COURTLAND BROOKS INTERNET DATING AGENCY-CONSULTANCY

The Case for Governments Taking an Interest in Internet Dating

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 25 - Could demographic declines lead to Governments taking an interest in Internet dating. If so, what might that look like?

Populations in many developed countries are on the decline as fertility rates plummet, according to an article in Financial Times last week.

According to the UN "27 countries have fewer people now than in 2010 ...and it expects 55 countries, including China, to experience declines by 2050." Falling populations will become the norm. That's very bad for economic output and growth, which could also be bad for living standards.

So, what's a good Government to do?

Here's an interesting precedent. Several years ago the Government of Singapore took an interest in matchmaking and even went so far as to sponsor and host multiple conferences to gather the best minds in matchmaking. Their goal; to prime the pumps in the matchmaking industry in Singapore, to get more people meeting, marrying and making babies. The Government of Singapore even offered grants for fledgling matchmaking companies. Lunch Actually Group benefited from these initiatives, for one.

I see the UAE opening up to dating and matrimony services now, finally. Tinder is now openly available, and Matrimony just opened its first office in Dubai.

Secular government's have always been open to dating. Conservative countries, not so. Stigma still exists. Lowering fertility rates should force the issue for the more conservative countries to seek the means for their populations to connect more...with a view to steadying their falling fertility rates. So we should see more opening up.

However. governments around the world probably don't hold 'Internet dating' companies in especially high esteem but would be more likely to gravitate towards supporting 'online matchmaking' companies. i.e. The apps that vie towards the more meaningful end of the market.

I see a future for the likes of Matrimony to appeal to governments to open up and give them a clearer path to users, and even provide open sponsorship even. eHarmony/Parship/Muzmatch could also be well positioned for advances into more conservative countries? Might we see the day that a government ratifies and offers up a particular matchmaking or matrimony app as the gold standard? Is this conceive-able? Its at least an interesting notion. - Mark Brooks, Host - IDEA.gp, CEO - Courtland Brooks Agency/Consultancy

The End Is Nigh for Cookies, and Larger Dating Companies Will Benefit

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 18 - Since 1994 Internet dating companies have been able to cookie users and more recently very effectively chase them around the web. But the Cookie Apocalypse us upon us. Google announced they are phasing out the use of 'invasive net trackers,' according to an article in Financial Times last Wednesday. After 25 years of use, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla have already banned them, and Google is laying the cookie to rest.

Of course, who is going to benefit from this the most? Google, Facebook and Amazon have already amassed a treasure trove of personalized data. They are effectively, 'sitting pretty.' Also, larger dating apps will become more entrenched as a consequence of this ban. Smaller apps and startups will be mired for a diminished ability to gather data and track, and a reduced ability to personalize their ad approaches and treatments.

Google will phase out cookies over the next two years. They, and others, are working on what might become the successor of the {beloved/maligned} cookie. - Mark Brooks, Host - IDEA.gp, CEO - Courtland Brooks

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 18 - Since 1994 Internet dating companies have been able to cookie users and more recently very effectively chase them around the web. But the Cookie Apocalypse us upon us. Google announced they are phasing out the use of 'invasive net trackers,' according to an article in Financial Times last Wednesday. After 25 years of use, Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla have already banned them, and Google is laying the cookie to rest.

Of course, who is going to benefit from this the most? Google, Facebook and Amazon have already amassed a treasure trove of personalized data. They are effectively, 'sitting pretty.' Also, larger dating apps will become more entrenched as a consequence of this ban. Smaller apps and startups will be mired for a diminished ability to gather data and track, and a reduced ability to personalize their ad approaches and treatments.

Google will phase out cookies over the next two years. They, and others, are working on what might become the successor of the {beloved/maligned} cookie. - Mark Brooks, Host - IDEA.gp, CEO - Courtland Brooks

What's on in 2020 - Your Complete Events Calendar

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 8 - Here's all the top dating industry events worthy of your attention in 2020.

iDate (InternetDatingConference.com) events are 2 dayers, actually 3 days including the pre-conferences. They've been around for years, and have 50 events under their belt. Led by Marc Lesnick, assisted by Elena Lesnick.

GDI (Global Dating Insights) events are 1 dayers, with speakers speaking for 20 minutes. Now an established industry event. GDI runs daily news rewrites, interviews and GDI events. Led by Simon Corbett, assisted by GDI.news editor Dominic Whitlock.

