Online Personals Watch

Spending By Dating Sites In Q1-Q3 2007

ONLINE DATING POST -- May 1 --Alex Moskalyuk draws a bead on online dating advertising spend: Spending for the top ten dating services represents 91% of total spending for this industry ($356.5 mln of the $379.6 mln total), according to Nielsen. Match.com led the way, spending $145.5 mln in January - October 2007, almost doubling its budget from the same time period in 2006. On the other hand, the number two advertiser eHarmony.com, cut spending 16 percent, reaching $88.1 mln, and gave up its number one position. PlentyofFish isn't even on the list, good for Markus. When he shows up on it we'll know the decline has started. FULL ARTICLE @ ONLINE DATING POST

Niche Dating Sites Grow Steadily As Mainstream Ones Flail

TECH CRUNCH -- Apr 24 -- In the internet dating space, bigger is not always best. According to the latest U.S. numbers from Hitwise, the top niche dating sites are steadily gaining market share while their big mainstream counterparts stagnate. In March 2008, the top 5 overall sites held 7% less market share than they did in 2007 (Plentyoffish and Singlesnet were the only sites to buck this trend individually). Meanwhile, the top sites (Adam4Adam, Manhunt, Gay.com, BlackPeopleMeet, BlackSingles, BlackChristianPeopleMeet, ChristianMingle, JDate, and Christian Café) from the top five major niche dating categories made considerable gains. The biggest niche in terms of total traffic is casual dating, which consists of sites like Fling, AdultFriendFinder, and SexSearch. While the top 10 mainstream dating sites gained only 0.01% of total Internet traffic over the past year, the top three casual adult sites gained 0.07%. That's a hefty 56% increase in the traffic. (Authored by Mark Brooks)
FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH 

Dateline Unveils Online Service

NMA -- Mar 17 -- The UK and Germany are Europe's largest online dating markets, worth 66m Eur las year, according to Jupiter. PlentyofFish, Gaydar, DatingDirect and Match dominate the UK's online dating market, according to Hitwise. Offline matchmaking service Dateline, which has been operating in the UK for more than 40 years, has launched an online dating site Dateline.co.uk. WhiteLabelDating.com has been appointed to provide the platform for the site. FULL ARTICLE @ NMA

Jangl Unveils Its Mobile Media Initiative

TRADING MARKETS -- Mar 11 -- Jangl, a company connecting online profiles and mobile phones, has unveiled a new mobile media initiative with Pudding Media and advertising agency Ogilvys Digital Innovation Group. Jangl services already enable SMS, calling and voicemail for Facebook, Bebo and Plentyoffish. Jangl and Pudding Media tested pre-roll spots prior to calls on its free direct services and recently tested ads appended to SMS messages in Bebo and Facebook. Jangl is now working on new campaigns that leverage the interactive response capabilities of its voice services to deliver links and additional information via SMS to customers that respond and opt-in to promotions. FULL ARTICLE @ TRADING MARKETS

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

The New Internet Millionaires

THE PROVINCE -- Mar 9 -- Markus Frind, the sole owner of PlentyofFish, works two hours a day and makes as much as $10 million a year. That's why he is already considered a dot-com legend at the ripe old age of 29. Guy Kawasaki hails Frind a personal "hero."  But Frind is by no means the first British Columbian to become an Internet mogul. Fellow Vancouverite Kevin Ham has an Internet portfolio of domain names worth an estimated $300 million, while Richmond blogger John Chow found online riches through his popular blog. Then there's Vancouver couple Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield, creators of photo-sharing site Flickr, which was sold to Yahoo in 2005 for a rumoured $40 million. Frind's success is largely due to the fact that he's figured out a way to run his site on autopilot. Markus has his eyes set on moving into the Chinese and European markets one day. "I'm driven," he concedes. "It's just fun winning. I feel like I'm playing a video game. There's always another level." FULL ARTICLE @ CANADA.COM

What Europeans Think Of Each Other

OPW -- Mar 2 -- Match is doing well in Europe. Meetic is the local leader. Parship is picking up market share.  Dating Direct and Plentyoffish lead in the UK market.  But this is not an easy market to get traction in. Europe will never be the 'United States of Europe'. There are more divides. Case in point, check out this amusing article on 'What Europeans Think Of Each Other'. (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of Courtland Brooks)

DateHookup.com To Offer Demographic Targeting To Advertisers

EMEDIAWIRE -- Feb 19 -- DateHookup.com now offers advertisers the ability to target its ad inventory by specific demographics, including age range and gender, thanks to Google's new demographic bidding feature. Google's demographic targeting feature recently entered beta testing. FULL ARTICLE @ EMEDIA WIRE

