The full article was originally published at NY Daily News, but is no longer available.
Category: YahooPersonals
Online Personals Watch Exclusive Interview #13 – Yahoo Personals General Manager, Lorna Borenstein
OPW INTERVIEW — Oct 4, 2005 — Lorna Borenstein is the General Manager for Yahoo Personals, the single most trafficed online personals site in existence today (per Hitwise, Nielsen//Netratings). Prior to joining Yahoo Personals Lorna was VP and General Manager for eBay Canada.
What did you learn from eBay that most significantly affected your approach to running Yahoo! Personals?
The most important thing I learned there was that a site is only as good as its community . If you’re constantly taking care of the needs of the community, then it has a sustaining value proposition and you can develop revenue for the business.
Do you think personality profiling has a future? How has Yahoo! Personals Premier worked out for Yahoo?
Singles are looking for help in making better choices for their happiness and dating. When you think about the needs of singles, you have to think about their overall relationship needs. From what we hear, both from Yahoo! research and secondary research, singles want to be better understood and want a more personalized experience. Our extensive market research identified a clear opportunity to better deliver what singles want: customized services and features that meet their diverse needs. We were actually the first online dating company to offer singles a customized approach to dating based on their varying relationship goals.
To do that requires greater customization and personalization. It can’t be just photo personals, we have to help people to identify the criteria that are most important for them and find others with those matching criteria. Also, we need to help people understand themselves better and enable them to take advantage of the screening tools available for online daters. Then we let chemistry take over. Anything to help people do a better job of understanding themselves is a great advantage to the consumer. We believe that this level of personalization gives Yahoo! Personals Premier a brilliant future.
Yahoo! Personals drives a lot of its users from Yahoo!. Now that the online ad market is booming, how has this affected internal promotion and is Yahoo! Personals pushing for more external promotion now?
We are blessed to be part of the Yahoo! network. Yahoo! has more than 380 million unique visitors a month. External advertising is increasing the extent of our reach. We're very efficient at acquiring customers off the Yahoo! network and we're working to diversify our order sources all the time. The other thing that's great is that we have a search business, so we're really be able to take advantage of search engine optimization, search engine marketing and the like, which engage new users with Yahoo! Personals.
Do you think Yahoo! personals could ever extend beyond the web into singles events and mobile phone personals?
I think Yahoo! Personals will absolutely extend onto different devices as the industry moves increasingly beyond the desktop. Singles are looking for more of a 360 degree dating life and don't really separate online and offline and all their different activities, so we are continuing to build and extend beyond the PC. It's amazing what is happening in Asia. They're so far ahead of the U.S. in terms of embracing mobility as a way of life. Some of the technologies are very compelling. You can give virtual flowers on mobile devices to someone you're dating. We're very excited about all of the possibilities and are looking into the opportunities that make sense to our users with great enthusiasm.
When a man meets a woman he's interested in for the first time, he has to communicate two things to her, 1. he's interested, 2. he's safe. What is Yahoo! Personals position on safety going to be in 2006?
We continue to have the same perspective; just as in life in the real world and in offline dating you have to use common sense when using online dating. Yahoo! is the most trusted of online brands and Yahoo! Personals is a safe community to be part of, but you still have to use common sense. We hope all users will be aware and leery of any approach to screening that is out of their hands and that might offer a false sense of security. Common sense and the same approaches people have taken in dating for ages are still the most solid. We encourage users to continue to use their common sense, whether online or in the real world.
Jupiter Research ran a survey this January and found 35% of online daters were somewhat dissatisfied or very dissatisfied with personals sites. Only 29% were somewhat satisfied or very satisfied. Yahoo! Personals taglines and text under promise…so Yahoo! Personals can over deliver. What are the key areas Yahoo! Personals is focusing on to improve satisfaction levels?
It's quite purposeful that we choose to under promise and over deliver. This helps us build credibility and trust, which is exactly what we're focused on. Online personals are a way to make better choices and have more variety in dating. We're working on being able to incorporate user feedback in real time. We actually just conducted our 3rd annual Singles Voice Survey that shows more than 75% of singles are looking for long term relationships. Many of these are in the 45+ age group. Yahoo! Personals is focused on helping people find great dates that have potential for the future. Singles might also come out of a relationship or marriage and be looking for a more casual relationship. We serve that audience as well. As mentioned earlier, we were the first online dating site to offer customized options for daters looking for different kinds of relationships.
Online personals users send each other emails then they send instant messages, then they're out on a coffee date. That's a big jump! Where do video/webcam dating and the mobile phone fit in?