IDEA (Internet Dating Excellence Association) SUMMIT events (see latest event at IDEASUMMIT.org) are small gatherings just for dating industry leaders to learn and share. These gatherings are usually in the board room of a hosting established dating industry company with 20-25 speaker-attendees who speak for 10 minutes each to share a meaningful idea. At each gathering we also invite one IDEA Alumni, i.e. someone who was senior and left the industry, plus a (promising) startup CEO, plus the CEO of a vendor of interest. Each event is led by the CEO of a leading dating company and co-hosted by Mark Brooks, assisted by OPW.news editor Irena Brooks.

I recommend picking off at least two or three events this year so you can stay connected with industry trends and your peers. Have fun, stay informed, and good luck growing your dating business in 2020. Here's the complete pick list.

Q1
Jan 30th & 31st - iDate Delray Beach, Florida - $645

March 6th - IDEA SUMMIT New York - Free
By invitation only for 25 dating industry leaders
March 7-8-9th - IDEA WOW New York - 3 half days of social events - At-cost

March 10th - GDI New York - $299

Q2
May 9-11th - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Asia in Kuala Lumpur/Singapore TBD

May 12th - GDI Singapore - $299

May 23rd & 24th - iDate Premium International Dating (PID) in Odessa - 245 EUR

Q3
June 10th - IDEA SUMMIT Los Angeles - Free

June 11th - GDI Los Angeles - $299

Q4
Oct 1st - GDI London

Nov - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Europe in UK/Germany/Malta TBD

If you're a traditional matchmaker or run a modern/hybrid matchmaking firm you should also take in a Matchmaking Institute Conference. Their Global Love Conferences are right after the GDI New York and Singapore and London conferences. See MatchmakingInstitute.com for tix.

COURTLAND BROOKS - Jan 8 - Here's all the top dating industry events worthy of your attention in 2020.

iDate (InternetDatingConference.com) events are 2 dayers, actually 3 days including the pre-conferences. They've been around for years, and have 50 events under their belt. Led by Marc Lesnick, assisted by Elena Lesnick.

GDI (Global Dating Insights) events are 1 dayers, with speakers speaking for 20 minutes. Now an established industry event. GDI runs daily news rewrites, interviews and GDI events. Led by Simon Corbett, assisted by GDI.news editor Dominic Whitlock.

IDEA (Internet Dating Excellence Association) SUMMIT events (see latest event at IDEASUMMIT.org) are small gatherings just for dating industry leaders to learn and share. These gatherings are usually in the board room of a hosting established dating industry company with 20-25 speaker-attendees who speak for 10 minutes each to share a meaningful idea. At each gathering we also invite one IDEA Alumni, i.e. someone who was senior and left the industry, plus a (promising) startup CEO, plus the CEO of a vendor of interest. Each event is led by the CEO of a leading dating company and co-hosted by Mark Brooks, assisted by OPW.news editor Irena Brooks.

I recommend picking off at least two or three events this year so you can stay connected with industry trends and your peers. Have fun, stay informed, and good luck growing your dating business in 2020. Here's the complete pick list.

Q1
Jan 30th & 31st - iDate Delray Beach, Florida - $645

March 6th - IDEA SUMMIT New York - Free
By invitation only for 25 dating industry leaders
March 7-8-9th - IDEA WOW New York - 3 half days of social events - At-cost

March 10th - GDI New York - $299

Q2
May 9-11th - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Asia in Kuala Lumpur/Singapore TBD

May 12th - GDI Singapore - $299

May 23rd & 24th - iDate Premium International Dating (PID) in Odessa - 245 EUR

Q3
June 10th - IDEA SUMMIT Los Angeles - Free

June 11th - GDI Los Angeles - $299

Q4
Oct 1st - GDI London

Nov - IDEA SUMMIT + WOW Europe in UK/Germany/Malta TBD

If you're a traditional matchmaker or run a modern/hybrid matchmaking firm you should also take in a Matchmaking Institute Conference. Their Global Love Conferences are right after the GDI New York and Singapore and London conferences. See MatchmakingInstitute.com for tix.

The State of the Dating Industry in 2019

IDEA - Oct 18 - Here's Mark Brooks 14 minute presentation covering the state of the dating industry and our challenges, as at September 2019.