 Mark Brooks: Here's a comparison of DateHookup.com and Plentyoffish using Compete.com. Both sites are growing gangbusters. DateHookup.com, like Plentyoffish, is also run by one person. Plentyoffish also offers ad targeting via Google Adsense. Direct advertising deals for top tier dating sites are available on Plentyoffish now, btw. (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish is a client of Courtland Brooks)

Online Dating Boom

OTTAWA CITIZEN -- Feb 14 -- Unlike traditional dating, people's intentions are more evident online than in the non-virtual world. PlentyofFish.com is virtually a dating haven for millions of people around the world. The site rakes in $10 million a year in advertising and Ontario is one of the biggest hot spots for PlentyofFish users. Founder, Markus Frind says that meeting people in today's fast-paced world is just too hard, and it only gets tougher with age. "The baby boomers are signing up in droves now," says Frind. "They never used to use the site, but now it's the biggest growth market for all dating sites." Lavalife has started a dating service called LavalifePRIME, exclusively for those 45 and older. FULL ARTICLE @ CANADA

Money And Relationships: It's Love 3.0

REPORT ON BUSINESS-- Feb 14 -- Unlike Facebook and MySpace, whose values are based largely on their potential to generate future revenues, online dating sites are making millions from user fees and advertisers now. For Vancouver-based PlentyofFish.com, the emergence of love 3.0 has generated what its creator Markus Frind admits is a global cash machine. More than 600,000 people log on to his site every day. Online dating has become a billion-dollar industry; companies that own a portfolio of sites, such as Spark Networks, are ringing up revenues of between $15-million (U.S.) and $18-million every quarter. FULL ARTICLE @ REPORT ON BUSINESS

Dating Site Visits Up, Pre-Valentine's Day

CNET NEWS -- Feb 14 -- Visits to dating sites were up 26% in the week ending February 9 in comparison with the equivalent week in 2007, according to Hitwise. At the top of the rankings was SinglesNet.com, followed by PlentyOfFish.com.  Rounding out the top five were eHarmony, True, and Yahoo Personals. FULL ARTICLE @ CNET NEWS

Starting Up: The Business Of Love

SM SMALL BIZ -- Feb 13 -- Making a bundle in the dating industry, isn't easy for a small player competing against Yahoo! Personals, Match.com and eHarmony. At PlentyofFish, which now ranks among the top 10 dating sites in the U.S. for unique visitors, Frind's strategy was simple. "I undercut them on price," he says. When it comes to the business of love, newbie entrepreneurs need to figure out a way to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Here's how:

- Find a Niche
- Undercut the Competition
- Add Value
- Innovate

More narrowly focused niches have begun to surface. i.e. golfmates.com and vegetariandating.com. The best niche businesses are usually started by entrepreneurs who have a deep understanding of the community they want to serve. i.e. Patrick H. Perrine, a psychologist who spent years studying human sexuality and dating preferences, launched a gay male matchmaking service in San Francisco in 2004, and then expanded the service online - myPartner.com — to a national audience last year. "We discovered there was no space for gay men looking for a serious relationship on the web", he says. To compete with the big guys, Sam Yagan, co-founder of free dating site, OKCupid.com, offers users the ability to craft their own personality quizzes, or choose from 30,000 others. The idea behind the quizzes is that users will share them with their friends who, in turn, may sign up for the service.
FULL ARTICLE @ SM SMALL BIZ

The Hottest Trends In Online Dating

NETWORK WORLD -- Feb 7 -- No one knows online dating better than Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. Brooks is a modern-day Cyrano -- he's a consultant to many of the Web's largest online dating sites as well as traditional matchmaking services. Network World interviewed Brooks about the hottest trends in online dating.

Q:How many online dating services are there?
MB: Hitwise has estimated there are 800-plus. I think that's about right for the U.S. A lot of them are affiliate sites that are driving traffic to the main dating sites.

Q: How has online dating affected traditional matchmaking services?
MB: Internet dating has warmed an entire generation of users to the prospect of getting help in dating and paying for that help.

Q: What new technologies are you are seeing in online dating?
MB: One of the biggest innovations is avatar-based instant messaging. One site that's pioneering the use of avatars is OmniDate.com. Another emerging technology is iovation, which helps online dating sites battle fraud. With iovation's Reputation Manager, one dating site can flag a person as abusive and throw them out and then let other sites in the online dating community know about it.

Q: How has online dating technology changed in recent years?
MB: Actually, online dating is in about the same place that it has been in for the last three years. One of the things I'd like to see is more technology being applied to personality profiling. In this area there are four companies worth mentioning: Perfectmatch.com; eHarmony.com; Chemistry.com; and True.com.

