Hello, and welcome to Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup. 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 iovation.
PlentyofFish, Match.com, and eHarmony are starting to focus their efforts in the UK. Comscore recently reported a 1% drop in the global dating market, but the UK is showing a strong 16% growth rate. Match.com and eHarmony already dominate an estimated £1 billion a year matchmaking business in the paid site space.
PlentyofFish, of course holds the crown in the free dating space, having attracted 933,000 visitors over a one month period in Britain alone. eHarmony added 130,000 new UK members in January, bringing their subscriber base up to 800,000. Match.com boasts roughly 6.5 million members from its early establishment in the UK.
eHarmony recently announced their revenue for 2009 in a CNBC interview with Julia Boorstin and here are the details! eHarmony brought in close to $250m in revenue with about 13 percent market share, and a double digit registration growth in 2009. Although eHarmony didn’t disclose its user numbers, the website has been profitable since 2004 and is currently focused on building itself as an independent business.
Now for hookups and breakups!
Match.com has a reputation for buying up potential competitors. The dating giant scooped up People Media last year for $80m. There is a rumor that Match might be acquiring Singlesnet. IAC, specifically Barry Diller, has also expressed interest in Yahoo Personals in the past.
MeetMoi has partnered up with Time Out New York to introduce its white label service with the launch of TONY singles. The mobile and web-based dating service is powered by MeetMoi and went live in conjunction with Time Out New York’s Singles issue.
Is Social Media an important part of marketing? Hubspot’s recent survey leads to a yes! After surveying a wide range of companies to see how their marketing budgets have changed from 2009 to 2010, Hubspot found that blogging frequently, should drive more customers. It was also reported that 45% of businesses who use specific social media, also acquire customers from those channels.
OkCupid is a prime example of success where blogging is concerned. The website’s number of active members has grown by 10%, to 1.1m since the launch of their blog. One post in particular, about debunking the conventional wisdom about profile pictures, brought more than 750,000 visitors to the site and garnered 10,000 new member sign ups according to the company.
Finally, to check out the official highlight video from the 2010 Internet Dating Conference in Miami, head over to OPW1.com and look for the post on Feb 18th. From there, you can also follow a link to view conference photos, and pictures from the first ever iDate Awards Ceremony.
This edition of Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by iovation. iovation, fight fraud with device reputation and expose cybercriminals.
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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