« August 2007 | Main | October 2007 »
CANADA.COM -- Sep 28 -- Playersandpsychos.com is the latest venue to out bad love interests. The Calgary-based site allows anyone to post a story "complete with photos, full names, and tales of torment" about their lovers' wrongdoings. Every month, a new player and psycho is crowned. FULL ARTICLE @ CANADA.COM
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Sep 28 -- Online dating scams may have tripled in recent years. With 9 out of 10 online daters lying at least once in their dating profile and lonely hearts desperate for love, it's not surprising. One site, romancescam.com, tracks online dating scams and, so far, has collected about 10,000 pictures and 60,000 email addresses used by scammers. FULL ARTICLE @ THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
ENTREPRENEUR -- Sep 26 -- Many entrepreneurs run successful businesses, but can't manage successful dating lives. Packed schedules lead to little personal time. More so than others, entrepreneurs need to identify goals, tradeoffs, and budgets. And should utilize the dating sites created just for them, including TableForSix, ItsJustLunch, EntrepreneurDating, and BusinessSingles. FULL ARTICLE @ ENTREPRENEUR
OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 28, 2007 -- The Matchmakers Conference is happening right now. I interviewed Paul last August 2006. Here's my second interview with Paul Falzone of The Right One/Together Dating. - Mark Brooks
How quickly has The Right One/Together Dating been growing, and how does your growth compare to other matchmaking companies?
Over the last three years, our growth rate has been about 130%. We recently have been named to the Inc. 5000. Regionally, we’re the 31st fastest-growing, privately-owned company in the Boston area, according to the Boston Business Journal.
The industry, as a whole, is growing somewhat. Some internet dating services are shrinking and some are experiencing growth, but I don’t think anybody has had the exponential growth that we’ve been achieving. Quite frankly, our marketing is a key part of that and we’re constantly focused on new marketing ideas. We have a lot of internet marketing campaigns that have been giving us great multiple returns on our investment. I don’t know if a lot of the other matchmaking companies are as savvy or have the resources to be able to play in those fields.
What does The Right One/Together Dating do differently?
We have WIT and that’s the attitude we all need to keep. It’s called Whatever It Takes. All my people have it and it’s important that we do. We give great personal service. We keep our lines of communication open between our matchmakers and our members. It’s so important to hear what your members need and want and we’re constantly refining our membership, as a result of that. We want to make sure that the members are getting a great experience at any of our offices.
In how many cities is The Right One/Together Dating?
We’re in approximately 60 cities nationwide. There certainly are different markets that have their challenges, but we’ve had great success over the last few years and we’re continuing it. We just did our first and second quarter numbers and they’re tracking very closely to last year. Maintaining the growth and the margins that we’ve had is a goal of ours and achieving that goal is important to us.
How come other internet dating companies haven’t tried to launch matchmaking companies?
They have and they found out it’s not that easy to do. Even Match.com is trying to do it these days and I don’t know how successful it is. I haven’t heard a whole lot from them about their matchmaking company. Maybe it’s just my personal opinion, but if you’re not hearing a lot about it, I don’t know how successful it really is. You would think that if it was really successful for them, they would be beating the drums a lot more. I think it’s a very, very difficult area for people who aren’t used to matchmaking to jump into. It’s a totally different type of business model and once they start getting involved with it they realize, “Wow, this is so much different than just getting costs per clicks and my numbers up.” There’s a lot to making sure these people are very happy and achieving the success that they’re looking for.
What can other internet dating companies do to partner with The Right One/Together Dating?
We are more than willing to partner with dating sites for lead generation and we have partnered with a few companies. It just has to be a win-win situation for both companies. It’s as important that the internet companies are successful partnering with us as we are with them. We’ve recently been doing some things with a company called Loveaccess, which has proven to be very significant and has worked out well for us.
I understand you’ve been doing some lead generation. How has that been working out?
We have. We’ve partnered up with a few other people out there to do lead generation and, quite frankly, it’s done really well. We’re watching which online companies are giving us the best lead generation and will focus more on the better ones and hope to form tighter relationships with them. We’re looking at bringing some of these companies under our wing and building out a larger, better Right One/Together and eLove.
eLove, by the way, is our hybrid. It contains a physical location component where you go in and spend approximately 90 minutes with a trained matchmaking counselor. We check criminal background records and divorce decrees on everybody. Once everything has been okayed and the individuals decide to join, they are put into the system and given a password. They then go into the site themselves, enter their criteria, and find their match. It’s a hybrid of online and offline services and it’s one of the first of its kind.
What are your goals for The Right One/Together Dating for 2007 through 2008?
Over the next 12-18 months, we’re in an acquisition mode. We’re talking seriously to an online company right now about bringing them under our wing. We’re also looking at expanding our offline exposure and we’ve got another company that we’re serious about partnering up with along those lines, as well.