Q: Have social networkings like Facebook and MySpace cut into online dating traffic?
MB: The numbers show that less people are coming to Internet dating sites. According to ComScore the number of people who came to Internet dating sites in December 2007 was down 10% over the prior year. But I don't think it's the end of online dating. I think the lookilous have gone away.

Q:What are the hottest trends in online dating?
MB: One is the rise in Baby Boomers and also rise of free dating sites, such as Plentyoffish.com, DateHookup.com, OkCupid.com, Matchdoctor.com, Bookofmatches.com, Smooch.com and CrazyBlindDate.com.

Q: What do you see as the future of online dating?
MB: It's difficult to enter the market and be a large generic dating site at this stage. The only thing you can build today is a niche dating site, and even niches are hard to build. That's why we're seeing the rise of a bunch of companies that offer white-label dating services. One of these companies is Whitelabeldating.com.
FULL ARTICLE @ NEWORK WORLD

The Power Of One

MARY GARDNER -- Feb 8 -- Last week I had the distinct pleasure of attending the Social Networking Conference in Miami and met Markus Frind who makes about $10 million a year off of his free site PlentyofFish.com with one employee. I was interested how one person could achieve such dramatic results. He ultimately listened to his gut instinct. He said programmers like bells and whistles, but the average person just wants it to work. That's all they care about! He doesn't try to make it look good. He just wants it to be great at allowing people to meet. FULL ARTICLE @ MARY GARDNER BLOG

How Do I Catch A Valentine?

CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- Feb 5 -- Fewer people are checking out online dating sites. According to Comscore, the number of visits in December dropped by 10% to 20.2 million Americans, compared with December 2006 figures. "There are fewer people, but they're more serious," says Mark Brooks, who provides marketing and other services for online dating sites. "The revenues continue to climb because the looky-loos have gone away; they can't get much service without paying a subscription to a Web dating service."  "Paid online dating should grow from about $890 million in 2007 to an estimated $1.9 billion in 2012," says David Card, of Jupiter Research. The average monthly subscription is now $25 a month, up $20 a month from a few years ago, but more free sites might start popping up, thanks to the skyrocketing popularity of PlentyofFish. Plentyoffish.com is free and among the most visited Web sites -- not just dating sites -- in Canada and the U.S. Many so-called niche dating sites are growing, Farmersonly.com attracts those who like the agricultural way of life, while gk2gk.com appeals to self-described geeks. MyPartner.com welcomes gays and lesbians. FULL ARTICLE @ CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Hookups Get More Random, With Jangl On PlentyofFish

MASHABLE -- Jan 31 -- The very successful , "no-gimmicks" dating site run by one man in his apartment is not known for its great user interface design, or even for its feature set. So it's a noteworthy thing when we find out that PlentyofFish is the latest to integrate Jangl VoIP services in order to offer click-to-call options for its dating users. FULL ARTICLE @ MASHABLE

Jangl Powering Anonymous Phone Sex On PlentyOfFish

TECH CRUNCH -- Jan 31 -- When it comes to connecting with new friends safely and privately, Jangl fits the bill. The "Social Communications Widget" lets you make calls, send SMSs, and leave voice mails without exposing anyone's phone number through a simple widget. Now they've forged a deal to be featured on the maverick of dating sites, PlentyOfFish. PlentyOfFish is like every other dating site you've heard of, but free. Free has actually paid off pretty well for founder Markus Frind, who runs the site from his Vancouver apartment and takes in over $10 million a year in advertising. Comscore ranked the site the number one dating site in December 2007, with an average of 1.3 billion page views a month (70,000 sessions and 3 million page views an hour). FULL ARTICLE @ TECH CRUNCH

Jangl Partners with Plentyoffish.com

PRESS RELEASE -- Jan 31 --  Jangl, the company connecting millions of online profiles and mobile phones, safely and privately, has teamed with the world's largest free online dating site, Plentyoffish.com, to let online daters get to know each other via text messages, phone calls and voicemail -- all without sharing their real numbers. In less than 15 months, Jangl® has teamed with popular social web communities like Facebook, Bebo, Match.com, Friendster, AdultFriendFinder, Tagged and Fubar. Plentyoffish.com has witnessed extraordinary recent growth, serving 1.2 billion page views in December 2007 alone. According to comScore Media Metrix, it is the most visited dating site in the U.K. and Canada, and the second most visited in the U.S. FULL ARTICLE @ AD-HOC NEWS

Plentyoffish Offers Ad Targeting

THE PARADIGM SHIFT -- Jan 27 -- It's tough to find dating sites that will actually allow you to advertise your dating site on them.  Plentyoffish allows competitors to advertise. Markus drives a ton of traffic (millions of dollars/yr) to dating sites. You can buy age and gender targeted traffic on POF through Google now. Right here.  (Full Disclosure: Plentyoffish.com is a client of Courtland Brooks)