IDEA SUMMIT in Berlin Fills Within 24 Hours

IDEA - Oct 10 - The Internet Dating Excellence Association (IDEA.gp) exists to help the dating industry grow, and to help dating executives learn and share and improve their services for the benefit of their users.

I started IDEA in 2007, and we spent the first 10 years bringing dating industry leaders together socially prior to Internet Dating Conferences. Then we formalized it a couple years ago, and started running distinct gatherings. The first small gathering was IDEA WOW in Malta in November 2018. It went well, but attendees wanted more so we ran an IDEA WOW + IDEA SUMMIT in Chennai India and I co-hosted the gathering with Murugavel Janakiraman, the CEO/Founder of Matrimony, at the Matrimony.com HQ. It was a wonderful experience.

Our first European IDEA SUMMIT event will happen December 4th at the Spark Networks HQ in Berlin. I'll be cohosting with Jeronimo Folgueira, the CEO of Spark Networks. The event was released this Monday, and was full less than 24 hours later! Another small IDEA SUMMIT gathering is in the works for East Coast USA for March in 2020.

The Age of Intent - Courtland Brooks New-Book-of-the-Month

COURTLAND BROOKS - June 20 - Is there a place in the word for an A.I. matchmaker? We think so at Courtland Brooks. This new book (out since May 28th) will give you some insight into the rise of A.I. virtual chatbot technology. Get it at Smile.Amazon.com here.

Happy 15th Birthday to Online Personals Watch!

COURTLAND BROOKS - June 19 - We are now 15 years into running Online Personals Watch. It was started this month in 2004, no less. For the last 15 years we've watched the news, selected what we think are the most strategically important news items for decision makers at dating companies, and summarized them. I started OPW when I was at FriendFinder. I realized there was some great intell in the news, but noone really had time to read it. Certainly not my CEO Andrew Conru. I figured, it would be awesome if someone could condense 3 hours of reading down into 3 minutes of essential news each day. Noone was doing this, so I created OPW, which you can now reference at OPW.news. We love the dating business, and are looking forward to an amazing future with you. You can subscribe via email and social media from the right hand side bar. ;-) - Mark Brooks, CEO Courtland Brooks, Host of IDEA.

Courtland Brooks Book-of-the-Month - The Players Ball

COURTLAND BROOKS - May 7 - If you've not heard of the tawdry story of the founder of Match, then you'll like this book. Actually, even if you know it, its worth a read. Stanford law grad, Gary Kremen founded Match.com and bought a number of top tier domains. This is the story of how he started Match and his fight to reel in a particular domain that was stolen from him. See the Amazon book.

Find out more about Courtland Brooks services. Please email mark@courtlandbrooks.com for more info.

IDEA WOW + IDEA SUMMIT, in Chennai, India

COURTLAND BROOKS - Apr 9 - The Internet Dating Excellence Association World Officers Weekend happened over the weekend, and the IDEA SUMMIT happened Monday. Here's video summaries of our adventures in Chennai.

Day 1

Day 2

IDEA SUMMIT was a closed door event. It was a very full day of learning and sharing. 14 presentations were made by the CEO/Founder of Matrimony, CEO of Mamba, Chief Mobile Officer of Matrimony, CEO/Founder of Lunch Actually, CMO of Woo, CEO/Founder of Agape Match, CEO of LoveMe, MD of Insparx, Owner of SuccessfulMatch, Owner of Hubpeople, Co-founder of LoveMe, MD of Mamba, and CEO of BetterHalf.ai.

You can see the full information and line up here. Now we're working on the next event.

Subscribe to OPW + Join IDEA + Hire Us

Courtland Brooks Book-of-the-Month - PR for Humans

COURTLAND BROOKS - Apr 7 - I find the best PR advisors are former journalists. Mike Sergeant is part of that fray (CNN, BBC), and has authored this brilliant advisory on how to get PR right, and be human. PR for Humans is out April 18th. (Amazon UK book, or Kindle UK). I believe the people in the personals business need to be more personal with the public, so this book seems very apt. Mike argues that we should aim to 'connect human leaders with human audiences,' and his book covers new-school storytelling, reputation building and how to 'be a hedgehog!?' Why not. Enjoy. Please let me know your thoughts. :-)

Tinder has a story. Bumble has a story. Does your dating app have a story? You must be known for something, or you won't be known for anything. Find our more about Courtland Brooks services. Please email mark@courtlandbrooks.com for more info.