In the next 6-12 months, I think you’re going to see a couple of mergers coming through that will bring our already-strong numbers up exponentially. I just want to look and take the best of the best that’s out there and build a bigger and better company.
PRESS RELEASE -- September 27 -- SexSearch, one of the largest adult dating sites, today offered both lifetime and Gold memberships to its most famous member, Charlie Sheen. SexSearch officials figured the notorious Hollywood bad boy would need a bit of rest and relaxation as he goes through his acrimonious custody battle with ex-wife Denise Richards. FULL ARTICLE @ FREE PRESS RELEASE
OPW -- Sep 27 -- If you want to know what's happening in the European internet dating market, and meet fellow executives, iDate Europe is just around the corner again. The last iDate conference in San Francisco was the best conference yet. Great speakers, great networking. Anyway, I'm exhibiting at iDate Barcelona, so perhaps I'll see you at the booth, or in the hallways, or at one of the sessions. (I'll be keynoting in Miami in February). Here's the agenda. Here's the travel and venue info, and here's where you can pick up a ticket. - Mark Brooks
MARKETING VOX -- Sep 27 -- Some 2.5 million US adults participated in online dating in the last 30 days, with 52.2% being men and 47.8% being women. Those aged 18-34 comprised 49.1% of all online daters and those aged 35-44 made up 24.2%. Americans who have sole responsibility for a child and heavy internet users are significantly more likely than average to use online dating. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING VOX
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 27 -- WhiteLabelDating will exhibit and present at the upcoming 4th Annual European Internet Dating Conference (iDate) in Barcelona, Spain. On Oct 1, CEO Ross Williams will explain white label branding, a method of outsourcing that can create websites in mere hours via shared resources. Williams also will address the potential threats to existing dating sites and the dating industry. FULL ARTICLE @ FREE PRESS RELEASES
REUTERS UK -- Sep 26 -- BadOnlineDates, set to launch next month, hopes to connect members via negative dating stories. The site, “a combination of MySpace and Match.com”, will allow users to enter the standard dating data, as well as photo albums, blogs, and nightmare date stories. Keyword matching finds similar themes in the members' profiles and bad date experiences to make a match. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS UK
ABC ACTION NEWS -- Sep 25 -- According to a 2006 survey, 31% of American adults (63 million people) know someone who has used a dating website, 26% (53 million) know someone who has gone on a date with a person they met through a dating site, and 15% (30 million) say they know someone who has been in a long-term relationship or married someone they met online. If you’re ready to try online dating and don’t know where to start, check out www.100bestdatingsites.com. FULL ARTICLE @ ABC ACTION NEWS
ADRANTS -- Sep 26 -- Marry Our Daughter is a publicity stunt orchestrated by women who were sold into marriage and wanted to shed light on the mail order bride industry. The site, which received 60 million hits in its first week, was built by a viral-marketing consultant in Brooklyn who has gotten angry emails, bonafide proposals, and notes from parents who want to put their own kids on the market. FULL ARTICLE @ ADRANTS
NEWSWEEK -- Sep 26 -- Vegans and vegetarians have it rough when it comes to online dating. A number of niche dating sites – like Vegan Passions, Veggie Fishing, and Planet Earth Singles – have popped up to respond to dating demands for the nation’s 1.4 million vegans and 4.7 million vegetarians. Unfortunately, no site has come along to unify vegans the way JDate has done for Jewish singles. FULL ARTICLE @ NEWSWEEK
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 25 -- Trustcash Holdings has signed an agreement with ElectraCash that will enable customers to use their bank accounts to purchase Trustcash, a secure and anonymous online payment system. ACH eCheck payments are the most common application on the internet today and are growing at 40% per year. FULL ARTICLE @ PRIME NEWSWIRE
CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH -- Sep 25 -- By 2012, the U.S. mobile ad market will grow from $33.2 million to $1.4 billion, ad-sponsored directory assistance will grow from 270 million calls to 2.1 billion calls, and mobile internet users will grow from 37.9 million to 91.7 million. With the mobile and search markets being linked and Google having advertisers who want to spend more money than current traffic levels can support, mobile traffic translates to an increase in revenue events and top-line growth. FULL ARTICLE @ CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
SNW INTERVIEW -- Sep 27, 2007 -- WAYN is one of my favorite social networks. I really like the map which shows where I've traveled to in the past, and the mails updating me on new people that are moving/traveling to town. I last interviewed Peter in June 2006. WAYN.com has dropped its paid membership program since then. Here's my latest interview with Pete. - Mark Brooks
How is WAYN unique?
