PR NEWSWIRE – Aug 17 – Spark recorded Q2 revenue of $55.3M, down $1.2M from Q2 '20, ARPU increased to $20.96. The decrease in Revenue was attributable to the 3% decrease in the number of average paying subscribers. Net Loss was $50.4M. "During the Q2 2021, we entered the social discovery space with the launch of our livestreaming service, Zoosk Live!", said Eric Eichmann, CEO of Spark Networks. Spark currently expects full year 2021 revenue to be in the range of $219M to $223M and its full year 2021 Adjusted EBITDA range to be between $27M to $30M.
Category: SparkNetworks
Spark Trading at Extreme Discount Relative to Competitors
GURU FOCUS – Aug 13 – Transformation progress makes the stock a risky buy. The market is ignoring Spark's potential. The company ~1m monthly paying subs. Properties are: Zoosk, EliteSingles, SilverSingles, Christian Mingle, Jdate and JSwipe. Spark's efforts to turn itself around include a new C-level management team and R&D spending of $54mover the last 2 years for crucial product enhancements. Investments and changes will be realized in 2H 2021: live streaming video (launching Q3), social discovery functionality, improved matching algorithms, portfolio rebranded/look. Financial results were slightly down in Q4. YOY Q4 revenue decreased by $1.3 million to $56.4m because of a 3% decrease in average paying subscribers on Zoosk. The three largest legacy brands, SilverSingles, EliteSingles and Christian Mingle, grew at low double-digits in North America. Q1 2021 adjusted Ebitda was $4.8m, a decrease of $2.7m compared to $7.5m in Q1 2020, due to Zoosk and coupled with a headcount increase. Paying subscribers decreased 3% to 896,344 in Q1 2021. Monthly ARPU increased to $20.97 in Q1 2021. Spark's valuation ratios are ~90% lower than peers.
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Mark Brooks: Zoosk was a big pill for Spark to swallow. I trust the very considerable (former long term CEO of Criteo) Spark CEO, Eric Eichmann, and pragmatic MD/COO, Gitte Bendzulla to pull off this transformation.
Spark Networks Begins Monetization of Zoosk Live!
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Zoosk Launches Zoosk Live!
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Spark Networks Names David Clark Chief Financial Officer
PR NEWSWIRE – June 17 – Mr. Clark brings ~20 years of public company CFO experience to his role at Spark Networks. He currently serves as CFO for Synchronoss Technologies, a global leader and innovator in cloud, messaging, digital and IoT products.
Do Dating Companies Delete Users’ Data?
AVAST BLOG – June 3 – Match Group says that they don't share users' information between sites unless they ask them to, but they also say in their privacy policy that they might share that info for "limited and critical purposes, including for corporate audit, analysis and consolidated reporting, to comply with applicable law, and help keep our users safe." According to the Bumble Privacy Policy, they don't "sell" user data, according to the legal definition of "sell," but they do share demographic data and location with third party advertisers. They also share non-personal data with third parties for "research and analysis." So what happens to all that data when users leave? Unfortunately, the answer isn't so clear, especially for Match Group. But if someone deletes Grindr account, Grindr expunges everything they have about them after seven days. Spark Networks – the owner of Jdate and ChristianMingle – is based in Germany, which means they're subject to the GDPR. They are legally obligated to delete it. Bumble promises to delete users' data starting 28 days after they deactivate it. They say that they retain any information they might need for legal purposes.
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Deezer Appoints Jeronimo Folgueira as New CEO
BILLBOARD – May 20 – From 2015 to 2019, Folgueira was the CEO of Spark Networks, the online dating conglomerate that owns Christian Mingle, Jdate, and Zoosk among others. Deezer is a French online music streaming service. It allows users to listen to music content from record labels.
Gitte Bendzulla – Driving Growth and Innovation in the Pandemic Environment
LTR – May 19 – The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on online dating companies. Gitte Bendzulla, COO Spark Networks, discusses the challenges of operating a publicly traded dating company in the current global environment with Mark Brooks, CEO of Courtland Brooks. Spark Networks SE completed its acquisition of Zoosk in July 2019 to improve its position against Match Group. The combined company experienced impressive growth during 2020 as more people turned to online dating during the pandemic lockdowns. The momentum appears to have faded during Q1 2021. Companies must continue to innovate to drive growth as the world transitions to a post-pandemic environment. According to Bendzulla, Online dating company IPOs have brought positive attention to the market and help to establish better relationships with payment providers and investors. Gitte Bendzulla provides her unique perspective on the online dating and social discovery industry in the latest video in the LTR Conference series.
LTR stands for Love, Technology, Relationships and the online conference covers the Internet dating and Online Social Communities space. It is for members of IDEA and OSCA.
The February LTR was kindly sponsored by RealMe, vPaaS by The Meet Group, Tawkify, Real Gifts & Courtland Brooks.
Spark Networks’ Q1 2021 Results
PR NEWSWIRE – May 17 – Spark Networks' portfolio includes: Zoosk, EliteSingles, SilverSingles, Christian Mingle, Jdate, and JSwipe. Q1 Revenue was $56.4M, a decrease of $1.3M compared to Q1 2020. The decrease in revenue was attributable to the 3% decrease in the number of average paying subscribers. Net Loss was $6.5M, an increase of $2.7M compared to Net Loss of $3.8M in Q1 2020. Average Paying Subscribers decreased by 27,837, or 3%, to 896,344 in Q1 2021.
Spark Networks Reports Second Half and Full Year 2020 Financial Results
SPARK NETWORKS – Apr 1 – Revenue for the second half of 2020 was $118.9M, an increase of $3.9M compared to $115M in the second half of 2019. Revenue for 2020 was $233M, an increase of $62.1M compared to $170.9M in 2019. For the full year in 2020, the significant increase in revenue is primarily attributable to the integration of Zoosk following the Spark Networks / Zoosk Merger in July 2019. Net Loss was $45.9M in the second half of 2020, an increase of $16.9M compared to Net Loss of $29M in the second half of 2019. Net Loss for 2020 was $46.6M, an increase of $11.7M compared to $34.9M in 2019, as adjusted.