Online Personals Watch

SingleEdition.com - Guide to Embracing Single Life

NY TIMES -- Dec 31 -- In November, dating sites drew more than 182 million visitors in the United States, according to comScore. In 2006, adults living alone made up 27% of households, according to census data. With divorce rates and the age at which couples marry continuing to climb, the trend toward singledom seems likely to continue. SingleEdition.com offers shopping, finance and other advice for singles. Articles on the site give advice on how to entertain in small apartments, how to cook for one and how to select gifts for other singles. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Mark Brooks: TangoMag.com gets the 'singles magazine' formula right by serving up gossip on the stars. i.e. Natalie Portman Goes Public With New Boyfriend , Sean Penn And Robin Wright Penn Getting Divorced .  Meanwhile Singles Edition is offering Are More Single Professionals Falling in Love with Work? and Home Alone for The Holidays Help as their lead articles.  Singles can only handle so much lame advice. Thumbs up for Tango Mag. Alas, Singles Edition is a dud. Ask Men is a good read. Their advice sections are a decent read, i.e. top ten dating tips.

Online Dating Brings Hope And Frustration

REUTERS -- Dec 28 -- Online dating renews women's hope in love and sex, but can be just as disappointing as the real-life dating scene, according to new Canadian research. Complaints include a preponderance of men who are looking for much younger women, as well as men who misrepresent their looks, interests or marital status, or who show little interest in moving the relationship offline. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS

TheRightOne Using Online Lead Generation

INC -- Dec 23 -- To compete with larger players such as Match.com and eHarmony, Paul A. Falzone, CEO of The Right One and Together Dating, partners with an online marketing firms that specialize in rounding up sales leads. Online lead generation companies produced $1.3 billion in revenue in 2006, almost doubling sales from the previous year, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. "The backbone of our marketing efforts used to be direct mail. A lead used to cost us $250. We now pay a tenth of that for leads that are generated online. It has helped our revenue grow more than 130 % in the past three years", Falzone said. FULL ARTICLE @ INC 

Mark Brooks: The Right One/Together Dating buys leads from internet dating companies. Please email, or call me at 212-444-1636 if you would like to set up a lead generation arrangement. (Disclosure: TRO/TD is a client of Courtland Brooks.)

Chemistry.com Outs eHarmony.com

NY TIMES -- Dec 24 -- Chemistry's new campaign is targeting eHarmony by criticizing that the site doesn't match same sex couples. Chemistry addressed this issue in the form of a $20 million campaign titled "Rejected by eHarmony" this past spring. The campaign has helped the site grow 80% and the number of gay and lesbian users have risen 200%.  The budget for this next ad is planned to be increased from the last one. FULL ARTICLE @ NEW YORK TIMES

Match.com's New Campaign

BRANDWEEK -- Dec 20 -- Match.com's new campaign "Rewind" shows couples who met on Match. The campaign also highlights a new function "MatchMyFriends," which enables friends to fill out a profile for someone or write a testimonial. Match spent $92 million in media in 2006, and $145 million between January and October 2007, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus for broadcast, print and outdoor. FULL ARTICLE @ BRANDWEEK

FriendFinder (Various) Acquired Seniors.com Domain

OPW -- Dec 21 -- Apparently Various recently bought seniors.com for $1.8m. It's now forwarding into SeniorFriendFinder.com. - Mark Brooks

Dating 2.0 Picks Up Speed

WIRED -- Dec 20 -- Internet dating drew in 22.6 million people this year, according to comScore. JupiterResearch predicts that the online dating industry will generate more than $900 million a year in the US by 2011. SpeedDate, Say-hey-hey and WooMe offer quick registration, free memberships and a date within a minute. Others, like Ice Brkr and Crazy Blind Date, rely on text messaging to coordinate speedy meetings. WooMe allows members to create short group-video-chat sessions. With Say-hey-hey, users upload a YouTube-style video profile, and viewers interested in a date ping the posters with videos of their own. Nate Elliott, a senior analyst with JupiterResearch, thinks the new convergence of social networking and dating sites is not necessarily permanent. "We just haven't seen these types of free dating sites have a significant impact on the dating industry", says Elliott. FULL ARTICLE @ WIRED