WAYN is unique because it’s a social network that allows you to meet people based on where you are now, where you’ve been, and where you are going. If a Londoner is traveling to San Francisco and would like to see who else from London will be traveling to San Francisco that same weekend, they can log on to the site, run a search, and see which, say, 18-25 year old London females will be there. It allows them to plan their journey in advance.. FULL INTERVIEW @ SOCIAL NETWORKING WATCH
PA NEWS -- Sep 25 -- Dateafirefighter.co.uk is a new dating site for firefighters and their admirers. The site, which claims to be "the only UK-based facility for making contact with the Fire Brigade community", already has attracted members from the US, France, Singapore, and Argentina. FULL ARTICLE @ CHANNEL 4 NEWS
KTAR -- Sep 24 -- You don't have to be super cool to be on SweetOnGeeks. The bully-free dating site, which now boasts 4,000 members, is for anyone looking for their own special geek. FULL ARTICLE @ KTAR
OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 25, 2007 -- It's no secret that the more options you offer for payment, the higher your conversions. Mastercard, Visa, Discovery, Amex... and Trustcash is another to consider. Tens of millions of potential internet daters don't have credit cards in the U.S.A. Many more don't really want a dating site showing up on their credit cards. So, you really, really should offer some kind of prepaid card cash payment method. Trustcash has internet dating industry experience. Here's my interview with Greg Moss. - Mark Brooks
What is Trustcash’s founding story?
E-commerce has had strong consistent growth year in and year out since inception. With growth like this in any industry come various risks. In this specific case it happens to be increased concerns with privacy and security After recognizing this an opportunity presented itself to create a stored value transaction system that would allow anyone with Internet access – even those without credit cards – to buy anonymously and safely online just as they would at a traditional retailer today with cash.
I can walk into a store today and buy a magazine with cash and no one will ever know I made that purchase. And it’s secure. That’s what we’ve built here at Trustcash.
What does the service do?
Basically, the service allows people to take a $50 bill and insert it into their computer. People can go to one of 60,000 Trustcash designated retail outlets throughout the country, hand the clerk cash and in exchange receive a Trustcash number that is similar to a credit card number, but without their personal data tied to it. It’s a unique 12-digit alphanumeric number worth the dollar amount paid and you can take that number and use it to make online purchases at merchants that accept Trustcash as a form of payment. This includes hard goods, services and subscription based businesses. By using Trustcash for their online transactions people can keep their transactions private and, since there is no personal information tied to their Trustcash number it is secure from hackers and their private life is kept private. This type of transaction has also given a whole new opportunity to people who are unbanked or under banked. Over 50 million people in the U.S. alone don’t possess credit cards or don’t have the credit available to make purchases online. Trustcash gives these consumers the opportunity to get better product availability and pricing via the internet.
Where precisely can people buy Trustcash?
Today, it’s currently available in about 60,000 locations across the U.S.. We expect that by the first quarter of next year, we’ll take the service to an additional 60,000 locations internationally, beginning with Canada and then moving into Europe. Trustcash can also be purchased online using a credit card. This service is for customers who do not wish to give the end merchant their personal data or worry about their personal data being stored in an unknown database online. When buying Trustcash with a credit card, it is a one time purchase and all of your data is purged following the transaction. Beyond these forms of distribution, there are several more relationships in the works with both financial institutions and prepaid companies that will continue to increase our availability around the country.
Who are your signature internet dating clients?
For the last six months, we’ve been working closely with a leading dating company called IWANTU. They have been great to work with and extremely patient while we spent the time understanding who the target customer is and how we can help generate incremental revenue for their program. It is important to understand the space before you roll out in any real magnitude.
We have signed several more leading dating programs which are now in integration and currently have verbal commitments from another six while they review our merchant agreement.
How can you help internet dating companies make more money?
That’s the question and this is where it gets exciting. Social networks and dating sites have essentially become the modern day personals. The internet has opened this world up and plenty of people are coming to the dating sites. And although many will sign up for a free account, there’s a sizable amount that just won’t convert to paying customers. They get to a point where they feel their personal data will be compromised or they won’t be able to keep their private life private (perhaps someone in their life, like a spouse or significant other, will discover what they’re doing through a credit card or checking account statement). We give these people a sense of security. By keeping their private lives private and secure, we’re able to convert more free subscribers for these dating programs. We’re bringing them an entirely new market of customers who previously wouldn’t use their services out of privacy and security fears.
Who are your competitors?
Right now, we’re considered an alternative payment system. As far as competition, it’s tough to say that we have a direct competitor. There are a lot of companies – the PayBy Phone, ACH companies, Dialers, ChargeMeLater, PayPal, Google Buy, all competing for the alternative biller spot with merchants. But, fortunately, these companies cannot offer complete privacy and most have swayed from certain verticals and markets. This has given us an opportunity to come in and demonstrate our value proposition to both the customer and merchant.
What are your goals for 2007 through 2008 for Trustcash?