It depends on the market we're playing in and the age of the person. The phone fits in more with 18 to 24 year olds than with those aged 49+. Just like there’s no single answer as to what someone is looking for in a mate, there's no one answer to how our users want to connect with that person inside and outside the online world. We believe that the dating experience on a PC is not the same as on a mobile device. We don't think the market is there yet for video dating. We do believe there will be a strong future in video overall, however. Mobile personals will eventually become part of the online personals experience. Users will set up their profiles and matching preferences, and those profiles and requirements from the PC will also be in the mobile environment. When that user happens to be out in the evening and another user happens to be at the same club, the phone will beep with an alert that they're there. There are some really fun applications for mobile devices which are really going to make the online dating experience even more enjoyable. Users will be able to share profiles with friends over coffee. Mobile applications will extend online dating and take it out into the real world.
What does the future hold for Yahoo Personals?
We're expanding the community and enhancing offerings for the betterment of all online daters. We will continue to keep our genuine, authentic voice. At the end of the day, just as we say at the site, we’re deeply focused on helping people have better first dates and more second dates.
Yahoo! Personals Third Annual Singles’ Voice Survey
BUSINESS WIRE — Sept 19 — The third annual Yahoo! Personals Singles' Voice Survey (2000 singles) found the number of mature online daters, 50+ is on the rise. Also, more than 75% of singles are looking for long-term relationships, with the 45-49 year old age group most interested in forming long term relationships. 47% say they enjoy being able to make their own schedules without having to consider anyone else. West Coast singles continue to socialize the most; nearly a third go out at least two nights a week. 28% of East Coasters go out two nights a week. 49% of Southerners revealed they would choose to lock lips on a first date, more than any other region. 51% of men and 56% of women say they would date up to ten years younger. 20% of males would date someone 20 years younger. Less than 10% of women would date someone 20 years their junior. And on a surprising note, 52% of men would date someone up to ten years their senior. When considering a long-term relationship, singles in general say the ability to have fun together and enjoy each other's company is the most important quality when considering a long-term relationship.
Hooking Up Is Out; Finding Your Perfect Match Is In!
PRNewswire — Aug 23 — PerfectMatch.com appears prominently in the "Must Love Dogs" movie trailer and throughout the extensive television campaign. PerfectMatch's remarkable growth in 2005 has been driven by partnerships in entertainment with Sony Pictures' "Hitch," the Dr. Phil Show and Lifetime Television, as well as major online brands MSNBC, iVillage and drugstore.com. PerfectMatch is a premium "relationship" site and continues its impressive growth while the "casual" dating space faces an industry-wide slowdown. A primary reason for the slowed growth within the casual dating space is the emergence of the savvy Internet dater. "Casual sites like Match.com and Yahoo! Personals are terrific to introduce users to online dating," Mr. Dahl, CEO, stated continued. "As singles gain confidence, we can expect them to graduate to a community of like-minded people. At PerfectMatch, singles can do that because we have a community of genuine people looking for real love and sincere 'relationships.'" PerfectMatch.com(TM), is preparing for another sizeable growth increase in 2006 with the release of a book "Finding Your Perfect Match" authored by PerfectMatch relationship authority Dr. Pepper Schwartz (Penguin), and a partnership with NBC Universal's "The Break-up" starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston.
The full article was originally published at Red Nova, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Match and Yahoo Personals, along with True.com I might add (a relationships site with a slightly broader perspective), allow users the freedom to decide what kind of relationships they are interested in. eHarmony and PerfectMatch are focused on people who are 'very single' and very motivated to hook up for a longer term relationship. Examples of full-on casual dating sites include Adultfriendfinder/Passion.com (Alexa rank has gone from 100 to 45 over the prior 12 months), Sexsearch (Alexa rank grown from 1500 to 600), Mate1 (15,000 to 2,000). Eroticy and IwantU are plugging along as well. Morals aside, full-on casual dating sites are here to stay. This segment is alive and kicking and not to be ignored.
Online Dating Feeling Less Attractive
CNN MONEY — Aug 18 — Online dating has shrugged off its social stigma and emerged as a mainstream means for singles to find that special someone. The U.S. online dating industry is expected to climb 9% year-over-year with revenues of $516 million in 2005, said Nate Elliott, an analyst at Jupiter Research. That's slower than the 19% growth in 2004. And 77% in 2003. There are currently nearly 1,000 dating Web sites, said Bill Tancer of Hitwise, and one out of every 100 people logging on to the internet visits an online dating site. Niche sites are popular. Social networking sites have become increasingly popular among the young. That's giving traditional online dating sites a run for their money, said John Tinker, research analyst at ThinkEquity Partners. The Big 3 online dating sites — Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and EHarmony.com will have to tweak their business models and create new innovative products to grow revenue. One place to look is advertising. Date.com's CEO Meir Strahlberg said that advertising revenues have doubled in the past few months to 10% of total revenue. "There are 86 million single adults who control annual spending of $1.6 trillion," Strahlberg said. "Online dating sites reach about 30 percent of that market currently." Date.com can target an advertiser's products to almost any demographic based on user profiles. Yahoo! Personals general manager Lorna Borenstein said, "today's online daters are increasingly sophisticated. You can't just increase offerings; you have to help singles figure out their relationship goals and offer tools to help them find their version of success, whatever that might be." FULL ARTICLE @ CNN MONEY
Mark Brooks: Hot future trends; 1. targeted advertising on online dating sites. 2. personality profiling.