SpeedDate.com Secures Patent

BUSINESS WIRE -- Dec 19 -- SpeedDate.com secured an exclusive license to U.S. Patent Number 7,203,674  covering key aspects of online speed dating. SpeedDate.com, launched in October 2007 and has hosted over 100,000 online speed dates internationally. SpeedDate.com is also bringing speed dating to social platforms such as meebo. "SpeedDate.com is all about connecting people live, making it a natural partner for meebo", said Seth Sternberg, CEO of Meebo. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: The patent is entitled Method and system to connect and match users in an electronic dating service. Details here. The patent appears to cover the major components of online speed dating. 'Immediate Dating, Invited Dating, Group Dating', along with the telephony involved in online speed dating. Any lawyers care to comment? Will this stand up? There are a few instances of online speed dating being attempted in the past.  Match gave it a good shot in 2004. Surely there's some prior art that could undermine this patent?

Match.com Launches Match My Friends

PRESS RELEASE -- Dec 19 -- Match.com launches Match My Friends which allows anyone to create a profile for their friend and search for potential dates on their behalf - all without having to have a Match.com profile themselves. After receiving an invitation the single friend can enhance and approve the profile before it is posted on Match.com. Current Match.com members can also invite friends and family to write personal testimonials, which can be included on their profiles.

Mark Brooks: There's still an untapped market of users who are still just not quite comfortable with online dating. It's not quite for them...they think. But their friends could convert them. Match.com has created a tool which will help speed up and streamline friendly referrals from the people who are comfortable with online dating, to the millions of people who are the last hold-outs to online dating. Great move Match.com! This will be good for the entire industry. I'll review the app after Xmas in a video demo. 

WDP Powers Vintacom/Relationship Exchange

PRESS RELEASE -- Dec 20 -- World Dating Partners, an online dating platform provider, has partnered with Think Partnership's (Vintacom) Relationship Exchange to form a dating membership database of over 20 million members. Relationship Exchange will use World dating Partners platform to run all of its partners dating services worldwide.

Mark Brooks: Smart move. Vintacom/Relationship Exchange has been a little neglected of late. Think bought them, the founders both left, then they moved the HQ 3000+ miles to Tampa. The technology was in need of a refresh. WDP should bring them back up to par.

SheKnows.com Acquires LovingYou.com

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY --  Dec 19 -- SheKnows.com, an L.A.-based network of sites for women, has acquired LovingYou.com, a marriage and relationships advice site. Targeting women ages 25 to 54, SheKnows covers topics such as pregnancy, parenting, health, entertainment, money, dating, beauty and celebrities. Its network includes sites such as PregnancyAndBaby, RealityTVMagazine and Soaps. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

Match In Facebook Tie-up

GUARDIAN.CO.UK -- Match.com is now partnering with Facebook by offering a "Little Black Book" application to Facebook users, which helps them find potential partners. Using the Little Black Book application, friends can share potential matches with any of their other friends on Facebook and can purchase keys to "unlock" a potential match for a friend. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

Virtual Internet Dating Conference Reminder

OPW -- Dec 18 -- The first virtual Internet Dating Conference will be held tomorrow, Dec 19th from 8am - 9pm EST. The conference will allow you to see the Miami event exhibitors, learn what they do, have a chat with them and schedule appointments at your desks in your office. The virtual conference is totally free for anyone to attend. Click here to register. SEE MORE DETAILS @ IDATE

Frengo Leads Mobile Social Networking On Facebook

PRESS RELEASE -- Dec 18 -- Frengo has launched Flirtable Mobile and an extended Facebook mobile app. Flirtable users can now review profile pictures, have private one-on-one conversations, send gifts and initiate new conversations from their cell phone. Flirtable has attracted over 2 million users and is receiving over 10 million page views each day. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WIRE

Mark Brooks: I interviewed the SVP back in April.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

DatingDirect.com Empowers Women In TV campaign

BRAND REPUBLIC -- Dec 17 -- DatingDirect.com launched a TV campaign directed by 'Desperate Housewives' and 'Sex in the City' producer Pam Thomas. The ad was created by V/DDB France and will run for two months from January 1 on ITV1, Channel 4, Five and Sky channels. See video.