I think we’ve discovered a market that has a big need for a service like Trustcash. Dating has proven that there is a large portion of free subscribers that truly need and want what Trustcash has to offer. Our priority right now is to hone in on the dating market and make sure we do a first class job with both the customer and the merchant experiences. In tandem we will continue to build our brand with traditional and non-traditional marketing campaigns. As for 2008 and beyond we will enter into mainstream verticals that make the most sense for the company based on the current demographic of our customer.
OPW -- If you have any interest in the business of matchmaking, I'd recommend you consider attending the Matchmakers Conference this Friday and Saturday. You might also want to stick around for the matchmakers training on Sunday, which is included. ~100 matchmaking industry executives, top level matchmakers, marketers and press will be in attendance. The matchmaking industry is the antithesis of the online dating industry in many ways. I'm looking forward to learning from the Yentas, and figuring out how to pair the two industries together more effectively.
I'll be keynoting along with Helen Fisher of Chemistry.com/Match.com. Master matchmaker Julie Ferman is moderating. Paul Falzone from The Right One & Together Dating, Evan Marc Katz from e-cyrano, Bill Broadbent from Instinct Marketing, Patrick Perrine from myPartner, and Violet Lim from Lunch Actually in Singapore will be speaking amongst others. See MatchmakersConference.com.
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 24 -- WhiteLabelDating will be exhibiting at the ad:tech London show on September 26-27. The company, which creates customizable dating sites, offers the largest revenue share (50% of ad dollars) to its customer base and will be sharing some of those success secrets at the exhibit. FULL ARTICLE @ E MEDIA WIRE
NETIMPERATIVE -- Sep 22 -- DatingDirect is celebrating National Dating Day (September 24) with a dramatic cube installation located under the clock at Waterloo Station. Passers-by can later go to a specially-created microsite at DatingDirect to compete to win a date with any of the celebrities, single models, and DatingDirect members they saw inside the installation.
CHINANEWS -- Sep 22 -- An online dating agency in Shanghai will allow female participants to bid on 20 young Chinese millionaires. Tickets to the dating party will cost almost $8,000. About half of the millionaires will be the heirs of family enterprises, in their 20s.
REUTERS -- Sep 21 -- Gabriele Pauli, one of the politicians running for the leadership of Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), has shocked the Catholic state in Germany by suggesting marriage should last just 7 years. After 7 years, the party rebel who stands almost no chance of winning next week argued that marriages be mutually extended or automatically dissolved.
OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 22, 2007 -- Mate1 is doing well. It's a casual dating site where women can join free. X-rated photos aren't allowed, but revealing photos are encouraged. Here's my interview with Liz Wasserman. - Mark Brooks
What is Mate1’s founding story?
It’s a family business. My father and I started it in 2003. The dominant sites then were very clean, corporate sites, like Matchmaker and Match, and sex dating sites, like AdultFriendFinder. We felt there was room for something in between. Something that wasn’t geared towards moral debates or fetishes and one-night stands. Rather, something that allowed users the freedom to express themselves and talk about sex in their profiles. A site that would let members use more slightly-revealing photos of themselves, if they felt like it. A more libertarian approach to the whole thing, but without anything X-rated.
So, we decided to start Mate1 with that in mind. We built it in 2003 and ramped up through 2004 to what we thought was a success.
How is the site different from other Internet dating sites?
It is an Internet dating site and in some ways it’s very similar to other ones of our size. But we do still occupy that middle ground between adult and conservative sites and I think others have even followed us in that regard.
A lot of our members are looking for shorter-term relationships, more casual ones. And people who are looking for that don’t feel intimidated by our site. We don’t ask a lot of deep, probing questions. Our questionnaire focuses much more on sparkly things, like your interest in music and food. The things that get conversations going rather than the things that go deep at the heart of moral and relationship-oriented questions. I think we really appeal to people in the way that social networks do – as a basis for networking with people who have similar interests as you.
How do you allow members to communicate on the site?
Right now, it’s still pretty simple. There’s email and chat. With email, you click on a link and fill out a form to email another user. The chat is more of a one-on-one, instant messenger feature where people chat privately with other users they find interesting (we’ve opted against group chats ). And if someone asks to chat with you, you have the opportunity to say yes or no.
Those are the primary ways that people communicate on the web. There have been some phone experiments, but nothing we made live. We did build a one-on-one, double-blind phone system a while back that we weren’t sure the public was ready for, but it’s something we’re still planning.
I think now is the time for a phone feature, partly because there are older people getting online. Kids, even on their phones, mostly send text messages. People in their 20’s and even 30’s are not big direct phone users in the way that perhaps people in their 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s are. I just heard that the average age of a person on a U.K. dating site is 45, which I thought was pretty amazing. I think that is a generation that is much more comfortable on the phone and more irritated by instant messaging. For some of those people, we could really have a lot of success with phone products that allow people to protect their anonymity. That’s something we’re planning, hopefully, for this year.
