Category: Userplane

Digital Matchmakers Get Down to Business

Posted on January 18, 2007

Logo2007_6MIAMI HERALD — Jan 16 — The online dating industry needs to start stealing tricks from younger and nimbler websites. That seemed to be the message floating through the hallways at iDate, the annual conference of the Internet dating industry. 350 participants were at the iDate (and Social Networking Conference). Dating sites (think Yahoo Personals and Match.com) are seeing users poached by social networking sites. While those sites are not specifically designed to find a date, that is how they are being used, said Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane. ''Traditional online dating sites are feeling the pinch,'' he said. Of the Top 10 dating sites in the United States, seven saw a declining number of unique visitors throughout 2006, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. At the same time MySpace overtook Yahoo as the world's busiest website. But the poison is the antidote, said Jones. By stealing pickup lines from social networking competitors — such as allowing users to link to their MySpace profile or upload slide-shows from sites such as Flicker and Rockyou — the industry can woo back admirers. Just a few years ago, anyone with a server, a black book and the verve could launch an online dating site, said Mark Brooks, the publisher of Online Personals Watch. Now the market is crowded and competitive, and the only hope for newcomers is to generate heaps of buzz and tap unexplored niches. Or, as Brooks sums it up: "Word of mouth marketing and differentiate — or die.'' Date.com CEO Meir Strahlberg said he didn't see any need for a radical reinvention to keep up with the MySpaces of the world.

Mark Brooks: iDate2007 was hands down the best internet dating conference yet. I felt there was more energy at this conference than last year. The halls were full of top level business schmoozing. The Royal Palm Hotel was more expensive but far more comfortable than last year. Worth the extra, and the location was perfect. It was walking distance to the convention center, and right on the beach. The convention center was a higher standard venue in many ways but we need to change the room orientation next year. Wide rooms work better than long rooms. The keynote presentations were packed out and the multi track system worked well. However, next year it would be great to have a distinct social networking track and a distinct internet dating track. That would encourage greater SNS participation and 500+ attendees. I think 75% of the attendees were dating focused this year. We'll see more social networking interest at the July conference in California. Your comments please…

Userplane Launches Ad Revenue-Sharing Program; Dating Site PlentyofFish Hauls in ‘Significant’ Revenue

Posted on January 18, 2007

Logo_plentyoffish_8BUSINESS WIRE — Jan 16 — Userplane, a subsidiary of AOL, today announced that PlentyofFish, the world's top free dating site, has joined Userplane's new ad revenue-sharing program. Userplane now enables text-based ads within its private-label chat and IM tools. It then splits any resulting revenue with participating sites. PlentyofFish has more than 1 million daily visitors and is ranked by Hitwise as a top five dating service in the U.S. Since 2004, its members have used Userplane Webmessenger(TM) to initiate, on average, more than 100,000 IM sessions and exchange millions of text and audio/video messages per day. Userplane's ad network delivers more than 1 billion ads per month.

The full article was originally published at ADN, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: I think Markus ruffled some feathers on the final panel when he said that he wasn't interested in making more money. There were more than a few gasps around the room. Quite a few of the people I talked to were interested in starting free dating services…but something doesn't quite compute. Markus is one guy. He's an efficiency engineer and prides himself on being able to run his site on less than ten servers.  He makes a modest CPM on his advertising and gets massive amounts of traffic in comparison to other free dating sites. I say, power to Markus. Place an ad on his plain Jane site and let him upsell to your paid dating site. Or, if you want to convert your paid dating site to a free dating site, start by firing everyone and ripping out 90% of your servers and features. 

Userplane Launches Ad Revenue-Sharing Program; Dating Site PlentyofFish Hauls in ‘Significant’ Revenue

Posted on January 18, 2007

Logo_plentyoffish_8BUSINESS WIRE — Jan 16 — Userplane, a subsidiary of AOL, today announced that PlentyofFish, the world's top free dating site, has joined Userplane's new ad revenue-sharing program. Userplane now enables text-based ads within its private-label chat and IM tools. It then splits any resulting revenue with participating sites. PlentyofFish has more than 1 million daily visitors and is ranked by Hitwise as a top five dating service in the U.S. Since 2004, its members have used Userplane Webmessenger(TM) to initiate, on average, more than 100,000 IM sessions and exchange millions of text and audio/video messages per day. Userplane's ad network delivers more than 1 billion ads per month.

