GLOBAL PERSONALS – Oct 26 - Rankings are based on % revenue growth over 5 years. Global Personals grew 4391% during this period. With 70 full time staff, Global Personals owns and operates Singles365.com, DatingAgency and FlirtFix. Its B2B service WhiteLabelDating, offers a platform for brands and individuals to power their own dating sites. Partners include FHM, Cosmopolitan and Magic FM.
Category: WhiteLabelDating
Belfast Telegraph Partners With WhiteLabelDating.com
WHITELABELDATING BLOG – Oct 20 – WhiteLabelDating's latest media signing is the Belfast Telegraph. Belfast Telegraph will be launching a new dating concept that will sit within the Belfast Telegraph’s website.
Trinity Mirror Partners With WhiteLabelDating.com
WLD BLOG – Oct 5 – Trinity Mirror, one of the UK’s largest newspaper publishers, with a portfolio that includes The Mirror, The Sunday Mail, People and The Daily Record, has partnered with WhiteLabelDating.com. New sites have now been launched for MirrorDating.co.uk, SundayMailDating.co.uk, PeopleDate.co.uk, and DailyRecordDating.co.uk, also 59 regional sites including ChronicleLive.co.uk/dating and LiverpoolEcho.co.uk/dating.
Ross Williams Interview On Mixergy.com
MIXERGY – Sep 25 – Ross Williams is the founder and CEO of Global Personals, the company behind WhiteLabelDating.com.
Q: How many active members do you have now?
A: ~4M that are spread to the UK, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and growing to the U. S. at the moment.
Q: Could you give me an example of one company that launched using your service?
A: We work with media publishers and entrepreneurs. So, on the media side we do the dating site for “FHM Magazine,” “Maxim,” “Men’s Health,” “Cosmopolitan,” and others. On the entrepreneurs side is PlentyMoreFish.com for example.
Q: Do you feel comfortable revealing your revenues?
A: We’re doing about 20M pounds revenue/year.
Q: What percentage do you own?
A: 70%.
Q: One of the reasons that companies work with you is because it’s hard to get the first few users. You did that, though. How were you able to do it in the early days?
A: We were quite lucky with our timing.
Q: Where did you get the idea to do this?
A: You see it in other industries. So, sometimes I will describe it very much as making the Tesco corn flakes or the Wal-Mart flakes. It’s just taking an existing model and applying it to a different industry.
Q: What was your connection to the dating industry at all?
A: I think being single and using other dating sites helps.
Q: What were you doing just before this?
A: I set up my first business Rawnet, which is a digital media agency, in 1997. Then in 2002 I took on my first employee. In 2003 I set up Global Personals. This is a digital agency. They do web design. So, we put them to use to build WhiteLabelDating.
Q: What’s your split with the dating site that uses you guys?
A: We typically work on a 50-50 basis.
Q: What did you start off offering the very first company that was partnering up with you, back before you had any leverage?
A: We worked on a 50-50 basis then. We just had a simple membership fee. At the time it was a fixed fee of 15 pounds a month. Now we can charge someone 5 to 40 pounds a month. It’s about perceived value, and a lot of that comes through the brands. So, some brands will charge higher than others. Over time, about two-three years ago, we added credits.
Q: How many active members did you have before you started soliciting WhiteLabel clients?
A: ~250K members.
Q: Were you profitable by then?
A: The consumer paid from day one. So, although we had to go to the critical mass, there was the point where people started paying.
Q: What did you do specifically that helped you increase conversions, for example?
A: We experimented with certain things like astrology. We felt the women would enjoy it. So, if we got the women on board, we thought the guys would follow. We started sending people an email when someone looked at their profile which now is fairly commonplace, but it wasn’t then. We started sending them an email if someone winked at them, added them as a favorite, any excuse to send them an email because that gets them onto our site. And it’s only when they’re on the site that we can monetize it.
Q: Mark Brooks told a story in his interview about how fraud actually helps a little in this industry and how it helped you guys. It reduced your revenue for a while when you filed fraud and how it came back up.
