Hello, and welcome to Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup, Valentine's Day Edition. I’m Mark Brooks, and here are the latest headlines from around the industry.
This edition of the weekly news roundup is kindly sponsored by iTelebill.
Hitwise has reported that after years of holding steady, visitors to dating sites in general have started to drop. However, PlentyofFish seems to be one step ahead. The free dating website’s traffic has actually increased.
Mashable.com’s weekly face-off recently pitted PlentyofFish and Match.com against one another. PlentyofFish is the world’s largest free dating web service, and Match.com is a paid site with over 20 million users. The big question was: Who has the better model? Match’s subscription service might be more effective for helping singles find true love. However, PlentyofFish took home the win by providing the best chance of finding romance! The face-off was based on a visitor poll. The final results were PlentyofFish at 45% with 430 votes, and Match.com at 35% with 334 votes.
The battle between PlentyofFish and Match.com isn’t solely on Mashable.com. According to Hitwise’s rankings of U.S. dating site visits, PlentyofFish was on top, followed by Match, Singlesnet, Yahoo Personals, Datehookup, and eHarmony. However, Match has been established as an Industry leader for quite some time now with a leg up on mobile dating.
Experts at the 2010 Internet Dating Conference in Miami pegged mobile online dating as a $550M-annual-revenue ringer industry wide, with potential to double in the near future. Mobile dating isn’t the only feature raking in the cash though. Virtual gifts have also become a $1 billion industry in the U.S. alone, and $5 billion worldwide.
Moving on, Nicole Ellison and her colleagues measured the difference between dating profile facts and reality. They compared posted information with what was on the test subject’s drivers license. Here are a few of the stats: 53% of men lied about their height, as did 39% of women. 64% of women lied about their weight. 24% of men and 13% of women were also untruthful about their age.
On a positive note, the stigma of online dating as a whole has been completely breached, it would seem. It has become so normal that internet dating is really no different than meeting a partner at a bar, or party. PlentyofFish’s Kate Bilenki revealed that the free dating site gets 1.8M hits each month from New Jersey alone. In a 2007 study, eHarmony found that 19% of respondents met their spouse through the internet, which was a 5% increase from 2005. Internet dating in general is considerably more comfortable and arguably cheaper than hitting the bars.
Meetic has announced its revenue for 2009! The group’s total consolidated annual revenue came out to 164.5 million Euros. The revenue is up 23% from the previous financial year. Of course, the Match.com Europe acquisition played a major part in Meetic’s revenue increase with a contribution of 32.4 million Euros. The Meetic group had 920,286 subscribers at the end of Dec 2009, compared to 696,472 at the end of Dec 2008.
Now for our hooks ups and breakups!
Match.com and Meetic recently formed a new joint venture in Latin America. Match and Meetic will each own 50% of the economic interest in the entity, and Match will control the new entity’s operations. Match will pay Meetic $3 million in cash at the closing. The partnership is expected to be in play by March 15, 2010. The situation could provide Match.com with an opportunity to purchase Meetic’s stake at fair market value at the time, triggering an additional payment of $1.5 million.
Meanwhile German dating site Neu.de and Match.com joined forces to power Match.com’s European Brand. Match’s European member base will merge with Neu.de. We’re looking for more clarification on this deal.
Match.com recently rebranded with an animated TV Ad. The campaign was created by US Sydney. US Sydney scrapped the old tagline “Make Love Happen” in exchange for “Where you found me”. The goal of the ad is to appeal to different types of consumers. Check out OPW to see the Youtube video of the ad. It’s very pretty, and very evidently targeted at women. And of course we know, attract the women, and guys will flock.
Easydate Ltd and Dating Factory recently partnered up. Easydate owns one of the top ten UK dating brands www.BeNaughty.com. The partnership will allow Easydate to address the German, French, Spanish, and Italian speaking markets using Dating Factory’s white label dating platform. This is an unexpected move by EasyDate. DatingFactory is a new kid on the block, headed by Tanya Fathers who was one of the brains behind the now, on the ropes, World Dating Partners. DatingFactory has a solid white label offering with some great reporting functionality. The company is focused solely on the continental European market at this stage.
IMVU has teamed up with Zoosk. The partnership will provide IMVU with Zoosk’s dating service. To join the service within IMVU, members 18 and older simply click the dating link under the community tab, and follow the step by step instructions to create an account. Nice move Zoosk.
Sex sells, but perhaps not on the open market. The internet offers niche dating sites for just about every preference. A poll by Online Dating Magazine shows eHarmony as the currently preferred site with Match close behind. However, Avid Life Media and FriendFinder are bringing in revenues through a plethora of niche dating sites that lean toward the risqué.
Both companies recently decided to shelve their IPO due to due to concerns over the current market. Avid Life Media had been planning a $57 million IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange in an effort to raise money to buy Moxy Media. FriendFinder meanwhile was planning a $220 million IPO with the intent to use some of the money to pay down debt. FriendFinder intended to sell 20 million shares for between $10 and $20 each. Watch this space, as soon as we know, you’ll know on OPW.
The online dating market is expected to reach $1.6 billion by 2013, up from $957M in 2008, according to Forrester Research. With online services reporting an increase in subscriptions, sites could raise their ARPU by adding more premium services and add-ons without losing customers.
Online dating isn’t the only industry doing well. Matchmaking is alive and well! But shouldn’t this industry be dead? Actually, matchmakers are being aided and legitimized by the Internet. People are more willing than ever to pay, for help, in the love department. Matchmakers are charging anywhere from $1,000 to $100,000, depending on the exclusiveness of the service, with $5k to $20k being the sweet spot.
Patti Stanger, star of the TV series The Millionaire Matchmaker charges men $25k+ a year and female millionaires $55k for 28 months of unlimited introductions.
Cupid’s Coach, Julie Ferman, believes that women are very attracted to the concept matchmaking because it’s private. Ferman charges $2,500 to $25,000 annually for an average of 2.2 introductions per month. Ferman accepts both men and women as clients.
I personally think that it’s worth dropping $5k to $10k on a matchmaker if you’ve got the cash and are looking for a serious relationship, but online sites that charge or have personality or compatibility questionnaires can also be a great option. That’s where I’d be, if I were single.
Finally, If you’re looking for a job in the industry, we’ve updated the idating job listings again. Head over to opw1.com and look for the post on the 12th of February.
This edition of Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by iTelebill. iTelebill, the mobile payment specialists for all your online & micro billing requirements.
That’s all for this week’s 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. I’m Mark Brooks. Thank you.
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