, a decrease of 19% YOY and a 5% decrease from the prior quarter. The decrease was primarily driven by a 25% decrease in average paying subscribers. Direct marketing expenses were $6.1M, a decrease of 47% YOY. Net income was $723K, compared to a net loss of $2.9M in Q1 2014.
The full article was originally published at Spark.net, but is no longer available.
THE LEGACY – Mar 18 – Director Lee K. Barba purchased 10K shares of the company’s stock on the open market. The shares were purchased at an average price of $3.78 per share, with a total value of $37,800.
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MARKETWIRED – Mar 5 – Q4 revenue was $14.3M, 17% decrease YOY which was primarily driven by a 22% decrease in average paying subscribers. Spark Networks cut marketing expenses 60%. Christian Networks accounted for the majority of the decrease, reflecting the Company's strategy to reduce and reallocate direct marketing investments in the segment. Q4 net income was $3.9M, up from a net loss of $3.5M. CEO Michael Egan stated, "We are now in the "walk" phase of our "crawl, walk, run" plan. Our "run" plan is to reinvigorate profitable subscriber growth by year end."
The full article was originally published at Spark.net, but is no longer available.
CB – Feb 7 – A lot of companies that traditionally receive a lot of press hits appeared to be lacking this year, including POF, Badoo, SNAP Interactive and Zoosk. Tinder got the most press coverage in 2014, followed by Match.com. Articles mainly highlighted Tinder's impressive growth. It also scored some negative press, most notably the Whitney Wolfe lawsuit. We heard a little less about eHarmony last year, but they still received solid press coverage thanks to their new eH+ service and the announcement of a plan to launch a "jobs matchmaker". OkCupid, as usual, made the list along with AshleyMadison, Grindr and Hinge. There were also companies with more sad than good news. Cupid was one of them. They sold their casual dating sites in 2013, posted weak 2013 annual results, tried unsuccessfully to revive their business, and even launched new services such as LoveBeginsAt and dating app Tangle. In December the news came out that the company decided to sell the remaining mainstream dating sites and quit the dating business. It was not an easy year for Spark Networks either. After some bad news for investors, a fight between the company leadership and Osmium partners began, ending in July with Osmium appointing 4 new directors to the Spark´s board. CEO Greg Liberman left the company in August and layoffs began in September.
OPW – Jan 7 – All things have a beginning and an end, and today marks the end of Hurrydate after 14 years in business. The company was started by Ken Deckinger and Adele (Testani) Tongish. This speed dating company was acquired by Spark Networks in 2007.
Ken left Hurrydate in 2009 and in 2013 started JessMeetKen, a promising little dating app where women put forward their male friends as venerable for dating. So all the guys have at least one woman vouching for them. We like this 'social dating' spin because it effectively bridges the age-old divide between social networking and Internet dating. Social networks have a vouching process that dating sites lack. Dating sites give users privacy, so its tough to get that social vouching process to work in the world of Internet dating. Ken met his wife in a similar process, and they've branded themselves heavily into the dating site storyline, which is great!
Adele left Spark/Hurrydate in 2013. I'll ask her what she's up to and update this post shortly.
These kinds of events businesses can be quite onerous to run. The problem is, Internet dating is a very different kind of business and is a superior business. You should only ever hook an events business to your Internet dating business as a branding piece, and then make damn sure the events are A1 experiences. Otherwise the entire exercise will rapidly become an entire waste of time and actually quite detrimental to your core business. A certain very vocal and social portion of your audience loves events. Its a good idea to captivate them. They're a good audience to have in your fold, provided you please them. But don't expect your events business numbers to outshine your Internet dating business. They won't. And the events business will be the one that keeps you up at night. Therein lies the challenge, for the motley few.
Meanwhile, premium speed dating company Fastlife endures under POF, Predating was sold by Cupid back to its original owner, Speeddater.co.uk s still being operated by Cupid/Together Networks for the UK, 8 Minute Dating somehow endures, and long-standing regional speed-dating outfits like 10 minute dating (San Francisco) malinger and die.
Thanks to Carl at Slowdating.com for giving me a heads up on this morsel of news.
UPDATE: Adele is working with Ken again, and is actually the person responsible for introducing Ken to Jess! 🙂
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