A: We made the decision in November or December to eliminate scammers from our database. Scammers could send hundreds of messages as an attractive girl. You then have hundreds of guys to read their message and correspond with them. The dating industry makes money from it in the short term. In the long-term, however, if you get messages from scammers you’re not going to come back. You probably might not complain. You’ll just let your membership lapse and never return. That’s when we decided to eliminate scammers.
Q: And when you did, you lost a little bit of revenue.
A: Lost a lot, so what? All of our pay sites have recovered, and now people are converting at a high rate because they know the profiles are genuine and they’re staying for longer because on that they’re corresponding with real people. Revenue to me is the last thing I look at at the end of the day. When I wake up in the morning, my Key Performance Indicator, my business has net change. So, how many more or less paying customers do we have today than we had yesterday? As long as it’s positive and we get more paying customers, then everything else will fall in.
Ross Williams, CEO Of WhiteLabelDating.com And Global Personals, Hitting £20 Million Annual Revenue
We are, yes. A lot has changed since then. Global Personals’ business has grown and white label dating is responsible for the vast majority of our business. I think we’re generally considered the number 1 white label dating company worldwide.
What is your split between Europe and the US
The majority of our revenue still comes from Europe and predominantly the UK. So our core territories at present are the UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia and the US in that order. We’ve got big plans for the US but it can easily be a graveyard for companies that don’t approach it in the right way. So we need to make sure all of our CRM is localized, the customer experience is localized and everything fits in. It is important that we recognize that and treat the US as a collection of different regions, and by regions I mean cities each with their own attributes rather than do what many people do which is a one size fits all solution. We won’t be doing that.
You have service in the US right now from my understanding, so are these improvements that you’re working on?
Yes we can absolutely service the USA. I don’t want to give away too much about what we have in the pipeline other than to say we realize we need to improve that experience and make it really a better niche offering. We expect to be able to announce more about that later this year.
There are two sides to your business. You have the WhiteLabelDating side and then you have the Global Personals side of the business. How do you differentiate the two different sides of the business?
Global Personals is our limited company. People have known us as WhiteLabelDating up to this point because that has been a massive part of our business. So WhiteLabelDating is part of Global Personals. It represents well in excess of 80% of our revenues.
We are a white label dating business first and foremost. However, since we became the market leader we recognize that we have a responsibility to help grow and shape the market. That is why we have our own branded sites for the consumers such as Singles365.com and DatingAgency.com, which allows us to help direct and shape the market, which benefits us but absolutely benefits our partners.
When I visited you in Windsor not too long ago you mentioned that you had been ‘fighting the good fight’ against abuse and scammers recently and that it had been quite a battle. Tell us more about that.
We made a decision last year to really focus on the quality of our customer experience. To do that we needed to manually moderate every profile, every photo, every wink, icebreaker, diary entry and video. Everything that goes through our system is checked by hand from people in our offices in Windsor. We don’t outsource anything. It is time consuming and it’s expensive but it does mean we can give the best customer experience.
Since we launched our new moderation platform in February of this year, we were hit in the short term. We found that scammers were responsible for quite a bit of revenue for dating site operators because if a scammer emails your member, that member is going to pay to upgrade. So if you reduce the scammers your conversion rate is going to be affected. However, we’ve ended this year in July and August with all of our metrics performing better than they have ever done in our 7 year history.
In an article recently you said there are some unethical practices in the internet dating world that need stamping out. Tell us more, what are they?
I think everyone recognizes that you can go for short term easy money in online dating. It might get you some revenue in the short term; it might be okay for 6 months or maybe a year or two. But if you want to build a successful, long term, valuable business that will be around in the years to come you have to take an ethical approach to business.
OPW reaches many executives in the industry. What would you like to say directly to the rest of the industry?
For the online dating category to grow, we do need to work together. We need to, as an industry, clean up our act and invest in the customer experience. We need to put the customer first rather than our bank balances. You only do that by working together because one bad apple can ruin the industry for lots of other people.
