Hello, and welcome to the May 1st edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup. I’m Mark Brooks, we're in Lincolnshire, England this week, on our honeymoon, here's what made the industry news this week.
Since the onset of the recession in September 2008, online dating sites have been attracting new users like they were going out of style. In the UK, traffic to online dating sites grew 13% between September 2008 and February 2009, to attract just shy of 5 million visitors with a reach of 13% of the total UK online population. The appetite for love apparently has been re-ignited from the ashes of consumer-capitalism, and continued site growth is expected into 2009. The most popular online dating property in the UK is currently Meetic, which attracted 1.4 million visitors in February in combination with newly acquired Match.com. Trends are similar throughout the world as more and more people are seeking the help of online dating and matchmaking sites to bring them comfort during this economic downtime.
Some fear that online chat rooms and dating sites are becoming today's virtual bathhouses, where HIV and AIDS first percolated among gay men in the 1980s. More new infections occur among young people ages 13 to 29 than any other age group -- precisely the demographic that uses the Internet for social networking. Public health professionals are now turning to social networks as a tool to combat the high numbers of HIV and AIDS infections and raise awareness of this continuing problem. ManhuntCares.com has been an industry leader in this area, providing partner notification, outreach, and research services to their members since 2002. Health professionals are hoping that other social networks will establish similar programs.
According to a New Media Age report, White Label Dating is now the second largest paid dating site in the UK. With the merger of Meetic and Match.com, White Label moves up the charts to become the number two paid dating service, and the number three overall site in the UK, with Plentyoffish in the number two spot. The site is experiencing greater growth than all of their competitors over the past year, with visitors up 205%.
Viximo, a leading provider of virtual goods services to social networks, online dating and casual gaming sites, introduced its new modular virtual goods platform for the web and iPhone. For the first time, this “a la carte” offering will allow publishers to selectively choose from Viximo’s core services including access to its premium content library, an interactive digital storefront, merchandise payment systems and detailed analytics. The company also announced new partnerships with social networking sites Wadja, Booksie, and I Beat You. Viximo currently reaches more than 20 million unique monthly visitors through its network of more than a dozen web publishers. The company is committed to getting publishers started from scratch with a complete virtual goods platform.
iovation, The Device Reputation Authority™ for the Internet, announced recently that it is now offering iovation Risk Module, an add-on service to iovation ReputationManager that scores new and unknown devices on the Internet. iovation has been helping their customers combat online fraud and abuse since 2004 by using device fingerprints to create device reputations that can be provided to iovation customers in real time. Now customers can not only act on the reputations for devices known by the iovation network, they can also receive risk scores for new devices, that aren't even on the network. This new service is intended to help predict and stop fraudulent activities before they even happen.
Barry Diller is looking to expand his internet dating empire. Mr. Diller, Chairman and CEO of IAC, which owns Match.com, stated that he was “very interested” in Yahoo’s personals operation. Yahoo would not comment, but analysts say it may outsource Yahoo Personals as its new chief executive focuses on more core businesses.
IAC, the parent company of Match.com, released its first quarter financials this week. Worldwide subscribers to Match increased by 6% from 1.35 million to 1.44 million from Q1, 2008. This increase was driven by gains in the US, the UK and Japan. Revenue declined slightly, showing a 15% decrease in revenue per subscriber in international markets, due primarily to the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates. Excluding that impact, international revenue grew. Overall revenue was down 1% and operating income was also down 2% at $9.9 million. The merger between Match Europe and Meetic is currently valued at approximately $140 million, including the promissory note and the 27% stake that IAC will hold in Meetic.
Love is certainly in the air this time of year, and dating sites are reaping the benefits! The UK dating industry is estimated to be worth about £600 million a year, and there are more than 1,300 dating sites in operation. The recent merger of Meetic and IAC in Europe has left many in the industry believing that it is just the first in a number of unions in a sector that has hundreds of competitors. Others see the merge as a strategic move on the part of IAC, who reportedly has a little known option to purchase all of Meetic in 3 years’ time.
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.
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