PlentyofFish Selected For New Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program

PR WEB -- Jan 23 -- PlentyofFish has been chosen to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, designed to connect high-potential startups to an extensive support network that provides access to Microsoft people and programs, guidance on future directions, and support to accelerate their success. Companies like PlentyofFish were selected by Microsoft for the program based on their innovation, marketability, growth potential, funding, platform decision and strategic importance to Microsoft. FULL ARTICLE @ E MEDIA WIRE

UK Hitwise Rankings Update

OPW -- Jan 18 -- We've just updated Hitwise UK Online dating rankings. SexInTheUK is # 1, moving PlentyofFish, Gaydar.co.uk and DatingDirect down to #2, #3 and #4. Pocado.com entered the chart at #6. BeNaughty, GirlsDateForFree and TelegraphDating dropped to #7, #8, #10 from #4, #6 and #8. LoopyLove slides off the top 10.   

From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year

NY TIMES -- Jan 13 -- Markus Frind, a 29-year-old Web entrepreneur, developed software for his dating site, PlentyofFish, that operates almost completely on autopilot, leaving Mr. Frind plenty of free time. On average, he puts in about a 10-hour workweek. Mr. Frind operates the business out of his apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has net profits of about $10 million a year. According to comScore Media Metrix for November 2007, PlentyofFish had 1.4 million unique visitors in the United States. In December, the site served up 1.2 billion page views. PlentyofFish does not need a support structure to handle members' subscription and billing issues because the service is entirely advertising-based. Its tagline is: "100 percent free. Put away your credit card." Its success demonstrates that many consumers will tolerate, and even embrace, advertising when a site offers a free service for which others charge membership fees. FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

January Boom Time For Internet Dating

SEATTLE TIMES -- Jan 3 -- January is the busiest and most profitable month for online dating services. According to Hitwise, more singles visited dating sites in January 2006 than in any other month that year, mostly due to New Year's resolutions. People start to re-evaluate their lives and they all set their New Year's resolutions to find someone," said Markus Frind, founder of Plentyoffish.com. Plentyoffish.com, with 10,000 members in Washington state, projects a 30 % spike in traffic this month. Perfectmatch.com expects a 15 % jump. "Who are you dating? Are there wedding bells? All those questions get asked at November and December family gatherings", said Mark Brooks, editor of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com, which tracks the online dating industry. FULL ARTICLE @ SEATTLE TIMES

The Big Switch May Turn Off Jobs

GUARDIAN.CO.UK -- Jan 3 -- Over the past few decades, we've seen a growth of riches in a small slice of the population. YouTube became one of the most popular and fastest-growing websites with just 60 employees. Within two years Skype had signed up 53 million customers and was attracting 150,000 new subscribers every day. Yet Skype employed just 200 people. Even more remarkable is PlentyOfFish, an online dating service. Launched in Canada in 2003, the site experienced explosive growth. By late 2006, some 300,000 people were logging on to the service every day, and they were looking at about 600m pages a month. Only one person, Markus Frind, did this booming business employ. Companies like YouTube, Skype and PlentyOfFish are constructed almost entirely of software. The cost of distributing their goods or services to a new customer is essentially zero, so they can expand vastly without hiring additional employees. FULL ARTICLE @ GUARDIAN.CO.UK

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

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.

Plentyoffish.com #1 Dating Site In The U.K.

PR NEWSWIRE -- Nov 27 --  According to comScore World Metrix, Plentyoffish.com is now the #1 online dating site in UK as ranked by unique visits. Plentyoffish.com received 7,209,000 visits in the U.K. during the month of October, 2007. Meanwhile, the combined total traffic of all the Meetic sites was 4,397,000, and 2,100,000 for Match.com in the same period. PlentyofFish has grown to be the #1 dating site in the world, overall. #1 in Canada, #1 in the UK, and the 2nd most popular in the USA. FULL ARTICLE @ PR NEWSWIRE

Manhunt Parties On

SNW -- Nov 27 -- In case you hadn't noticed, Manhunt is just chewing up the gay dating/social networking market. See this Alexa comparison of Manhunt, Gay.com, Gaydar and Adam4adam. See this Compete comparison of Manhunt, Gay.com and Adam4adam. Jonathan Crutchley is co-Founder and Chairman. He's a regular attendee of the Internet Dating Conference /Social Networking Conference and likes to throw parties at his houses in Boston and Palm Springs. He's in the picture with Chi Chi La Rue who was DJ at his recent pool party in Palm Springs for Manhunt.net in honor of Palm Springs Gay Pride. 