How would you define Mate1? Tell me more about your branding choice.
It’s an online dating site that allows users to talk about intimate things, as opposed to adult dating sites that are all about a sexual relationship. Intimate doesn’t mean sexual. We have a lot of very devout Christians on our site who are looking for marriage and a lot of single parents looking to meet other single parents. We have all kinds of people at different stages of their lives who are irritated with or not interested in sites that censor their profiles. People who want to be able to answer questions about sex. We have a multiple choice questionnaire where you can indicate what your sexual preferences are. Nothing too extreme, but basic questions about what you like and don’t like. So we offer people a safe, online way to meet and be intimate and interact in such a way as to decide whether to go to the stage of actually meeting in person.
What is the average age on Mate1?
The last time we did a check, it was 30 but that was quite a while ago. Since then, we’ve actually been targeting primarily older people, so I would say our average age is now higher than that. We have ad campaigns that target people over the age of 25 and others that target people over the age of 40. We’re interested in figuring out where our best demographic is. Social networking has really caught on so strongly with the 20 and 30 something’s that there’s a divide that’s starting in the industry. Maybe that is what’s accounting for the increasing average age or maybe it’s because people in later stages of their lives are starting to take dating more seriously and have more of an interest in meeting people outside of their immediate social circle.
Have you considered entering Europe or Asia?
Yes, and I’m very angry at us for not doing it yet. It’s something that we need to do, particularly Europe. Asia is more of a challenge, culturally and linguistically, for us. It’s going to be a much bigger undertaking. But, if I were to examine our staff here at Mate1, we probably have every major European language covered. We’re planning to tackle Europe and we’ve actually created a strategy for it.
What are your goals for Mate1 for 2007 through 2008?
Internationalization would be one of them. Another is more diversification of the communication mediums on the site. We want to add video chat. We think it is really catching on and is going to be big, if it isn’t already. People who have web cams use them. It’s a great way to verify the identity of the person you’re communicating with.
The other one is phone, which I’ve already talked about. We’re still trying to decide how exactly to do that. We haven’t come to any firm conclusions, but we want to give people the opportunity to communicate anonymously by phone before they exchange numbers.
Aside from that, we’re just going to improve the way we communicate with our members and get them more active on the site. We’re going to work on matchmaking applications and marketing to our members to make sure they understand the features available to them, the kinds of subscriptions plans available. We’re going to focus more on our actual members rather than acquiring new ones, in a sense.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA -- Sep 21 -- Online dating, matrimonial, and social networking sites are gaining prominence in India. 51% of online urban Indians use dating sites, 48% frequent matrimonial sites, and 44% belong to the social networking site Orkut. 37% of all Indian internet users undertake both online matrimonial and dating/friendship activities, up from 9% last year.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 21 -- Jumbuck's Fast Flirting was awarded "Best Community Service Provider" at this week's ME (Mobile Entertainment) Awards. Fast Flirting – available on most major wireless carriers in the US, Canada, and UK – is a real-time, text-based mobile dating service that gives users 10 minutes to impress their flirting partner. On any given day, over 40,000 users log in to the service. FULL ARTICLE @ TRADING MARKETS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Sep 20 -- Today, there's a plethora of niche dating sites. Some of the more specialized ones include Disabledpassions for people with disabilities, Hairfetishpersonals for singles who love the bald look, MeetAnOstoMate for colostomy bag wearers, and IrritatedBeingSingle for irritable bowel sufferers. You can even design your own professional dating site at Datingpro. FULL ARTICLE @ THE EAGLE.COM
THE POST -- Sep 20 -- Internet scamming has found a base in Cameroon. Scammers usually claim to be suppliers of cash crops, pets, or wildlife. They create fake management teams to meet with victims and oftentimes send sample products to entice larger sums of money. Bank cashiers frequently get a piece of the pie. Scammers now number over 300,000 worldwide and are increasing 3% annually. FULL ARTICLE @ ALLAFRICA.COM
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 20 -- BuyYourFriendADrink has integrated its online social gift service for buying drinks in bars and restaurants into HurryDate's online user profiles. HurryDaters now can buy a real drink online as a creative way of asking someone out. Personal messages can be sent with the drink certificates, which can be redeemed at over 100 bars in New York and Boston. FULL ARTICLE @ E MEDIA WIRE
Mark Brooks: Hurrydate was acquired by Spark Networks (JDate, AmericanSingles) in January.