New Rules For Shanghai Matchmakers

SHANGHAI DAILY -- Dec 17 -- All matchmakers must register using their real names on the official Website of the Shanghai Association of Matchmaking Management. Matchmakers will not be able to practice until they obtain two certificates from the association - a qualified matchmaking certificate and a matchmaking company employee certificate. Companies must not organize two or more dates in a day for a client, and should keep records to prevent clients being cheated out of service fees. FULL ARTICLE @ SHANGHAI DAILY

Mark Brooks: No such standards exist in the USA, but The Matchmaking Institute is working to create standards.

9% Of People Search For Info On Daters

SF CHRONICLE -- Dec 17 --  About half of the online adult population have looked themselves up, or someone else online, according to a survey published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 36% have searched the Web for someone with whom they've lost touch, and 9% have dug up information on someone they were dating. 60% are not worried about how much information about them is on the Internet. The study found that 61% have not felt compelled to limit it, while 38% have taken steps to control it. FULL ARTICLE @ SF CHRONICLE

True Love And Technology: Predictions

TANGO MAGAZINE -- Dec 16 -- Prediction 1: In 2012 first dates will no longer take place in a coffee shop."First dates will be on live video," says dating industry expert Mark Brooks of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, "and videos don't lie like pictures do." He also says, "video dates will probably be on a mobile device." Prediction 2: Everyone rents yentas. Brooks predicts that every top dating site will soon have an upgrade option for its users that include the services of a real, live, modern-day yenta. "If the matchmaking industry (which has more service) teams up with the online dating industry (which has more selection), it's a marriage made in heaven.", he added. Prediction 3: Girl gadgets grow up. By 2012, sex toys will be luxury gifts, as integral to womanhood as dark chocolate and pedicures. Prediction 4: Long-distance lovers plug in. See Highjoy and Sinulate. Prediction 5: In 2012, the average husband will be expected to flirt with you by text message, serenade you in live video, make wanton love to your virtual double over lunch, and still have enough energy to engage in thoughtful conversation at dinner. FULL ARTICLE @ TANGO MAGAZINE

eTwine Changed The Name

MARKETWIRE -- Dec 13 -- eTwine, a provider of social networking applications, changed its name to SNAP. SNAP is derived from the acronym for "Social Networking Application Provider." SNAP created the "Are You Interested" application as a traffic driver to its online dating Web site IamFreeTonight.com. FULL ARTICLE @ CNN MONEY

Sprint Fantasy Dates

TECHGADGETS – Dec 12 -- Sprint and MoConDi launched a WAP-based interactive fictional mobile video dating game, called Fantasy Date. Players choose characters and then react on different video situations. Fantasy Date can be uploaded for $2.99 from Sprint's wireless network. FULL ARTICLE @ TECHGADGETS

Safer Fling Finding

PRESS RELEASE -- Dec 12 – Australian adult dating site, FlingFinder, promises safer online dating by offering photo, ID and credit card verification of its members. FULL ARTICLE @ E MEDIA WIRE

Beware Of Flirting Bots

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY -- Dec 12 -- CyberLover, a malware developed in Russia, can conduct fully automated flirtatious conversations with users of chat-rooms and dating sites in order to get their personal information. According to its creators, CyberLover can establish a new relationship with up to ten partners in just 30 minutes and its victims cannot distinguish it from a human being. Cyberlover is currently targeting Russian Web sites. FULL ARTICLE @ GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY

Mark Brooks: Perfect for scammers!?

Penthouse Buys FriendFinder

NEW YORK TIMES -- Dec 12 -- Penthouse Media, has acquired Various (FriendFinder) and its subsidiaries as part of a plan to expand its reach. Various operates more than 25 sites including AdultFriendfinder, and has more than 260 million members and 1.2 million paying subscribers. The combined revenue of both companies is projected to be $340 million in 2007. Penthouse was purchased in 2004 by PET Capital Partners, a group of private investors. FULL ARTICLE @ NEW YORK TIMES

NJ Senate Bill S1977 Stands Good Chance

IDATE -- Dec 10 -- New Jersey has put forth a bill, the "Internet Dating Safety Act". Online dating services would be required to tell their New Jersey customers whether they do a background check. Online dating services that do not perform background checks will have to disclose that on their Web sites and every time they send an e-mail to a client. Failure to do so could be prosecuted as consumer fraud. The full text of the bull can be read here.