What is Manhunt doing right? In short, they know the gay dating space, intimately. Their customer service is among the best in the industry and they charge just $12 a month. Also, have you noticed how the sites with the most 'playful' names are doing especially well on minimal ad spends. OnlineBootyCall, Manhunt, Plentyoffish.  All are playful, tongue in cheek names that travel well by word-of-mouth. Manhunt is full-on and adult and has it's antithesis in myPartner.com which is, essentially, eHarmony for gay men. (Disclosure: Manhunt, myPartner and Plentyoffish are clients of Courtland Brooks) - Mark Brooks

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

A Kiss-Off To Online Dating

BUSINESS WEEK -- Nov 20 -- The era of Web 1.0 is over, online dating is dead. Going on sites like Facebook or MySpace it's like going to a bar with your friends, whereas a dating site is like walking past a bunch of animals in cages at the zoo. According to comScore, the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases. I doubt PlentyofFish will ever get to the size or valuation of a Match.com. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK

Mark Brooks: Match had $89.1 million revenue in Q3 (see quarterly report). That's ~$360 million a year.  PlentyofFish is now making $10 million+ a year. I doubted Markus would ever get into the top 10 when I met him in 2004. I underestimated him. PlentyofFish is #2, Match #4 on the Hitwise USA rankings.  On Comscore USA rankings, Match is #2 and PlentyofFish is #8.  In the UK, Hitwise ranks PlentyofFish.com as the #2 dating site, and Match comes in at #5.  And PlentyofFish comes in at #1 in Canada according to Comscore, with Lavalife at #2 and Match at #13. See the full rankings here. (Disclosure: PlentyofFish is a client of Courtland Brooks)

U.K. Online Dating Rankings Update

OPW -- Nov 12 -- The Hitwise U.K. Rankings are updated. Here are the changes: BeNaughty moves up from #10 to #6 and pushes GirlsDateForFree and Loopy Love to #7 and #8. Passion.com entered the chart and is at #9. FriendsReunited Dating is #10 and pushes Telegraph Dating is off the top 10. PlentyofFish remains at #1, with Gaydar at #2.

PlentyOfFish May Be Worth $1 Billion

READ/WRITE WEB -- Oct 29 -- In June '06 PlentyOfFish was earning ~$3.5m/yr on Google Adsense. Next year it will earn $10m+. POF gets 1.2 billion page views/month, and ~500,000 unique logins per day and is #2 in the US online dating market and #1 in Canada and UK (Hitwise). Facebook (40 billion page views/mo) has a valuation of $15 Billion thanks to Microsoft's $240m investment last week. According to Markus POF has 5-10 times the click through rate of Facebook so POF's 1.2 Billion page views is the same as 5-10 Billion Facebook page views per month. Markus concludes "Facebook is only able to generate 10 to 15 times as many clicks on ads as my site and it's valued at 15 billion." What's more, some of his direct competitors, eHarmony, Match, etc, are valued in the billions. Markus didn't put a figure on what PlentyOfFish is worth but it's clear he's thinking in the billions. Not bad for a one-man company (plus a new Customer Service Rep!). FULL ARTICLE @ READ/WRITE WEB

Hitwise UK Rankings - PlentyofFish is #1

OPW -- Oct 23 -- We have updated Hitwise UK rankings. PlentyofFish took Gaydar.co.uk's #1 position. Adult dating site SexInTheUK entered the chart at #3 and moved DatingDirect, Match and GirlsDateforFree down to #4, #5 and #6. LoopyLove bumbs FriendsReunited Dating down one spot to #8. Telegraph Dating is in at #9, BeNaughty at #10. Mate1 slides off the top 10.

September Hitwise Rankings

OPW -- Oct 11 -- We have just updated Hitwise US internet dating rankings. Singlesnet and Plentyoffish maintained their 1st and 2nd position. eHarmony ousts Yahoo Personals from its 3rd spot. Mate1 moved down two spots from #7 to #9. Adam4Adam and BlackPeopleMeet.com moved up to #7 and #8. Gay.com is in at #15 and Cupid.com slides off the top 15 to #16. - Mark Brooks

lavalifePRIME Combines Social And Dating For Baby Boomers

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.

Ads Vs Subscription Fees, Entertainment Vs News

CENTER OF MEDIA RESEARCH -- Sep 11 -- According to Advertising.com, in the first half of 2007, 62% of consumers viewed news clips online, 38% saw movie trailers, and 36% watched music videos. Those aged 18-34 prefer entertainment content, whereas those aged 35+ prefer news. 94% prefer ads to subscription fees, 51% would watch a television episode online if they missed it on TV, and 80% indicated online video usage does not cut into TV time. FULL ARTICLE @ CENTER OF MEDIA RESEARCH

Mark Brooks: '94% of users prefer ads to subscription fees.' Which explains why PlentyofFish has grown so fast.

