Hello, and Dobry Den, we're in sunny Prague today on the very day that Obama is here. Prague is one of the most romantic cities in the world, so its an appropriate place to kickoff these weekly news summaries. Welcome to the very first Online Personals Watch Weekly News Roundup, this Friday 3rd April, 2009. I’m Mark Brooks, and this is what made industry news this week.
Skout, which last year changed its business model and joined the growing wave of companies trying to turn smart phones into dating devices, has plans to change their free service into one that requires a $5 to 10 monthly subscription fee. Though adoption of mobile dating has been rather slow so far, Skout is hopeful that the iPhone is going to help change that, and bring the instant gratification provided by their product into more hands and onto more phones.
In other news, Mobestar, which provides white label technology and mobile content for dating sites, announced that they are opening a new office in Central London following a successful relaunch of the business in February. Mobestar closed up shop in December 2008 after some financial troubles, but reappeared last month after an apparent sale of the company. Though they have a new location, neither the new technology nor clients they are promising have appeared anywhere on their website.
Nightline recently reported that though the economy is hurting, subscriptions to Match.com are up 20% over last year with eHarmony doing just as well. Not surprisingly, free dating sites are doing even better. It seems that people are looking for a partner to ride out the recession with, and since they are not out spending as much money in shops and restaurants, they have the time and extra cash to look for love online. Is the industry still up? Are YOU seeing year over year growth, or are revenues sagging? Your comments please.
In response to discrimination litigation, eHarmony launched their new same-sex dating site this week called Compatible Partners. Though some are skeptical that the site will actually work, since the compatibility questions are only slightly adapted from those on eHarmony, the site has a lot of potential. Undoubtedly it will be very closely watched in the coming months.
Online fraud is up. The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, is composed of the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. IC3 saw an unfortunate rise in the number of Internet fraud complaints last year, after two years of declines. 33% more complaints were received by the group in 2008 than the previous year. Total losses from these cases of fraud are estimated to be about $265 million.
And of course, in the spirit of April Fool’s Day, OPW posted a number of mostly daft but somewhat plausible headlines and stories relating to the industry. ChristianCafe acquired JDate and called their new site The Crusades; we covered White Label Dating’s launch of a new online dating site for dogs called fluffHarmony.com. Also eHarmony's partnership with Ashley Madison, and Plentyoffish opening a customer service center in Mumbai. My favorite April 1st gag has to be Steve Wozniak's new movie trailer, Footloose. See the link on OPW to see the video.
That’s all for this week’s edition of OPW’s Weekly News Roundup. Tune in again next week as we bring you the latest and greatest from the world of online dating.
No ads, no fluff, just raw news and CEO interviews, served up daily. I'm Mark Brooks with Online Personals Watch. Nashledanou from Prague.
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