The full article was originally published at ADN, but is no longer available.

Mark Brooks: I think Markus ruffled some feathers on the final panel when he said that he wasn't interested in making more money. There were more than a few gasps around the room. Quite a few of the people I talked to were interested in starting free dating services…but something doesn't quite compute. Markus is one guy. He's an efficiency engineer and prides himself on being able to run his site on less than ten servers.  He makes a modest CPM on his advertising and gets massive amounts of traffic in comparison to other free dating sites. I say, power to Markus. Place an ad on his plain Jane site and let him upsell to your paid dating site. Or, if you want to convert your paid dating site to a free dating site, start by firing everyone and ripping out 90% of your servers and features. 

Internet Dating Conference – January 15-16, 2007

Posted on December 19, 2006

Logo2007_1BUSINESS WIRE — Dec 19 — The Miami Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference will be held January 15-16, 2007 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Discussions include: revenue models, community building, online and offline marketing strategies, venture capital, software, mobile, video streaming, web 2.0, metrics, idea generation, coaching and user generated content (UGC).  Speakers include executives from: American Capital, CollectiveX, Cupid.com, Developer Shed, eCrush, Insight Partners Ventures, Google, Mobestar, MSN, Multiply, Nokia, Online Personals Watch, Plenty of Fish, Profile Helper, Sparta Social Networks, Tickle, Userplane, Yahoo! Personals.

Internet Dating Conference – January 15-16, 2007

Posted on December 19, 2006

Logo2007_1BUSINESS WIRE — Dec 19 — The Miami Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference will be held January 15-16, 2007 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Discussions include: revenue models, community building, online and offline marketing strategies, venture capital, software, mobile, video streaming, web 2.0, metrics, idea generation, coaching and user generated content (UGC).  Speakers include executives from: American Capital, CollectiveX, Cupid.com, Developer Shed, eCrush, Insight Partners Ventures, Google, Mobestar, MSN, Multiply, Nokia, Online Personals Watch, Plenty of Fish, Profile Helper, Sparta Social Networks, Tickle, Userplane, Yahoo! Personals.

Spark Launches Private Calling and Interactive Games

Posted on November 29, 2006

Logo_sparkPR NEWSWIRE — Nov 29 — Spark Networks launched live and anonymous calling and interactive games on a number of its online communities including AmericanSingles, Date.ca and CollegeLuv via Userplane Webchat and Webmessenger applications. "The leaders of the next generation of online personals sites will be those, like Spark Networks, who focus on making their websites more effective at smoothing the process of introduction," stated Greg Liberman, President/COO of Spark Networks. "Anonymous calling gives singles an additional channel for communication, while games allow our members to get to know one another in a fun, low pressure way."

Mark Brooks: Wise move on both counts. My client, Vumber.com, will release a standalone solution for anonymous calling shortly. Email me if you want early notification, mark@onlinepersonalswatch.com.

11th Internet Dating Convention & Social Networking Conference

Posted on October 25, 2006

Logo2007PR NEWSWIRE — Oct 25 — The Online Dating Conference and Social Networking Convention will cover issues of business management, marketing and new technologies for the industry and will be the largest business event for online personals and internet communities. Speakers will address issues on increasing revenue and improving customer retention. The event will be held on January 15-16, 2007 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.  Speakers include:

  • Susan Mernit, Director Global Product, Yahoo! Personals
  • Mark Brooks, Editor, Online Personals Watch
  • Karen Olcott, Director, Business Development & Partnerships at MSN
  • Markus Frind, Owner, PlentyofFish
  • Amy Gibby, President, eCrush
  • Jonathan Caputo, CEO, Developer Shed
  • Michael Jones, President, Userplane
  • Clarence Wooten, Founder & CEO, CollectiveX
  • David Ring, President, Sparta Social Networks
  • Peter McGreevy, Attorney at Law

FULL ARTICLE @ PRWEB

Mark Brooks: This convention will be all about serving users better, and making more money!  Everybody will be there. The venue has been upgraded to the Miami Convention Center. Niiice. iDate comes of age. 