Can you see Global Personals ever IPO’ing?
I don’t think that would be on our horizons to be honest Mark. We are a privately owned company and we’ve grown pretty heavily. We are now at about 80 staff and when you came to our offices you were able to see that we’ve grown rather nicely. We’re enjoying that growth and I wouldn’t rule anything in or out over the next few years. We’ve certainly got a good 3 to 5 year plan with strong growth ahead of us. And we are enjoying ourselves in the process.
ToyBoy.com’s New Viral Video
OPW – Sep 25 – "Love gets younger everyday" – that's the tagline of ToyBoy.com, a dating site dedicated to helping older women find younger men. ToyBoy.com is a partner of
WhiteLabelDating.com and is doing very well with their PR campaign. Here is their latest video.
See all posts on WhiteLabelDating.com
See all posts on ToyBoy.com
Mixergy Video Interview With Mark Brooks
Q: How are you managing your company from Malta?
A: 3 years ago I took a trip to Shanghai. There was an Internet dating conference in Shanghai, and I decided to stay there for 2 months. And business grew. I learned that my clients did not care where I was based as long as the work got done. I brought 15 people onto my team.
Q: What exactly do you do when you consult online personal sites?
A: We help Internet dating companies make more money. And also companies that want to talk to them. We do PR, business development, and strategic advisement.
Q: Can you tell people a little more about the blog?
A: In 2004, when I was working with FriendFinder, I noticed that I was getting great snippets of information from the press. And I consistently didn't have time to read all of the articles. So I thought it would be nice if somebody could summarize and extract the best intelligence out of what the press were writing about. So in June of 2004, I started OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. The idea is that we condense three hours of reading into three minutes of reading a day. In January of 2005, I had three jobs offers on the table, so I decided to take all three. And that is how Courtland Brooks started. At a point from there, I knew a lot of people that I thought could do a better job than me. So, I hired them.
Q: Is there still money in the dating world? It seems to me like most people either go to one of the top sites or they go to Facebook.
A: The reason dating sites have a future is because it's one thing to be single and another to be single and available. And it's even another thing to be single and available and looking. You don't find that on Facebook. Yes, you can find people that say they are single. But are they really single? Are they dating? Are they really available?
Q: But Markus at PlentyofFish has blogged that social networks are taking customers away from dating sites.
A: Yes. It is taking attention. But people want a more focused experience. There are two surprises that we have had in the dating industry. The first one is that social networking didn't kill the dating industry. And the second one is that Internet dating didn't kill the matchmaking industry.
Q: What about the idea that there are already enough established players out there that it is really hard to come in with a new site?
A: It is. Without a doubt.There are thousands of Internet dating services. I rather think it is like starting a restaurant. It's not that difficult, you would think, to start a restaurant. But there's a lot more moving pieces that go into building a successful restaurant than meets the eye. And the same with Internet dating.
Q: Let's say Casey Allen, who I see here in the audience, decides that he is going to start an online dating site. What's the first thing that you'd recommend that he do?
A: First question is, is he a marketer or a technologist? If Casey is a marketer then he should go down the white labeling route and use a service like White Label Dating, DatingFactory.com or EasyDate.
Q: What if Casey Allen happens to be a technologist and he can code something up? What would you advise him at that point?
A: There are two extra routes that he can take. Number one is to use an off the shelf software like BoonEx and another option is use a programming outfit that has already built dating sites in the past.
Q: How do you bring people into a site today?
A: All of the major dating sites spend a lot of money on PPC. So, Overture and AdWords are an absolute mainstay of the industry. PlentyofFish is a wonderful place to run ads. If you can pay an extra 50 cents to a network, then you can get 10 times more traffic. Commission Junction and ShareASale have a good reputation.
Q: What else brings people in?
A: SEO. Also I'm a big fan of affiliates. The problem with affiliates, by the way, is there are rogue affiliates that will send junk traffic. The only way to deal with them is you've got to understand their position. They want to make money. And affiliates tend to be short-term based. They don't care too much about the brand, because they will just switch out to a different brand. So, the only way to really manage rogue affiliates is by laying down guidelines.
