MASHABLE – Feb 28 – Zoosk recently reported on the success of opening messages: A message with an exclamation point was 10% more likely to receive a response. Comedian and author Sam Greenspan wrote 11 Points Guide to Hooking Up and talked about the importance of grammar and punctuation in online dating conversations. "Exclamation points are the most important, but dangerous," he says, "The best strategy is using one exclamation point whenever something you write might be interpreted the wrong way without."
Category: Zoosk
Zoosk Drops 1/3 Of Its Staff
TECH CRUNCH – Jan 14 – Despite $61M in funding, Zoosk is laying off 1/3 of its staff. ~40 people will be let go. Founded in 2007, Zoosk found success by building extensions for MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, and Bebo. It reached 40M registered users and 12M actives by 2009. Zoosk made money by selling subscriptions. The dating app ditched its IPO plans in 2014, and its founders stepped down. Former CFO Kelly Steckelberg became CEO. "To operate as a sustainable, profitable and innovative company, we've made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our headcount", she commented.
This Is The Busiest Time Of Year For Online Dating
MARKETWATCH – Jan 5 – Dating app Zoosk expects a 20% jump in users in the first two weeks of the year and eHarmony had a 21% increase in mobile registrations since the holidays. Grindr usually experiences a 30% to 50% increase in users. Match.com expects a 60% surge in new members between Christmas Day and Valentine's Day. Sign-ups on OkCupid, were up 30% this past Sunday. Many singles sit around the family dinner table during the holidays and think, "Maybe it would be better to have a partner," says Mark Brooks, a dating-industry analyst and the editor of Online Personals Watch. "That's when they start hitting dating sites in droves and go on dates before the indigestion sets in." It may also be more polite to arrange dates in the New Year rather than during the holidays, especially with family around. "They're going to be around for you long after your relationships," he says. "The trick with holiday dating is to make sure no one feels neglected."
by Quentin Fottrell
See full article at Marketwatch
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OPW Will Interview CEO Of Spark Networks At iDate
OPW – Dec 29 – Mark Brooks will be interviewing Michael Egan, CEO of Spark Networks at Internet Dating Conference (iDate), taking place in January 25-27, 2016 in Miami. Check out the agenda. It is coming along very nicely. Kelly Steckelberg, CEO of Zoosk, will speak on “Opportunities in the Online Dating Industry”; and Takuya Iwamoto from Diverse will speak about the Japanese mobile & online dating market.
How Zoosk Uses Creative Testing To Improve Mobile User Acquisition
VENTUREBEAT – Oct 20 – Chris Nguyen is marketing manager of Zoosk, a global dating platform with 35M profiles. "Test as much as possible: creatives, landing pages, everything," he says. "Test everything and see what works." Mobile UA creative testing has become a time-tested science for him for which tiny changes are measured and optimized against the entire funnel — from click-thru, to profile creation and subscription. For Zoosk, an important metric is profile completions. "We want to know, does the creative change we’re making actually encourage users to complete their profile?"
Q&A With Shayan Zadeh, Zoosk’s Co-founder
HUFFINGTON POST – Oct 13 - Shayan Zadeh is co-founder of Gear Zero. He started Gear Zero to rethink the way people work. Previously, Shayan co-founded Zoosk.
Q: Could you give us a brief account about your life?
A: I was born to a middle-class Kurdish family in Iran. I discovered software programming when my parents bought me Commodore 64. At the age of 16 I already had summer jobs coding in local software companies. I got into the best technical school in the country, Sharif University of Technology. I wanted to continue my education in US. I joined Microsoft as a software engineer to both learn how a big enterprise works and also get on the path for green card. During the five years at Microsoft I managed to get my MBA at University of Washington.
Q: How did the idea for your business come about?
A: While in grad school, I attended a series of talks on entrepreneurship. I had never seen someone talk about their job like that before and I was instantly hooked. I wanted to be like that person. I regrouped with my best friend, Alex Mehr, to start Zoosk.
Q: How different is Zoosk compared to other dating apps?
A: Instead of asking people what they want, we look at their actions and optimize their experience based on this data.
Q: What was the biggest hurdle to overcome?
A: My own mental blocks. We have a hard time imaging big things because our brain is not used to thinking big. Once you overcome that internal obstacle, you can accomplish amazing things.
Q: To what do you most attribute your success?
A: Hard work.
Q: What has helped Zoosk become one of the world's largest online dating platforms?
A: That we made significant investments on mobile way ahead of our competition.
Social Media Marketing: Zoosk Has The Most Fans, Tinder Is The Most Engaging
by Tanya Dua
See full article at DigiDay
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Most Dating Sites Have Bad Password Practices
FORBES – Sep 10 – An analysis of the security practices of 24 leading online dating sites has concluded that only seven use secure-enough password practices. Password management company Dashlane assessed each site on 19 different criteria, including the minimum length for a password to be acceptable, and whether there was a requirement for a mix of letters and numbers. Only Zoosk and OkCupid score ~50%. Most mainstream Internet services generally get 75 or above; Apple scores 100%. eHarmony scores 38, while Match.com, Gleeden and Adult Friend Finder all get 30%. At the bottom end of the scale, Badoo and POF with 22.
Match Must Use Size To Overcome Challenges Facing Public Dating Services
DEAL REPORTER – Aug 24 – OPW – Aug 24 – As The Match Group moves toward an IPO, it must use its size advantage to overcome the difficulties that have plagued other dating companies that have gone public. FriendFinder traded on NASDAQ and was delisted in 2013 for failing to trade above the USD 1 level. Zoosk filed for an IPO in 2014, intending to raise more than USD 100m, but withdrew the application citing unfavorable market conditions. In the past 2 years, shares of Snap Interactive have not been above the USD 1 mark with stock plunging 85%, and Spark Networks has seen its stock decline 60%, to USD 3.11. Chinese dating firm Jiayuan International has seen its US-listed stock rise 22% in the last year, however, their success is partly a by-product of China's booming economy. "Match's size will be an advantage over other publicly traded dating entities," said Mark Brooks, an industry consultant with Courtland Brooks. Its scale and brand awareness means it probably pays much less to acquire new users. “This is very clearly a game of size,” Brooks asserted, adding that Match.com does not have to pay search giant Google for every new member because it has built a brand through time, helped by TV and radio advertising.
by David B. Wilkerson & Marina Temkin & Louise Bleakley
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Zoosk Enables Users To Verify Photos
MARKETING DAILY – June 17 – Zoosk's new "photo verification" feature enables users to submit videos of themselves certifying their profile photos are accurate representations of what they look like in real life. This feature will be highlighted in new commercials in the brand's "First Comes Like" ad campaign.