This post also appears on SocialNetworkingWatch.

GoMilni Launches Free Matrimonial Site

PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 11 -- GoMilni is another dating and matrimonial site. However, unlike other "free" sites that contain hidden costs, this Vancouver-based dating service offers all features – including personal messaging, search, chat, and open forums for discussion – for free. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks: Inspired by Markus at PlentyofFish, I'm sure. Markus is also based out of Vancouver also. Can a matrimonial site in Vancouver take on Shaadi and BharatMatrimony?

New PlentyofFish Targeted Advertising Channels

THE PARADIGM SHIFT -- Aug 30 -- PlentyofFish CEO Markus Frind has split out a lot of his logged-in traffic by age, gender, and ethnicity. For the companies bidding on his site, this will make their Google AdWords campaigns a lot more profitable and allow more customized ads to be displayed. Markus also will be launching a new adserving platform soon that will allow him to target ads to any user an advertiser wants. Whatever ads he doesn't sell directly will go to AdSense. FULL ARTICLE @ THE PARADIGM SHIFT

Mark Brooks: Advertisers just want to advertise. They want to upload campaigns, target, test, tune, and run the ads based on ROI. Salespeople slow the process down, add little value and detract from ROI. Google has it right by making the advertising process simple and putting it all online. Experienced (read, large volume) ad buyers don't need handholding. They need easy administration and positive ROI campaigns.

This post also appears on FrequentFlirters.

PlentyofFish: How One Man Beat The Big Guys

ARCAST.TV -- Aug 3 -- Ron Jacobs of ARCast TV, a production of the Microsoft Architecture Strategy Team, traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia to interview Markus Frind, the founder of and one-man show behind PlentyofFish.

Ron: Tell me about PlentyofFish.com.

Markus: It's a free online dating site written in all Microsoft technologies, like ASP.NET and Windows Server.

Ron: Is it doing well?

Markus: We hit 33.5 million page views yesterday on just the site itself and about another million in the forums, so it's probably one of the biggest sites in the world.

Ron: How’d you pull that off with just one web server and a couple of database servers?

Markus: If you break down 33 million page views a day at peak, you're only looking at about 5-600 page views a second, which isn’t that difficult to pull off. The most important thing is RAM. The more RAM you have, the better. And as long as you keep database access fast, then you have no issues.

Ron: Most dating sites have fees, but yours is free. How does that work?

Markus: I make money off advertising. Match probably makes $3-400 million a year from subscriptions, but because I don’t have to pay any employees, I can make a decent living for myself.

Ron: Do a few ads on the side of a page really pay?

Markus: When you have 30 million page views a day, you can make money doing anything.

Ron: How do you decide which new features to add to the site?

Markus: I usually just come up with one, put it on the site, and wait to see what the user response is. If it's great, then I improve it a bit more. If it sucks, I take it down.

Ron: What do you do about site outages?   

Markus: If the site goes down, it’s only for like a minute or so. The biggest issues for me have been DNS-related ones. But it's a free site, so people expect downtime.

Ron: How do you analyze the market without a business analyst?

Markus: I don't need to hire a bunch of people to tell me common sense. Sometimes I go to other sites to see what they’re doing. I mean, chances are these sites with a couple hundred employees must be doing something right.
FULL ARTICLE @ ARCAST.TV

Is Becoming An Internet Millionaire “Easy”?

THE NEW YORK TIMES -- Aug 11 -- At a June 14th Silicon Valley public affairs forum, venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki posited that it’s easy to become rich. Using idols of his, like HotOrNot creator James Hong and PlentyofFish founder Markus Frind, Kawasaki claimed that a good idea and a couple hours a day in your underwear is enough to make you an Internet millionaire. FULL ARTICLE @ THE NEW YORK TIMES

Match Earnings Show Major Decline In U.S. Subscribers

THE PARADIGM SHIFT -- Aug 2 -- Match released earnings a few days ago which stated that revenue growth was driven by a 1% increase in worldwide subscribers. They then went on to say that there was a 13% growth in international subscribers, most notably in the U.K. Does this mean U.S. subscribers declined at least 12%? FULL ARTICLE @ THE PARADIGM SHIFT

Kingdom Of The Online Cupids

FINANCIAL POST -- July 28 -- Dating sites rake in $700-million annually in North America. Canadian companies -- from Lavalife to plentyoffish.com -- could argue Canada is the capital of the online dating business. Lavalife, sold in March 2004 to U.S.-based Vertrue Inc. for about $150-million, was the start of it all in the late 1980s. The Canadian dating site making the biggest splash is Plentyoffish.com. The site pulls in more than US$5-million a year from text ads that appear beside user profiles. FULL ARTICLE @ NATIONAL POST