THE MOTLEY FOOL -- Sep 18 -- eHarmony is disputing Chemistry's claim that the questionnaires filled out by Chemistry applicants "predict which single men and women you'll have a relationship and dating chemistry with." If the lengthy registration forms at premium dating services are bunk, why even bother paying for love when there are plenty of free sites out there? FULL ARTICLE @ THE MOTLEY FOOL
THE SUN -- Sep 18 -- The U.K.'s Sun Singles is encouraging people to submit "Date Me" videos. The 60-second home videos should explain why you'd be the perfect date. Entrants will receive first date "Get Lucky" kits and the chance to appear on Sun TV. FULL ARTICLE @ THE SUN
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 18 -- OkCupid, America's largest and fastest-growing free online dating site, today announced WTF (What to Fix), a new matching tool that lets users see the issues on which they disagree with potential matches. A WTF report reveals each party's opinions on various topics so both can see which issues are acceptable and which are deal breakers.
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 18 -- SilverBirch today announced that it has signed an agreement to distribute its proprietary and third-party mobile games through Lavalife's online mobile content portals. FULL ARTICLE @ SYS CON MEDIA
Mark Brooks: Lavalife is monetizing it's key strategic differentiator over it's competition, it's mobile platform. Games are a logical extension. When will we see games on dating sites? Doof is a gaming SNS.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 17 -- lavalifePRIME, one of the world's first social dating sites, is targeting the 30% of the 85 million baby boomers in the US and Canada who are back in the singles scene and want more than a date. The site allows users to connect based on hobbies, interests, and relationship outlooks, and offers online socializing etiquette tips. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH WEB
Mark Brooks: Lavalife realized that Match was targeting the 35+ crowd for a reason - that's where the money is! They also realized that PlentyofFish was stealing a lot of its market share. So, they decided to try and steal back some market share from both Match and PlentyofFish by creating LavalifePRIME and making it free.
GIZMONDO -- Sep 17 -- MotionPortrait is a new photo imaging program that can take a regular 2D picture and transform it into a moving, smiling, talking 3D model. Users can change eye color, hair style, and facial expressions, and even synch the picture with sound. The technology may prove extremely useful to social networking and dating sites in the future. FULL ARTICLE @ GIZMONDO
5WTVH -- Sep 17 -- TeeBeeDee ("to be determined") is a new community for active baby boomers. The site allows those in mid-life to exchange information, learn from each other; and connect to like-minded people. It offers unique features like career reinvention tools, "Real Life Scripts", "Boot Camps", and "Online Dating Makeovers".
Mark Brooks: Gather.com is an SNS that also targets baby boomers.
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
THOMSON FINANCIAL -- Sep 17 -- Mobestar Holdings is providing dating and new media agency Global Personals with a mobile dating platform. The service, to be launched by the end of this month, will cost $10-50/month, with additional revenues coming from picture, video and text-based activity. All revenues will be shared equally by Mobestar and Global Personals, which now has over 3 million members. FULL ARTICLE @ HEMSCOTT
PC ADVISOR -- Sep 17 -- 260 million people will be using mobile dating and chatroom services by 2012, according to Juniper Research. By 2010, revenues from the two sectors are expected to pass $1 billion. Users are willing to pay a premium for 24/7 access and, as a result, some companies who offer such services are seeing significantly higher levels of traffic from mobiles than Internet access. FULL ARTICLE @ PC ADVISOR
FORTUNE -- Sep 14 -- eHarmony's constant tweaking of its matchmaking system appears to be working. The 7-year-old online dating site is "very, very profitable" with annual revenues of almost $200 million. Paid subscribers, revenues, and profits are all up roughly 30% year-over-year. By year-end, the company will have $100 million in cash and is eyeing an IPO in the not-distant future. With an expansion into Canada, and the UK and Chinabeing next, their next challenge is to incorporate local behaviors into their matching software. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN MONEY
Mark Brooks: I'm surprised eHarmony hasn't had more competition spring up. PerfectMatch and Chemistry are the only true competitors and eHarmony has three time the traffic of the two of them combined. See Compete.comcomparison graph.
OPW -- Sep 17 -- The first ever Matchmakers Conference is happening next week Friday 28th September, and Saturday, with an optional Sunday matchmaker training session. The conference suits prospective matchmakers, current professional matchmakers and those interested in learning more about the matchmaking business. I'm doing the keynote sesssion "State of the Dating & Matchmaking Industry: Statistics, Trends & Market Overview." Dr Helen Fisher from Match.com/Chemistry.com, Paul Falzone from The Right One/Together Dating, Julie Paiva from Table For Six, Patrick Perrine from myPartner.com and many others will be presenting. See the program. Press, please call me at 212-444-1636 asap to arrange your press pass.
OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 15, 2007 -- Michael Alvear is the 'cruise director' for Manhunt and a sexpert. He's also the co-host of the TV show 'The Sex Inspectors' in which couples reveal their bedroom problems and are then filmed, yes filmed, in their bedroom. The program pushes the envelope for English TV. Here's my interview with Manhunt sexpert Mr Alvear. - Mark Brooks
How did you become a sex expert, Michael?