Q: We talked about how to get people in the door. What about getting them to multiply? By multiply, we mean viral marketing, getting them to bring their friends..
A: Let's start with Zoosk. They are one of the great, recent, success stories. On a typical dating site, you sign up. You've got to put in all your information. With a Facebook based social dating site such as Zoosk, some of that information can be sucked over. And so that really improves the initial conversions and efficiency. Plus, you know, the kinds of people that are on Facebook are going to be a little bit more social. When people talk about a good or a bad experience they think of as Internet dating. They don't tend to think of it so much as, it's Zoosk. It's Match.com. It's FriendFinder or Fling or whatever. I think the industry as a whole needs to make sure that they have a good experience. That means not allowing scammers. Scammers are actually very good for short-term conversions, funnily enough.
Q: How is that?
A: Because they are very active about communicating with people and getting them to convert.
Q: Do you have a sense of what percentage of sales these scammers are responsible for?
A: I don't know. I think for some sites, it is quite significant. For sites of integrity, it is very small, because they kick them off.
Q: What else do people do to multiply?
A: I am a big fan of success stories. ChristianCafe.com is very good with success stories. So is Match.com and PlentyOfFish.com. Now, there is a bit more to be said for social media these days and mobile.
Q: Can you give me an example of one company that's doing social well and how they are doing it, and then one company in mobile and how they are doing mobile well?
A: PlentyofFish does well as a social dating site in and of itself. In terms of social media, well, actually, Zoosk is a good example. They have had some music videos that have been featured, and so has PlentyofFish. PlentyofFish has been in a video on Lady Gaga. So, that's quite a new thing for the industry. I think OKCupid has the best blog in the industry. Again, they have got material that is extremely compelling, extremely interesting. And so they are getting the press talking about it.
FULL ARTICLE @ MIXERGY
See all posts on FriendFinder See all posts on Match.com
See all posts on PlentyofFish See all posts on Zoosk
See all posts on WhiteLabelDating See all posts on Fling
See all posts on DatingFactory See all posts on ChristianCafe
See all posts on Cupid plc See all posts on OkCupid
See all posts on BoonEx
SeniorDatingAgency.com’s Traffic Soars By 150%
PRESS RELEASE – Sep 8 - WhiteLabelDating.com is awarding David Cliff
their 'Partner Of The Month' for the successful launch and flourishing
results for over 40's site, SeniorDatingAgency.com. Due to the rapidly
growing numbers of online daters that fall into this demographic,
WhiteLabelDating.com launched a mature network in May 2010.
SeniorDatingAgency.com was one of the first sites to join the network
and has seen 150% increase in traffic since June.
Global Personals Launches ‘Silver Surfer’ Network
PRESS RELEASE – Sep 2 – GlobalPersonals.co.uk has
launched a network dedicated to the over 50’s market. Bauer Media's
highly successful 'Yours Magazine' for the over 50's already runs YoursDating.co.uk through WhiteLabelDating.com. According
to the OfCom’s report, Over-55s are the fastest-growing age group for
internet take-up, with 50% now having broadband, up from 43% last year.
More than 70% of 55+ use their computers for email, but many also visit
social networks, play games online, download films or listen to online
radio.
GlobalPersonals Launches Casual Dating Platform
PRESS RELEASE – Aug 4 - GlobalPersonals.co.uk,
the European online dating company, has launched a new casual dating
platform. The new platform has been launched under their
WhiteLabelDating.com brand, supported by the launch of their very own
site, FlirtFix.com, which is being used as a test bed to trial new
features and functions to keep up with changing consumer demands. Steve
Pammenter, Director of Partnerships at GlobalPersonals.co.uk said:
“As the attitudes of people online are changing, we’re finding that
more and more people want to enjoy the experience of dating as opposed
to focussing on the end result of finding somebody. Our recent research
shows that there are now 5M potential online daters – many of which are
not currently being catered for with other propositions in the market”.