VATOR.TV – June 13 - Zoosk sells premium subscriptions, as well as features that can be unlocked with digital currency called Zoosk coins. Coins come in packages; users can spend $99.95 for 1,800 coins, $39.95 on 480 coins or $19.95 on 180 coins. Digital currency is still a relatively small revenue stream for Zoosk, but it is growing. In 2013 the company made $24,350 from this stream, up from $5,376 the year before.
Category: Zoosk
How A Battered Zoosk Kept Employees Engaged
CIO.COM – May 18 – When Carol Mahoney met with Zoosk's founders Shayan Zadeh and Alex Mehr in 2014, she believed it was to finalize a post-IPO talent strategy. Zoosk was founded in 2007. It is #1 dating app in the world with 33M users. The company was set for an IPO but Zadeh and Mehr had other plans. They handed over executive control to former CFO Kelly Steckelberg, and scuttled plans for the IPO. A new strategy had to be implemented. "We were so focused on revenue growth because of this IPO that no one ever thought about the customers," said Mahoney. By January 8, Zoosk had reduced its workforce by ~15%. "We knew we needed four things:
- To serve customers better
- To boost engagement of the employees we'd kept on
- Set out our mission
- To achieve sustainable growth
We realized we had to over-communicate with employees about everything that was happening. We use Slack, an enterprise collaboration platform. Another area where employees demanded transparency was in compensation. In a tight talent market like San Fran, Zoosk had to focus on their differentiators. The company allows dogs in their office. There are weekly happy hours with beer on tap, parties and an extensive emphasis on volunteering in the community. Zoosk also promote the company's Hack Days, which are three-day hackathons to develop new ideas.
Zoosk Backpedals On $100M IPO
VENTUREBEAT – May 9 – Zoosk has submitted a regulatory filing to withdraw its plan to go public and raise $100M. The filing itself doesn’t explain Zoosk’s reasoning behind the move. Zoosk started in 2007 and pulled in $178.2M in revenue in 2013, with a $2.6M loss, according to last year’s form S-1 from the company.
by Jordan Novet
See full article at VentureBeat
This post also appears on InternetDatingInvestments.
Would You Consider Accepting Bitcoin On Your Dating Site?
FORTUNE – Mar 27 - OkCupid already accepts it. You could say that accepting bitcoin was just a marketing gimmick—that OkCupid was just looking to garner some goodwill and buzz among tech types. OkCupid founder and CEO Sam Yagan reasoned at the time: “There’s no question that these digital currencies are going to be the future.” Zoosk's CEO Kelly Steckelberg remains hesitant. “I don’t know that bitcoin is at a place yet that it makes sense for us,” she says, “but certainly if it ever got there, we would consider it, absolutely.
by Daniel Roberts
See full article at Fortune
Review & Highlights From iDate Las Vegas
OPW – Mar 26 – Here is the review and highlights from the last iDate that took place in January in Las Vegas. Executives from Match.com (including Tinder), eHarmony, Zoosk, JDate (Osmium Partners) and POF attended this year.
Kelly Steckelberg – The Woman Tasked With Saving Zoosk
FORTUNE – Mar 26 – Kelly Steckelberg took Zoosk’s top job in Dec 2014. Since then, she’s been clearing a path to profitability. Less than one year ago, Zoosk had filed for an IPO. Things quickly changed. In December, the company called it off and its two co-founders, CEO Shayan Zadeh and president Alex Mehr, stepped down. And in January, it laid off 15% of its staff. Kelly Steckelberg, the new CEO, has been at Zoosk for 4 years and held roles as its CFO and COO. When asked what sets Zoosk apart, Steckelberg was unconvincing. “I think we consider ourselves a serious dating site". Zoosk took in ~$200M in revenue in 2014 but lost money. It had been profitable in 2013 for the full year. What changed? Steckelberg says Zoosk decided to invest heavily in growth, “even at a loss situation.” The company also overstaffed. Zoosk seems to have been operating with the startup mentality that profit doesn’t matter. Zoosk will announce that it was profitable in Q1 2015 and Steckelberg hopes the company’s finances will stay that way.
Zoosk Is Betting On Wearables For Growth
CNBC – Mar 24 - Zoosk is rolling out the beta version of its app for Android Wear smartwatch this week, and plans to fully launch next week. The app allows users to browse matches on the smartwatch and alerts them when they have matched with someone. Other dating apps like Match.com are already on the Android Wear platform and offer similar features. Zoosk filed for an IPO last April, which was later delayed. In December, the company laid off ~15% of its workforce and made management changes. Zoosk ended last year with $200M in revenue, but at a loss.
by Cadie Thompson
See full article at CNBC
This post also appears on Wearable.ai.
Zoosk Rapped For Ads On App For Youngsters
CREWEGUARDIAN – Feb 25 - Zoosk has been ordered to ensure it places its ads appropriately after they appeared on an app for young fans of One Direction. The app – a game called Date One Direction (D1D) – showed banner and full-screen ads from Zoosk featuring images of men and women and help to "meet local singles!". The free D1D cartoon-style game, which is classified 9+ in Apple's app classification system, gives fans the chance to build virtual relationship with members of the boyband. Childnet International complained to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that the ads encouraged children to talk to strangers and had been inappropriately and irresponsibly placed within the app.
Interview With Kelly Steckelberg, CEO Of Zoosk
NZZ.CH – Feb 13 - Zoosk is #1 paid dating app. The app has ~30M users, half of them come from USA. Kelly Steckelber took over as CEO in December. She replaced co-founder Shayan Zadeh who is now a member of the board.
Q: Zoosk has recently announced 15% lay off. Can you tell us why?
A: To be profitable, we have to reduce our cost in some areas.
Q: Do you see Tinder as a threat?
A: We do not consider Tinder as a competitor. We compete with paid dating sites that use algorithm based matchmaking. We have invested heavily in our behavioral matchmaking technology.
Q: Why don't you offer GPS?
A: Our users, especially women, are not comfortable with that.
Q: What do you do to protect your users' data?
A: We invest heavily in our encryption technology to protect users' data, passwords and credit cards. We also use digital fingerprints of devices.
by Adrienne Fitcher
See full article at NZZ.ch
Which Dating Sites Received The Best And Worst PR In 2014?
CB – Feb 7 – A lot of companies that traditionally receive a lot of press hits appeared to be lacking this year, including POF, Badoo, SNAP Interactive and Zoosk. Tinder got the most press coverage in 2014, followed by Match.com. Articles mainly highlighted Tinder's impressive growth. It also scored some negative press, most notably the Whitney Wolfe lawsuit. We heard a little less about eHarmony last year, but they still received solid press coverage thanks to their new eH+ service and the announcement of a plan to launch a "jobs matchmaker". OkCupid, as usual, made the list along with AshleyMadison, Grindr and Hinge. There were also companies with more sad than good news. Cupid was one of them. They sold their casual dating sites in 2013, posted weak 2013 annual results, tried unsuccessfully to revive their business, and even launched new services such as LoveBeginsAt and dating app Tangle. In December the news came out that the company decided to sell the remaining mainstream dating sites and quit the dating business. It was not an easy year for Spark Networks either. After some bad news for investors, a fight between the company leadership and Osmium partners began, ending in July with Osmium appointing 4 new directors to the Spark´s board. CEO Greg Liberman left the company in August and layoffs began in September.