Solo Operator Of Plentyoffish Big Fish In Big Pond

FINANCIAL POST -- July 20 -- Markus Frind runs one of North America's most popular dating Web sites, taking in millions of dollars a year, and he does by himself from his 900-square-foot apartment. Plentyoffish.com runs itself. A free service, it was the 82nd most-visited site in the United States last month, according to Hitwise. It ranks third in U.S., ahead of Match.com and eHarmony. Because plentyoffish.com generates more than 400 million page views per month in Canada alone, he wants to switch to banner ads to expose more users to more ads, and make more money. FULL ARTICLE @ FINANCIAL POST

TIME Calls Time Out On eHarmony

TIME MAGAZINE -- July 14 -- TIME Magazine named eHarmony.com one of five Internet sites to avoid because of its power to cause utter despair.  eHarmony claims a more "scientific" approach with personality questionnaires.  On typical dating sites, you are less likely to take it personally. But if you revealed yourself and the site delivers terrible recommendations — or rejects you as unmatchable — what do you tell yourself then? The company's advice to stick with it for months, runs up costs. The site also discriminates against gays. FULL ARTICLE @ TIME

Mark Brooks: eHarmony is getting a hammering? Is it fair? I think they have a right to choose what market to focus on. myPartnerPerfect recently launched to serve the gay serious dating market. PlentyofFish has been quietly working away on some new personality profiling tests. 

Hitwise - Yahoo Personals And PlentyofFish Up, TRUE Down

OPW -- July 12 -- TRUE was #1 all year through May, when it moved to #2, now it's #6 for June. TRUE pulled the plug on ad spends and CPA commissions. Word is they're concentrating on their most profitable ad spends and reeling in profits. Singlesnet holds on to its #1 position and Yahoo Personals takes TRUE's #2 position.  PlentyofFish moves up again, to the #3 rank. HotorNot moves down one spot to #10. - Mark Brooks

Plenty Of Fish; Plenty Of Cash

CHICAGO TRIBUNE -- July 6 -- Markus Frind, the 29-year old founder of Plenty of Fish, posted a check recently showing the site earned nearly $1 million from Google AdSense in a 2-month period. He gave it to all his employees. Markus is also the only employee. The site recently jumped into the top 100 among all US Websites. Markus says he's been ignored the last 4 years because of ethnocentricity towards US sites. (Plenty of Fish is in Canada.) See below for a full interview with this trade-school trained entrepreneur.

For HotOrNot, Betting on Free Is Paying Off

GIGA OM -- June 27 -- Three months ago, HotorNot dropped its subscription-based model for a free-ad supported model. In his latest blog post HotorNot founder James Hong says HotorNot's traffic has doubled to about 20 million page views per day. The revenues tanked from over $5 million per annum, but the company still remains profitable, with most of its sales coming from Google Ads. Hong claims a new sales force will replace the lost revenue. FULL ARTICLE @ GIGA OM

Mark Brooks: Here's the one month page views comparison with PlentyofFish courtesy of Alexa.

Guy Kawasaki: Markus Frind, Founder of PlentyOfFish, Is my Hero

DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE -- June 25 -- Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyOfFish.com is my new hero (James Hong of Hot or Not is a close second). Marcus spends about two hours a day in his underwear managing a free dating website that gets twelve billion page views a year. He is the only employee, and he only has one server. And by the way, he makes $5-6 million/year with Google ads. The members of the five-person panel provided many good insights into starting and funding a company today.

Marcus Kazmierczak, vp of engineering, Maya's Mom
Markus Frind, Founder, PlentyofFish.com
James Hong, Co-Founder, HotorNot.com
Dave Lu, CEO, Fanpop
Karen Northup, CEO and Founder, CoreFino
FULL ARTICLE @ DIGITAL MEDIA WIRE

PlentyofFish on The Today Show

OPW -- June 25 -- In case you missed Markus Frind on The Today Show from last Tuesday, here's the link to the video.

When it comes to masters of romance Spain has Don Juan, Mexico has Zorro and Vancouver Canada has a 29 year old computer programmer who has turned his knack for playing Cupid into one of the biggest sensations on the Internet. His identity is a mystery. Until now. 

I’m looking for Marcus.
Markus: That would be me.. Come on in and let me show you around. This is my global headquarters.

Markus Frind is the founder of Plentyoffish.com, the number one dating website in Canada and one of the top 5 in the US and growing.

It’s a lot like a spare bedroom.
Markus: Yeah people say that but a lot happens here.

Don’t let this modest office fool you, Markus is making millions but not off you, his website is for free. He is making money off these little ads.

