VENTURE BEAT – Oct 21 – This is a guest post by entrepreneur Alex Mehr (Zoosk). People’s relationship statuses change, which makes it difficult to keep customers long-term. Zoosk saw an opportunity to overcome the challenge of customer retention, and created a service for people in relationships. Companies must now offer different tools to users at every stage of their romantic journey. Several new services have popped up that offer private social networking for couples. "By expanding our services beyond dating, we’ve been able to create more brand loyalty and have also built stronger relationships with our users", said Alex Mehr.
Category: Zoosk
Zoosk Team Gets Mud On Their Faces
OPW – Sep 30 – …and soaked through, muddy and tested to the limit. The Zoosk team tried a Tough Mudder event. Tough Mudder's are 10-12 mile assault courses designed by the British Special Forces. The whole team finished. Well done!
Zoosk Sees Huge Explosion In Mobile
MARKETWIRE – Sep 17 – 15% of Zoosk daily users now engage through the mobile site. In the last year, mobile traffic on HTML5 and mobile apps has increased by 148%. Android is the platform of choice for Zoosk users accounting for 55% of mobile app usage, while the iOS platform claims 45% of mobile traffic.
The full article was originally published at MarketWatch, but is no longer available.
Zoosk Leads The Way In Modern Romance
THE WASHINGTON TIMES COMMUNITIES – Sep 6 – Zoosk taps into social
networking, our most natural form of online interaction and allows
people to communicate when and how they would like. Shayan Zadeh,
co-founder and co-CEO of Zoosk, talks about the future of online dating.
Q: How do you stay competitive?
A: We initially launched Zoosk on
the Facebook platform in 2007. We created a truly “social” online
dating service. In April, we launched Couple Profiles, which gives
couples a dedicated place to celebrate their relationship online.
Q: What is the future of online dating?
A: The industry is
becoming increasingly more social. We really see social networking for
couples as being the next evolution of modern romance.
Q: How do you see this translating to mobile?
A: Today, you need to offer products and services that accommodate all
phone/service providers to ensure that you are not left out. Zoosk
offers mobile services for our Personal’s application, as well as Couple
Profiles.
Q: What's next for Zoosk?
A: We will
continue to expand our services as a romantic social network. We are in
the process of developing new features to enrich our Couple Profiles
offering, which we will announce over the course of the next year.
by Jeff Barrett
See full article at The Washington Times Communities
Mobile Dating Apps Grow In Popularity
WASHINGTON POST – Aug 19 – Americans now use dating apps more than online dating sites, according to a 2011 report by Flurry Analytics. Globally, the mobile dating market is expected to be worth $2.3 billion by 2016, up from $1 billion in 2011, according to Juniper Research. In June, six participants signed up for a mobile dating boot camp, organized by cyber-dating expert Julie Spira, at the iDate Mobile dating conference. They sat before a roomful of industry executives to discuss the apps they used for two weeks and provided honest feedbacks. Developers are turning to real-life concepts to woo users, like the common friend. That’s where Facebook comes in, with apps like Zoosk and Are you Interested? A new wave of apps such as Coffee Meets Bagel and Yoke focus on common friends and use Facebook profile information to match people. “You can judge a person by the company that they keep,” said Mark Brooks, analyst and consultant to the Internet dating industry. "There is no secret formula for an app to succeed", said Brooks. But “the more you can model the real world, the better you’ll do,” he said. New mobile app developers realize this and are tapping into the wealth of information available on Facebook, while trying to balance users’ privacy concerns. Spira says that just like online dating, people should apply common sense with an app.
by Amrita Jayakumar
See full article at Washington Post
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Zoosk Is Introducing Couple Profiles
ZOOSK BLOG – June 4 – Zoosk is introducing Couple Profiles, a new feature that allows users who are in a committed relationship to create a scrapbook of their relationship. Now every user can create an Individual Profile – as well as a Couple Profile if he/she is in a relationship.
The full article was originally published at Zoosk Blog, but is no longer available.
Online Singletons Turn To Social Networks
INDEPENDENT.CO.UK – Apr 18 -The poll of 1,899 people found that 72% of respondents used both online dating sites and social networks while 19% used social networks alone to find a partner. Just 9% said they solely used dating sites. People mainly preferred social networks because they believe them to be safer and enabled them to meet people through mutual friends. This trend has led to social networks based dating services such as Fancy My Friend in Australia and Zoosk in which others help to hook up those searching for romance. The poll was conducted by myvouchercodes.co.uk.
Zoosk Launches Couple Profiles
THE NEXT WEB – Apr 2 – Couples can now build their joint profile on Zoosk and share their lives together. The combined account has a ‘Romantic Moments’ feature that can act as a repository for images, updates and comments on events like anniversaries, vacations, special moments and more. Zoosk is available in 25 languages and has members in ~70 countries. The company was founded in 2007 by Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr.
Zoosk Integrates Gamification
VENTURE BEAT – Mar 20 – Founded five years ago, Zoosk started to make a name for itself in online dating through Facebook and other social networks. Last year, it generated revenue of more than $90M and was named in the top 50 venture-backed companies by the Wall Street Journal. Now the company is working to integrate gamification into its online dating platform.
Keating Capital Invested $3 Million In Zoosk
NY TIMES MARKETS – Mar 3 – In January Keating Capital, made a $3M investment in the Series E Convertible Preferred Stock of Zoosk. Zoosk is available in 25 languages and has subscribers in more than 70 countries. Zoosk is Keating Capital’s first new portfolio company investment in 2012. With this investment, Keating Capital has now made private investments of $38.4M in 15 portfolio companies.
See full article at NY Times Markets
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.