Seven or eight years ago, I was writing quirky op-ed columns. The syndicate for sex-advice columnist Dan Savage wouldn’t sell his column to gay newspapers and the editor was really angry about it. So, the editor came to me and asked me if I’d like to write the column. I picked up Savage’s book and thought it was brilliant. I started writing, the column was a hit, and I just kept expanding and syndicating it until it was in about 14 different gay newspapers. Then, it turned into a book called Men Are Pigs but We Love Bacon. That’s basically it.
What do gay guys need the most advice on?
Believe it or not, I get more letters from people who want to have a relationship than from people who have any kind of real sexual problem. That’s been the biggest surprise for me. I get letters from people who don’t understand why they don’t have a relationship or why they’re not dating. You wouldn’t expect it from a site whose slogan is “Get On/Get Off”, but Manhunt can produce some really heartbreaking letters. I think Manhunt has become this all-purpose place whether you’re looking for a quickie or a long-term relationship. If you go to any city on the site and put in “LTR” (long-term relationship), you’ll get hundreds and hundreds of profiles. And if you put in something absolutely sexual, like “hung” or “bottom” or “top”, you’ll get about as many.
From a strictly sex standpoint, the biggest questions are about anal sex. Also, a lot of the “problems” in the bedroom tend to actually exist outside the bedroom. I get a lot of questions about how can I get my boyfriend to do something, how can I get my boyfriend to stop doing something, how can I get a boyfriend period. I’ve written advice columns for both straight women and gay men and I noticed how much more graphic gay men are when phrasing their questions. A lot of their questions are a little X-rated, but at least you get to the heart of the matter very quickly.
What do straight women need the most advice on?
The top two sexual issues for women are lowered libidos and a loss of sensation. With men, the two biggest issues are premature ejaculation, if you’re under 30, and impotence after 40. In terms of the relationship questions, there is almost no difference between men and women. The absolute biggest relationship issue is what I call desire discrepancy. That’s when you’re hot for sex and your partner’s not and the person with the low desire feels harassed and pressured and the person with the high libido feels rejected and abandoned. It creates a real dilemma for couples.
Any other interesting questions?
Some people ask how they can use the site better to attract people. I don’t think it’s that much different than going to a bar. If you have a picture of nothing but your body and your body parts, then you’re making it really hard to interest someone, unless you’re just looking for anonymous sex. Some people want to date someone, but they’re not willing to put up their face picture. Others put up face pictures, but they’re not smiling. Would you go up to somebody in a bar who wasn’t smiling and not looking at you? I think the same rules apply.
What’s the craziest question you’ve ever had?
The most interesting question I’ve gotten was from a guy with two good friends who had never met each other before. One of them was HIV positive and the other was HIV negative. They all went out one night and sparks were flying. It was clear the two friends went home together and the guy felt guilty and wanted to know if he should have told his HIV negative friend that the other one was positive. I’ve gotten HIV questions before, but they’re about how to tell, when to tell, those sorts of things. This was the first time I had gotten a question from a guy in the middle, and so I thought that was very interesting. It was all about divided loyalties.
Alright, as for the craziest one. This white guy goes home with a black guy. The black guy gives him a condom and the white guy freaked out when he put it on because the condom was black. He thought the guy had put ink on his dick or something. So, he freaks out and rips it off and the black guy gets all insulted and thinks he brought home a racist. But, the white guy just didn’t know that condoms come in darker colors.
I think every online dating site should have a sex-advice column because when you’re dealing with romance and dating, you’re dealing with sex. And there is so much ignorance out there. There is so much fear, alienation, and isolation. People will ask me medical questions because they’re not “out” to their doctors yet. One guy wanted to know if his hemorrhoids where from God punishing him for having anal sex.
In the beginning, Manhunt was divided about content. Would people really read the content? But, it’s been a phenomenal success. Six months into it, every two weeks I get an aggregated list of questions and the last one filled up 31 pages of a Word document. And this was on a site that never had content before. Unlike other sites, where you have to go through nine layers to even figure out where their column is, Manhunt puts me in a very prominent position and does so in a way that doesn’t interfere with the basic premise of why people are there. They’ve designed and marketed it well, and that’s part of Manhunt’s brilliance.
What other sites do gay guys use? Match, Yahoo! Personals?
We use everything. I think absolutely there’s a stronger preference for the gay sites, but you have to cover all your bets. Most people I know belong to more than one online dating service. I haven’t looked at the statistics, but I’d be shocked if there weren’t a very significant number of people who belong to more than one.
THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Sep 14 -- The once prolific and sexually provocative TRUE ads are now conspicuously absent. Why? The dating site reportedly is delinquent on its advertising payments and has had to cut back. According to Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch, TRUE was looking at "considerable" seven-figure advertising bills from several major sites. "The amount of advertising they did, even in the very early days, was astounding. They were pricing everyone else out of the market," Mr. Brooks said. It is hoped that the easing of the company's aggressive advertising will restore some sanity to industry ad prices. FULL ARTICLE @ THE NEW YORK TIMES
Mark Brooks: TRUE is dialing in their ad campaigns after an aggressive and extended ad campaign.