PlentyofFish Surpasses 10 Zillion Members

Posted on August 29, 2006

Plentyoffish_logo_06PRNEWSWIRE — PlentyofFish had 300,000 users log in this Monday. 10 zillion singles have signed up on PlentyofFish since the site was started in 2003, but unlike many dating sites, the old inactive profiles have been removed. So there's no longer 10 zillion profiles sitting on PlentyofFish. Just the people who are active, that will probably respond.  Mike Jones, CEO of Userplane, which was recently acquired by AOL, said, "since the inception of our relationship with PlentyofFish we have seen unequaled growth in their usage of instant messaging."  Markus Frind commented, "I continually see sites boasting about how many registered members they have. Yes, they may have millions of members registered, but that's to their detriment. We cull and clean out old profiles once they become inactive and unresponsive. Most other sites prefer to keep the old profiles in place for excessive periods. It's good for conversions, but bad for users. I won't do that to my users. I don't have to, we're free."  Markus automated the PlentyofFish site with personality based matchmaking based, not on what people say they want, but rather on what they indicate they want through their search behavior. The PlentyofFish mission is to cut the crap and do the work for singles who want to meet without shelling out hundreds of dollars for services that should be free. 

The full article was originally published at Full Press Release, but is no longer available.

Instant-Messaging Aggregators

Posted on August 24, 2006

Instantmessengers_1PC MAG — Aug 24 — The five utilities reviewed work with AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo! IM. When you chat with other users of BlowSearch Secured Messenger 2.1.0, your conversation is encrypted for security. The free, heavily ad- supported version uses 56-bit encryption. The open-source Gaim 1.1.4 handles nine IM systems and multiple accounts on each service. Dozens of plug-ins are available. Instan-t 4.5 serves as a free taste of the company's private IM service. It's online so you can use Instan-t anywhere just by logging in. Instan-t offers multiperson chat and audio/video messaging. Java-based Pexit! 2.5 offers IM aggregation and much more—too much more, as it turns out. Its configuration dialog is daunting, with over a dozen tabs of confusing options. Pexit!'s saving grace is its ability to create a multiperson chat across different IM services. Trillian 3.1 configuration is easy. Audio chat is available. For $25, Trillian Pro adds video conferencing, recording of audio/video chat, and various plug-ins. FULL ARTICLE @ PC MAG

Mark Brooks: I tried Gaim but ended up using the paid version of Trillian for the last two years. Meebo isn't mentioned here but is worth a lookin. I'm using their widget service at http://www.pingmark.com.  Instant-t is their direct competitor, but I'd rather trust Meebo, a Sequoia back startup, with my logins.  Gizmoproject.com (live on Livejournal.com shortly) offers an alternative to Skype (live on Bebo.com). Userplane is the gold standard for online community instant messaging and audio/video. Userplane was just acquired by AOL. 

AOL Buys Userplane

Posted on August 17, 2006

Aol_1WASHINGTON POST — Aug 17 — Shortly after AOL announced a dramatically new business plan that included laying off a quarter of its workforce, the company went on a small buying spree, purchasing GameDaily.com, which provides information about video games, and instant messaging firm Userplane.  AOL is trying to find ways to keep customers coming back to its Internet community while parent company Time Warner seeks ways to expand its Internet empire. AOL is trying to cut costs as it transitions from an Internet service provider to a Web portal that provides free services and draws revenue from online advertising. It will cut 5,000 positions over the next six months. FULL ARTICLE @ WASHINGTON POST

Mark Brooks: Userplane has a vast reach and has built great good will with myriad internet dating, social networking and online communities. That good will could translate into more deals and distribution opportunities for the new AOL.com.