This is the website? Pretty basic.
Markus: Yeah, I like to keep it very simple. When I first created this site it was just a hobby, like it wasn’t meant to become anything. 

But become something it did. Attracting viewers by the price and keeping them by his unusual approach to matchmaking, giving people what they don’t want.

Markus: What people say they want and what people want are actually two completely different things. On my site if someone is searching for a clean cut guy but they really are messaging all the bad boys, I’ll show them more bad boys then good guys.

So on Marcus’ website it’s much more important who you are clicking on than who you think you click with.

How much time in a given day do you spend working on a website?
Markus: An hour.

That’s it?
Markus: That’s it.

44 million visitors in an average day and you spend an hour running this site that satisfies them all day long.
Markus: I know it’s a bit long isn’t it?

And its not just his work day that is smaller then most. His staff is too.

Let me get the team down. You’re the President, so who is the head of business development?
Markus: That would be me.

And tech support?
Markus: That’s me again.

And marketing?
Markus: That’s me again.

By keeping Plentyoffish.com a company of one, Markus can spend his time as he pleases, reading on the beach, having a leisurely meal of mussels or depositing his latest million dollar check for ad space. Even website trend analysts don’t know what to make of Markus’s success. 

Dating Sites Responsiveness Test

OPW -- June 25 -- I've been reviewing a number of dating sites recently. I thought it would be interesting to see how many real messages a 28 year old woman in Tampa would get on the various dating sites. The test was run from April 24th to May 22nd, from Tampa, Florida. The subject did not send any outgoing winks or messages during the test. The excel spreadsheet lists the number of winks and messages received from other members.  Also listed is a breakout of the messages that were sent as automated messages from the system. Messages that were clearly automated messages were not included in the number for 'Messages From Members.' TRUE and Singlesnet had a high number of automated messages, and a low number of real messages. PlentyofFish had the most real messages initiating contact. Here's screen captures of the profiles that were used - PlentyofFish, Lavalife, TRUE, Singlesnet, Match, LoveAccess, YahooPersonals and Engage. Download dating sites responsiveness test spreadsheet.

PlentyofFish on The Today Show

OPW -- June 19 -- Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyofFish is on The Today Show this morning. One man, one (simple) site, #1 in Canada, #1 in U.K. (for heterosexual dating) and #4 in U.S.A. He said he wanted to be the top dating site in the world...and he's actually doing it! One guy (and his girlfriend, Annie) !!!  He's an inspiration. Is he a threat to YOUR business? What to do? Your comments please...

Finding a Cheap Date

NEWSWEEK -- May 31 -- The wave of the future, perhaps: free internet dating. In April, Craigslist saw 2.6 million personal ads posted, up from only 970k two years ago. PlentyofFish.com, a free dating site that was launched in 2003, now brings in 200k U.S users a day - and $5 million to $10 million in advertising a year according to Markus Frind, who runs the site by himself. "I think all the paid sites are going to go away, he says" Even Match.com is offering discounts to subscribers: six months free, if you don't find Prince (or Princess) Charming in the first six months. While the online dating industry has been enormously successful so far.

OKCupid Opinion Poll

PR WEB -- May 22 -- 49% of all Internet users have partaken of an online dating Web site in one form or another. (See full market research report). Of the 49%, 20% were committed users, either by paying for a subscription or using a free service. Another 29% admit to at least browsing profiles, even if they don't take that final step of signing up and making a connection. Those who do commit tend to stick around – 62% trying their luck for two months or longer. 68% of respondents prefer services that provide personality questionnaires, analyze compatibility and offer matchmaking recommendations. And users want that service for free. Free sites are preferred over subscription services at a ratio of five-to-one. 72% still feel there is a social stigma to online dating. Nearly two-thirds will admit that, upon meeting their significant other online, they would tell the truth if asked about how they met. Online daters are highly selective. 58% rely primarily on photographs to quickly filter matches. Deal breakers that tend to cause prospects to be rejected include smoking, 23% say no, and having children, 32% aren't interested. 45% will reject someone because of their weight. FULL ARTICLE @ PR WEB

Mark Brooks: PlentyofFish has introduced a personality profiling system, btw. See the PlentyofFish Compatiblity Predictor here.

PlentyOfFish Owner Has the Perfect Bait For a Huge Success

WSJ -- May 23 -- The headquarters of what may be, on a per-capita basis, the busiest, most profitable site on the entire World Wide Web is on the 16th floor of a brand-new Vancouver building with panoramic views of the nearby Canadian Rockies. It happens to be the apartment of Markus Frind, the owner and sole employee of PlentyOfFish.com, a free online dating site and a model for the next generation of Web entrepreneurship.

• For the week ended April 28, PlentyOfFish.com was the 96th-busiest Web site in t