BAY AREA REPORTER -- Sep 13 -- Public comment about the new rules and regulations to Section 2257 of the Federal Labeling and Recordkeeping Law closed September 10. It could take 8-9 months to process these comments and enforce the new regulations that likely will require secondary producers, such as dating and social networking sites, to gather and maintain personal information from every user who posts a "sexually explicit" photo. Jonathan Crutchley, co-owner of Manhunt.net, said with more than 9 million photos posted on his site by 1.1 million subscribers from around the globe it would be impossible to verify the proof of age for each individual picture. Crutchley believes that once the new regulations are enforced he could be imprisoned for life for not being able to maintain records. "What can we do except close the business and move to Amsterdam? I think the Web sites are counting on that [federal courts imposing injunctions based on the regulations being unconstitutional] rather than wanting to go public with political statements. Because if you stick your head up you might get shot." FULL ARTICLE @ BAY AREA REPORTER
Mark Brooks: Casual/adult dating site owners beware. Your businesses are in jeopardy. On the other hand, Amsterdam is a great place to live.
SUN HERALD -- Sep 13 -- September 16-22 is Unmarried and Single Americans Week. Created in 1984 as National Singles Week, the week provides the 100 million single and unmarried Americans an opportunity to celebrate their spouse-free lifestyles and denounce the stigmas surrounding single people.
SNW -- Aug 13, 2007 --Leverage Software can help you build a social network to connect your company, association or group. Clients include Apple, HP, Microsoft, Hilton, The New York Times and Reuters. Here's a list of features. And here's my interview with the CEO and Founder, Mike Walsh. - Mark Brooks
What is Leverage Software’s founding story?
About four years ago, I was running a boutique consulting firm that helped large software companies, like Oracle and Microsoft, more effectively convey their value proposition through an ROI business case. As the founder, I was always trying to network and partner with other companies to recruit new candidates and consulting gigs. But, this was before LinkedIn and other social networking sites and there just didn’t seem to be a great way to leverage relationships for the purposes of doing business together. FULL INTERVIEW @ SOCIAL NETWORKING WATCH
PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 12 -- Lavalife, one of the world's largest dating sites, today announced that for two years it will be the exclusive sponsor of Playboy.com's newly-created Sex & Dating channel. Lavalife will contribute content to the section, which offers features on sex, dating, relationships, and the single life, and access to Lavalife's 1.2 million profiles. FULL ARTICLE @ CNW GROUP
OUT-LAW.COM -- Sep 9 -- A US Court of Appeals has ruled that merely providing a link to a website's terms and conditions above a registration form's submit button is sufficient for establishing users' compliance. This ruling was in favor of dating site TRUE, which was sued by an individual who claimed he had not agreed to the terms when he clicked 'Continue' on the free-trial registration form. FULL ARTICLE @ OUT-LAW.COM
OPW -- Aug 13 -- The new Nielsen//Netratings rankings are live. Here are the major changes: Singlesnet moved up one spot to #2. MSN Dating & Personals sidled up two spots to #3. Match and eHarmony are bumped from #2 and #4 to #4 and #6. Adult dating site Mate1 moved up one spot to #5.
OPW -- Sep 12 -- Today I am starting a side business. Recruiting. If you want to know the opportunities, I need your resume and availability via email (in strictest confidence) at mark@courtlandbrooks.com, and I'll add you to my very small, but very focused and well qualified database. For starters, I'm looking for a CFO for a top ten dating company. I'm also look for a host of programmers. Your identity will not be revealed to any clients without your express permission. I will offer up opportunities to you, as I become aware of them if you are in my database. I am primarily looking at Director level to C level positions. - Mark Brooks
TECH CRUNCH -- Sep 11 -- Being able to physically detect and communicate with others nearby is the Holy Grail of mobile social networking. Technical barriers aren’t the issue; getting a critical mass of users is. A few companies – such as US-based MeetMoi and European-based Aka-Aki, Imity, and Mobiluck – are trying to do just that. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH
This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.
OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 11, 2007 -- AzoogleAds sends a LOT of traffic to internet dating sites. It's one of the top affiliate networks and is highly respected amongst affiliates. Here's my interview with the CEO, Randy Nicolau. - Mark Brooks
What is AzoogleAds’ founding story?
AzoogleAds was founded in 2000 by two affiliates, Joe Speiser and Alex Zhardanovsky. At the time, they were running competing coupon and discount websites. They realized early on that if they combined their volume, advertisers would pay them more. So, they began gathering all their affiliate friends under one company name, Zoogle. The aggregated traffic led to higher payouts, which th