Make a Date With a Computer and a Dog
SUN-SENTINEL — Aug 10 — A recent press release claimed that 43% of singles have Googled their new hottie before the first date. A press kit from Yahoo! Personals came in a silver cylinder with a bright red heart plastered across the front. In crisp white letters across the red heart, it read: "A New Best Friend? Yahoo! Personals presents dating advice for pet owners." When I removed the lid from the mail canister, it barked at me. I barked back. I mean, really, that was only polite, right?
Mark Brooks: People go nuts over their pets in America. Makes sense to encourage them to go nuts over each other.
For Online Daters, Love Not Always True
DALLAS NEWS — Aug 4 — Rhodes showed up his date revealed she had a picture online that was at least 35 years younger. Terri ended up meeting a man who was married with two children. As dating moves from clicking in bars to clicking a mouse, questions are arising about what online dating services are doing to protect subscribers from deception. The Texas Legislature joined several states that were considering legislation to require disclosure of background checks but the proposed Texas legislation died at the end of the session. The databases that background check companies use are generally out of date by up toa year. There's also difficulty in defining an Internet dating site; i.e. online chat rooms and craigslist classifieds. Proponents like Herb Vest, CEO of True.com, contend that checks will help weed out unsuitable mates. True.com’s screenings result in the rejection of ~ 5% because offelony criminal records, and another 4% who already are married. “It’s not foolproof, but I think it’s very effective,” Vest said. “We’re very serious about enforcing these rules.” Match.com and Yahoo! Personals rely on subscribers to alert them to dishonest members.
Dating Sites Rekindle the Flame
— July 29 — Seeking someone who's a "giver," a "rebel" or an "observer"? Yahoo Personals now lets you search for them. Dying to know if Ms. Right is a philanderer or a felon? True will run a background check. Online-dating sites raked in $473 million from American customers in 2004, according to JupiterResearch, which expects revenue to reach $516 million this year. At the same time, it's becoming more expensive for dating sites to advertise online and woo enough new customers to create a viable site, said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant who blogs about the business. "We're going through the big squeeze," he said, "One in which consolidation looms and innovation is key to survival." True, for one, allows so-called "bidirectional blocking": Users can block other members forever and decide who can peruse their own ads. "Basically," said True chief psychologist Jim Houran, "you're really empowering clients." Big deal, sniffs Nate Elliott, an analyst with JupiterResearch. The bells and whistles "don't really matter to customers," he said. "If you give them a large number of photos and profiles, they're happy. Beyond that, it's all incremental." Niche marketing sites include BlackPeopleMeet.com, Christian Mingle and BBWHarmony (BBW stands for "big beautiful women"), along with "adult" sites for the instant-gratification crowd. The quickie-oriented sites are growing rapidly, but "they've flown under the radar," said Brooks. Mark Thompson, CEO of weAttract.com, thinks short video clips are the future. "Jump ahead 10 years, and it will all be video-based." FULL ARTICLE @ WIRED NEWS
GoingOn Aims to be Social `Network of Networks’
MERCURY NEWS — July 22 — GoingOn, will work on an open-standards platform, is expected to launch this fall, and will mix social networking and blogging. Perkins and Canter said they want the company to be a "network of networks" — a platform open for integration with other social networking players, such as Tribe or Friendster, and other large media companies, such as Yahoo, and even other corporate sites. All these players could create their own networks on GoingOn. Being interoperable is not entirely new. SXIP sells a product that allows the same user name/password information to be used across many networks.
The full article was originally published at Mercury News, but is no longer available.
Seniors Discover New Way to Connect — Online
SEATTLE TIMES — June 4 — Al Farrar, at age 74, was a bored and lonely widower when his daughter urged him to go online and look for a lady friend. That's how Farrar, a retired postal-service supervisor, apprehensively came to sign up for "Cupid Junction," a computer dating service. "Two years ago, the percentage of age 50-plus online daters was very, very small. Now on a daily basis that percentage is growing by leaps and bounds," says Duane Dahl, president of PerfectMatch.com. AARP counsels beware when dating online but touts the strategy as a good way for older people to meet. In April, more than 1.6 million age 65-plus visited online personals sites, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. "The most important thing to do is make sure the site you choose has a large enough database of people you're interested in and who are interested in you," advises Ron Geraci, a special-projects editor for AARP.
The full article was originally published at Seattle Times, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: Older singles discovery of online personals has been one of the big stories of the year.