PRESS RELEASE – Nov 3 – In the past five months, WLD
has launched 186 new dating sites, including those for Borders, Cosmo
and Men's Health. With these new launches, WLD now runs over 2,571
worldwide. 1,138 of these sites are in the UK, 35 in the US, and 112
in South Africa. Recent expansion has been partially fueled by member
payments now being available in over 10 different international
currencies. FULL ARTICLE @ REAL WIRE
Category: WhiteLabelDating
How I Made It: Ross Williams, Founder of Whitelabeldating.com
THE SUNDAY TIMES – Nov 1 - The desire to have his own business came early for Ross Williams. He proved his business sense by buying magazines in bulk at the local market and selling them at a big mark-up in the playground. As a teenager Williams started Rawnet, which built websites. By the time Rawnet was employing 20 people, it had revenues of £2M but was still not making any profit. In 2003 he set up a side venture, called Global Personals. Williams and his fellow directors loaded their credit cards, borrowing a total of £30K. His gamble soon began paying off. While Global Personals had grown to £250K/month and was making 20% profit. At this point he decided to concentrate on the dating business. He decided to offer his dating website system to other businesses, allowing them to create their own dating brand while he took half the proceeds from sales. This “white labelling” approach had several advantages over running and marketing a single conventional dating service, said Williams. Last financial year, one of the main parts of which is Whitelabeldating.com, made a profit of £1.5M on sales of £12M, though Williams expects that by the end of this financial year the profit will have risen to £3M on sales of £20M.
by Andrew Stone
See full article at Times Online
WhiteLabelDating Founder Says: “Recession Doubled My Business”
REAL BUSINESS – Oct 29 – While many sectors have been cripped by the credit crisis, there is one industry that's booming off the back of the financial gloom: online dating. Ross Williams founded WhiteLabelDating in 2004 and business, he says, has never been better. Turnover this year doubled to L25m. And Williams' is expecting a further 100% growth this year.
The full article was originally published at Real Business, but is no longer available.
The WLD Team Get Their Groove On
WLD BLOG – Oct 16 – WhiteLabelDating.com team would like to share
this video which was put together under the auspicious leadership of
Miss Melanie Kirk, WLD.com's social media manager.
Internet Dating Industry Weekly News Oct 16th, 2009 – 4 mins
This is the news for the week of October 11th through October 16th, 2009. We hope you enjoy the new weekly news format. Please follow this link to enjoy the high-resolution version. Here is the news we covered for this week:
- False alarm: Match.com’s NOT hacked
- U.S. online dating rankings from September
- Update on FriendFriend’s IPO process
- Virtual goods market expected to hit $1 billion this year
- Match.com partners with Mother advertising agency
- Publisher Conde Nast teams up with Glamour and GQ sites
- White Label Dating’s new webcam feature
WhiteLabelDating’s New Webcam Feature
WLD – Oct 9 - One of the main
concerns of dating site members is that photos are out of date. To get
around this problem, WLD's new webcam feature allows members to prove
that they are who they say they are by uploading a photo to their
partner’s sites directly from the camera on their computer. This
photograph is then verified with a date stamp.
WhiteLabelDating.com’s Partner Revenues To Exceed £20 Million
PRESS RELEASE – Sep 22 - WhiteLabelDating.com (WLD), the provider of software and services that enable brands to create their own online dating sites, announces that annualised partner revenues for this year are set to exceed £20M. 90% of this revenue will be earned by individuals who have set up their own online dating sites. A further 10% will be earned by existing brands that have unlocked revenue from online communities by launching online dating services. FULL ARTICLE @ REAL WIRE
Interview With Ross Williams Of WhiteLabelDating.com
CASUAL ENCOUNTERS — Aug 27 – Besides being a serial web entrepreneur, Ross Williams is founder and CEO of WhiteLabelDating.com.
Q: What can you tell us about your life outside of the White Label Dating universe?
A: Well, there’s an online bio to be found at http://www.rosswilliams.com which goes through my background before starting WhiteLabelDating.com. Outside of work I enjoy travelling and I’m also a big car fan.
Q: I saw in an interview you gave in mid-2007 that your objective for 2008 was to make WLD.com the #1 white label dating provider online. Have you achieved that goal yet?
A: Absolutely, without a shadow of doubt.
Q: What thing or things do you enjoy most about your position as WLD’s CEO and why?
A: I have a fantastic team around me – I employ 65 staff full time in our UK Headquarters – and we have a great environment, working together, earning good money and helping people find fun and love online.
Q: What do you think is the most important advice that someone considering starting a white label dating site should receive?
A: Visit the platform provider. Some disreputable companies will promise the world, but it’s you who needs to pay for the marketing and take the risk, so make sure you meet with the people in person, meet with their customer support team, development team (who will provide your users with new features) and ideally meet with some of their current partners as well.
The full article was originally published at Casual Encounters, but is no longer available.
Rise Of The 5-9 Entrepreneurs
WLD — Aug 24 – A great article was published in The Sunday Times on
the increase of individuals starting their own businesses whilst
holding down full-time jobs. According to Enterprise Nation, the
home-business website, ~5M people in the UK keep their jobs while
building their own company at night and at weekends. Most of WLD.com's
successful partners are easily generating ~£5,000 per month within 6
months by working in their spare.
Executives From Match.com & DatingDirect.com Hired By WLD.com
WLD — Aug 17 – WhiteLabelDating.com, provider of software and
services that enable brands to create their own online dating sites,
appoints Darren Damiano to the position of Finance Director and board
member. Darren joins WLD from Match.com where he was involved with
their strategy plans, pricing, due diligence and financial modeling. In
addition, Katie Mowe will also be joining the company as Consumer
Marketing & PR Manager. Katie joins from DatingDirect.com where she
was UK Marketing Manager responsible for managing all PR, branding and
marketing, including the development of all external messaging and
communications in the UK.