Mark Brooks: ...'bill', I mean.  :-)

FriendFinder HAS Been Sold

OPW -- Dec 10 -- It's confirmed. Rumors have been piling up, but I've confirmed that FriendFinder was indeed sold to Penthouse for ~$500 million last week.

I Like The Way You Stink

THE BOSTON GLOBE -- Dec 10 -- ScientificMatch.com use DNA technology to match people by their natural odor. Body odor is a big part of romantic attraction, when one person finds the odor of another pleasing, it's a likely sign that the couple could share a "chemical attraction," ScientificMatch.com claims. The online service will charge $1,995.95 for a one-year membership, the fee includes background checks. FULL ARTICLE @ BOSTON.COM

Mark Brooks: I recently took a 23andme.com DNA test and found out I have a low hereditary risk of heart disease, but a way high risk of getting Diabetes type 1. 23and me was founded by Google.com's founder's (Sergey Brin's) wife. With ScientificMatch.com's DNA test ($2k), users swab the inside of their cheeks for a DNA sample. With 23andme ($1k), I had to spit into a test tube and then mail it out.

Chat Up Lines Are Obsolete

PRNEWSNOW -- Dec 10 -- Ice Brkr has launched its beta mobile dating service. IceBrkr users can send a message to someone they find attractive in a bar. FULL ARTICLE @ PRNEWSNOW

Office Holiday Parties Hold Peril

NBC 11 -- Dec 4 -- According to a holiday party survey by Vault.com, 15% of employees have either been disciplined or fired because of their actions at a holiday party, while 18% are getting romantic during such events. ~41 % of employees would flirt back if a co-worker hit on them, according to Tickle.com, an online polling organization, only 3% said they would slap the colleague. One of the tips how to survive the office holiday party is to bring a date. Paul A. Falzone, CEO of eLove and The Right One, said his company gets lots of calls from people looking to find a match around this time of year, and many are motivated by their company's holiday party. FULL ARTICLE @ NBC 11

YesNoMayB Upgrades

OPW -- Dec 9 -- YesNoMayB.com completed their first site upgrade. The main upgrades are: free nudges (icebreakers), recurring billing, ability to block and report members, a faster inbox. YesNoMayB introduced two new subscriptions, Premier and Elite with 1, 3 and 6 month options. Elite and premier members can be contacted for free by non-paying members.

iovation Awarded Patent For Network Security And Fraud Detection Technology

PRESS RELEASE -- Dec 4 -- iovation, the device reputation authority for the Internet, has been awarded a patent by the U.S. Patent and TrademarkOffice (USPTO) entitled Network Security and Fraud Detection System and Method, U.S. Patent No. 7,272,728.  iovation manages the reputation of millions of Internet-enabled devices worldwide, allowing its customers to control online fraud and abuse while benefiting from sharing device reputation intelligence. FULL ARTICLE @ IOVATION 

 

AdultFriendFinder Rapped For X-rated Pop-ups

TECH CRUNCH -- Dec 7 -- Federal Trade Commission (FTC) restricts AdultFriendFinder's promotional activities. AdultFriendFinder affiliates used pop-up ads to drive traffic to the site, and exposed consumers, including children to sexual explicit images when search for terms including "flowers," "travel," and "vacations."  AdultFriendFinder and it's affiliates have to stop displaying sexually explicit ads to consumers unless they are seeking this kind of content. AFF has to make sure that its affiliates comply with the restriction, and end its relationship with any affiliates who do not comply. FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Match.com Prays For Love At Japan Shrine

REUTERS -- Dec 6 --  Match.com turned to ritual prayers and a Shinto priest to help boost its business in Japan. CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony visited the Shiba Dai-Jingu shrine in Tokyo to take part in a private ceremony that included the offering of a sacred sakaki tree branch. Match launched in Japan in 2004 and has now 840,000 members. "It's important to learn about the countries where we operate, to be successful." Enraght-Moony said after the ceremony. Over 2/3 of Japanese in 1935 had arranged marriages. Today 90% of Japanese find their marriage partners on their own. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS 

