OPW Weekly News Roundup - Nov 19th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.
Hello, and welcome to Online Personal 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.
SNAP Interactive, which creates online dating applications for social networks, has released their third quarter results. The company had their seventh consecutive quarter of operational profit. In fact, revenue rose to more than $800,000, as compared to $784,000 the quarter prior.
What’s next for SNAP? According to CNN, SNAP president and CEO Clifford Lerner said “We are aggressively pursuing non-advertising based monetization opportunities, including virtual gifts and subscriptions. We plan to roll out these features to our user base over the next several months."
Here are some fast facts on SNAP: the company currently has 3 million monthly active users. SNAP’s chief dating application, “Are You Interested,” is available at areyouinterested.com, on Facebook and through an iPhone application.
Nielsen has released their European online dating rankings for October. Results indicate C-date is continuing to grow in popularity. The casual dating site maintained its #1 position in Spain with 449,000 unique visitors. However, C-date also grabbed third place in both France and Switzerland after not making the top three in either country in September.
In the U.K., free dating site PlentyofFish stayed on top with a 543,000 unique visitors. FriendsReunitedDating jumped up a spot to #2 with 514,000 unique visitors, while the Match.com Network had 452,000 unique visitors and was able to push DatingDirect out of the top three for October.
Also in European online dating news, Gráinne Barry & Kevin Greene, the team behind popular Irish dating site AnotherFriend.com, have opened up their checkbooks to acquire the U.K. dating site MakeFriendsOnline.com for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2001, MakeFriendsOnline at times has been ranked among the top dating sites in the U.K.
Barry and Greene already have over 60% percent of the Irish online dating market, thanks to AnotherFriend.com.
In both Europe and North America, the cougar craze is in full swing. It seems there's no shortage of younger men looking to date older women and vice versa. More than 300,000 people have signed up for dating site CougarLife.com since it launched last February. CougarLife is a part of online dating network Avid Life Media, which also runs affairs site Ashley Madison. Avid Life Media president Noel Biderman told the Ottawa Citizen that CougarLife is “poised to make millions. I don't think we've ever launched anything with this much traction this soon."
At CougarLife, young men slightly outnumber older women 52% to 48%. British online dating service, Parship, recently conducted their own cougar dating study. Their findings showed around 20% of men in their 20s and 30s said they would date an older woman.
All you affiliates out there, this next item is for you. The Affiliate Convention will be held Dec. 3-4 at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles. Registration for affiliates is complimentary. This business conference and expo will cover affiliate marketing and advertising methods. The Affiliate Convention is produced by the same company that runs the Internet Dating Conference and Social Networking Conference events.
Finally, is eHarmony responsible for 2% of marriages in the United States? The Advertising Standards Authority is now claiming this percentage may be inaccurate. According to U.K. magazine MarketingWeek, eHarmony said the 2% marriage rate was extrapolated from an online study that drew 7,000 participants. The study was conducted by an independent market research company. However, the Advertising Standards Authority says eHarmony’s 2% figure is misleading, because it suggests a definitive number of marriages based upon a sole online study from several years ago.
That’s all for this week’s news roundup. For more online dating headlines and to read our interview with messmo CEO Brendan O’Kane, go to OPW1.com. There, you’ll also find our newly-compiled list of Twitter accounts from various online dating companies along with an update on open jobs at internet dating companies around the world.
This edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by Iovation. Iovation, helping companies expose cybercriminals and fight fraud with device reputation.
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.