Guy Kawasaki Interviews CEO's Of Hi5 and PlentyofFish At VC Summit

MERCEXTRA -- Dec 7 -- The highlight of the AlwaysOn Venture Capital Summit was Guy Kawasaki's panel, "Why Take Venture Capital At All." This was a contrarian panel featuring five companies that achieved success without outside capital. Drew Curtis, Founder, Fark, Markus Frind, Founder, PlentyofFish, Ramu Yalamanchi, CEO, Hi5, Blake Commagere, Co-Founder, Mogad. Kawasaki asked everyone how much traffic they were getting. Fark.com has managed to get 52 million page views a month. Markus Frind gets 1.2 billion page views a month from 50 million unique visitors. Markus started the company because he needed to learn ASP.net. Hi5 has 35 million unique visitors and 12 billion pages. Blake Commagere, co-founder of Mogad created the Zombies and Vampires social game. In five month, there have been 20 million users, five million unique visitors who are active and the monthly page views are 500 million.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

Jambo Mobile Partners With Lavalife

NEWSWIRE -- Dec 6 -- Jambo Mobile Solutions, a mobile messaging provider, signed a two-year agreement with Lavalife to become its primary text and content fulfillment partner for the Canadian and US. Revenues will be generated through monthly fees and a percentage of text-chat messaging and content purchases. FULL ARTICLE @ CNW GROUP

Ashley Madison Banned On MSN

FINANCIAL POST -- Dec 4 -- MSN bans Ashley Madison, a controversial dating website for cheaters, from buying ads. Ashley Madison tried to buy keywords such as "married local women", "have an affair", "meet people discretely" and "swingers". MSN has recently introduced guidelines that disallow advertising of services designed to facilitate deception, including extramarital affairs. The Alibi Network, an American company that provides assistance to people looking for an excuse to skip a day of work or an alibi to cover up for a trip with a secret lover, was banned from advertising in November. FULL ARTICLE @ FINANCIAL POST

Mark Brooks: Your comments please...

Match.com Unveils Campaign For New Year Push

MARKETING WEEK -- Dec 4 -- Match.com is encouraging people to "make love happen rather than leaving it to cupid and fate" in a new advertising campaign which will run across TV, radio and outdoor starting on New Years Eve. The ads ere created by Hanft Raboy and Partners and with planning by Monkey Communications and media buying through M2M. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETING WEEK

Craig Newmark's Keynote At PubCon

OPW -- We're at the Webmaster World Conference a.k.a Pub Con in Vegas listening to Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist.  This is the live-blog of his keynote.

Craig started Craigslist as a cc list for events.  Not long after starting it he thought about calling it SFevents but was persuaded to keep his name as Craigslist because it was personal and quirky.  He hasn't done any coding since 1999.  He does customer service for Craigslist now (mainly handling abuse cases), because it feels right to do that.  In 1997 the site hit a million page views a month and he was approached about running banner ads.  He decided against them because 'it didn't feel right' and 'sometimes you have to go with what feels right.'  The ads would slow down the site, and Craig was an overpaid programmer and didn't need the money. 

In 1998 Craigslist started charging for job postings and running Craigslist as a volunteer organization.  In 1999 he turned Craigslist into a business.  Running it with volunteers did not work out.  'The suckage was considerable'  so he hired Jim Buckmaster to be CEO. 

In 2000 more cities were added.  New York was one of them.  'We make things up as we go along.  Our business model has evolved, really, not at all.'  The community said it was ok to post for job postings (currently Craigslist charges in 11 cities) and charge for apartment listings in New York City.   

'Many people don't believe I exist, and I encourage people to disbelieve.'   Craigslist is closing in on 9 billion page views a month and runs on LAMP and on an email system called PINE.  Somebody once said Craigslist has the visual appeal of a pipe wrench.  'We charge for less than 1% of the site, and we've just been doing what feels right and running it on some idea of shared values. ...People just believe they should give each other a break now and then.'  If you trust your community they will respond in a trustworthy way.   Craig can be reached at craig@craigslist.org.

We'll be live-blogging several sessions of use to internet dating affiliates and marketing managers over at Frequent Flirters.

People Search For Dating Sites. Copenda Hooks It Up

MASHABLE -- Dec 3 -- Copenda is a new search tool that scours the web's dating sites to find a perfect match. A good portion of found profiles come from Match.com, Friendster and hi5 (Facebook is on the way). For each result users will see whatever text that individual has included in their original social networking profile, their interests, status (single, married, divorced, etc), and a link to their external profile. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE