Internet Dating Video News Summaries

Internet Dating Video News Summary #15

OPW Weekly News Summary - Oct 29th, 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 internet dating industry.

Match and Chemistry’s parent company, IAC, had a profitable third quarter, thanks to its asset sales. Yet revenue from Match and IAC’s dating sites dropped by $13 million to 81 million dollars. IAC attributed the decline to the absence of Match Europe, which was sold to French competitor Meetic last June. One bright spot for Match? Paid subscriptions grew by five percent to 1.4 million. Why is this? Match tell me it's basically because they're better at targetting users. Case in point, its interesting how they blanketed the Oodle.com classifieds site recently. Its tough for any other dating site to get a shoe-in on Oodle now that they've loaded 700,000 profiles from Match.com.

I talked with Merger Market this week about the possibility that FriendFinder Networks could sell its non-core businesses before the end of this year. It really was quite hypothetical. Sure, its unlikely but its possible. Properties that don't really fit the fold include Gradfinder and BigChurch. FriendFinder filed for an IPO last December in hopes of raising up to 460 million dollars to pay off its debts.

Noel Biderman runs Ashley Madison. He thinks FriendFinder would be wise to attempt to sell its international properties to companies focused on a particular geographic region. i.e. FriendFinder’s Latino dating site, Amigos, might have better success in the hands of a company concentrating solely on the Latino market. FriendFinder’s sites could bring in between 7x to 8x EBITDA, according to Noel.

Also in international news, statistics from September show singles in the U.K., Spain and Switzerland have had a change of heart regarding their favorite dating sites.

Here is a comparison of Nielsen’s U.K. unique audience rankings from this past August and September.

U.K., Nielsen Online/Unique Audience
August 2009

1. Friends Reunited Dating (605,000)
2. PlentyofFish (574,000)
3. Match (468,000)  

September 2009

1. PlentyofFish (576,000) 
2. DatingDirect.com (520,000)
3. Friends Reunited Dating (498,000)

As you can see, former #1 Friends Reunited Dating fell to third place after it lost 100,000 uniques visitors a month points in just a month. This drop-off allowed PlentyofFish at 576,000 uniques to move into the top spot, even though the free dating site’s unique audience ranking only improved by two points from August.

PlentyofFish also finished on top of comScore’s U.K. rankings for September. They estimated the site had 794,000 unique visitors. Why the difference between the comScore and Nielsen numbers? Well, I've run numbers with comScore and Nielson as far back as 2003 and seen as much as an order of magnitude difference between them. The differences are a lot less these days. Its really a matter of how from where they pull their numbers, and how they do their math. Ultimately, the best bet is to draw your conclusions on rankings from multiple competitive intelligence sources. Which is why I list them at Markslist.com. Just type in that domain and you'll see the latest rankings each month.

DateTheUK came in second to Plentyoffish.com in the UK with 733,000 uniques. Actually DateTheUK’s parent company, EasyDate, was honored this week by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the U.K. EasyDate’s revenue increased 10x from 2004 to 2008. Deloitte ranked EasyDate at #30 on their annual Technology Fast 50 list for the U.K.

As mentioned earlier, there’s also a new #1 dating site in Spain, according to Nielsen.

Spain, Nielsen Online/Unique Audience
August 2009

1. FriendScout24 (626,000)
2. Meetic (442,000)
3. TeEncontre.com (305,000)

September 2009

1. C-Date (561,000)
2. Meetic (478,000)
3. Easyflirt (466,000)

Casual dating site C-Date is now in first place after not even being ranked in the top three last month. C-Date saw 561,000 uniques in Spain for September.

FriendScout24 may have lost its #1 ranking in Spain, but the site did better over in Switzerland.

Switzerland, Nielsen Online/Unique Audience
August 2009

1. Parship (72,000)
2. FriendScout24 (67,000)
3. Swissfriends.ch (54,000)

September 2009

1. FriendScout24 (73,000)
2. Swissfriends.ch (65,000)
3. Parship (64,000) 

FriendScout24 grabbed the top spot with 73,000 uniques. Last month’s #1, Parship, fell to #3 with a 64,000 unique visitors in September.

Also of note: In Germany, eDarling and be2 replaced Loomin.de and Bildkontakte.de at #2 and #3, respectively.

Interestingly, many dating sites in Europe saw a general decline in their unique audience numbers during the month of September.

I asked comScore how many people visit dating sites worldwide and they were kind enough to share their latest worldwide number. In August 2009 there were 113 million unique visitors to dating sites around the world. Well there you have it. That's 113 million uniques. To put that number in perspective. That's more than the entire population of England, Spain and Portugal combined.

For more information, visit OnlinePersonalsWatch.com and click on the International Ranking sections, or you can just visit Markslist.com to forward into the rankings.

Over in China, there are more than 100 matchmaking Web sites. However, according to e-commerce site Alibaba.com, less than 10 Chinese matchmaking site have over a million subscribers. China's largest matchmaking site is currently Zhenai.com, which has 20 million registered users. The site’s membership plans range from free to $879 per year. iResearch predicts the overall online dating market in China in 2010 will reach 140 million users, generating approximately 176 million dollars.

Finally, you may have noticed that the Internet Dating Conference has a had a design refresh. Did you also notice the new iDate Awards. Nominations are now open. Members of the Internet Dating Executive Alliance will be nominating most of the companies over the next couple of weeks. You can also nominate companies that you feel are the best in category. There are 11 categories this year. Please go to iDateAwards.com to find out more. I'll be covering this more next week.

This edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by Iovation. Iovation, helping the internet dating industry to work together to beat scammers expose cybercriminals and fight fraud with device reputation.

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.

Internet Dating News Briefing #3

Online Personals Watch News Summary #3, April 19th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.

Hello, and welcome to the Monday, April 19th edition of the Online Personals Watch's Weekly News Roundup. This week we're in one of the most romantic spots on the planet, we're in Venice, Italy.  So Buongiorno, I’m Mark Brooks, and this is what made industry news this week.

Spark Networks has quietly acquired Engage.com. No details have been released yet.
Engage allows users to become virtual matchmakers and match other members. It’s great in theory, but the site never really took off. Traffic really tanked from May 2008 onwards when Engage ran out of money and switched off their ad buys. In May they were seeing 300k uniques a month, and now they see about 50,000 unique visitors a month. Where Spark will take the site has yet to be seen, though a major overhaul seems necessary to give Engage the edge and draw that it needs. We look forward to seeing what happens when Spark relaunches the site in the future.

Sugar Daddy sites are receiving some backlash lately as critics are saying that they are at best convenience stores for adulterers and at worst, virtual brothels. There are a number of sites offering this kind of arrangement, where wealthy men, either single or married, pay an allowance to a younger female “sugar baby” in exchange for companionship or intimacy. Whether or not these sugar relationships amount to prostitution is hotly debated amongst site members. Seeking Arrangement’s founder and CEO, Brandon Wade, does not let this criticism bother him at all and notes that they stress relationships that are mutually beneficial. Despite the debate, sugar daddy sites are having no trouble finding their place in the online dating market.

Several websites have recently launched new applications for Facebook. GenePartner, which matches people based on their DNA, announced GenePartnerID, and Facebook users will now be matched against others using this online application. DateRaters.com announced 3 new applications. One allows users to hurl harmless digital pastries at  friends. The second is called Closure and invites users to get things off their chest. The third is called Rate Your State, and encourages users to answer the question “How are you feeling” and their answers are posted onto their walls or sent to friends.

eHarmony is being hit with a lawsuit in Los Angeles, claiming that the site is luring in members by promising to match them using a scientifically proven matchmaking system, while in reality that technology does not exist. Two female plaintiffs claim they were duped by eHarmony because the company did not actually use any meaningful measures to provide them with matches, and one of them was hooked up with a scam artist. A spokeswoman for eHarmony said the accusations were bogus and they would vigorously defend the case, but would not elaborate. Several readers commented on OPW, including Dr. Helen Fisher from Chemistry.com who stated that “eHarmony does not disclose their matchmaking process” and “ANY scientist who wishes to be taken seriously shares their methods and results.” We will keep a close eye on this case and bring you updates as they become available.

Perhaps our most controversial item of the week was the debate over Compatible Partners being in violation of Scripture. In a letter to Neil Clark Warren, Peter LaBarbera wrote, “You have now officially joined the list of Companies Promoting Immorality”. Peter is president of Americans for Truth, a conservative Christian advocacy group that feels that Compatible Partners is violating Scripture, which labels homosexuality as a sin. We received quite a few comments on this post, and it turned into quite the intellectual debate with no clear winner or outcome. Arguments came in from all sides and viewpoints. Sam Moorcroft from Christian Café stated that “just because something is “in” or “modern” doesn’t make it moral” while Bill Smith argued back that “just because something is condoned or condemned by human history doesn’t make it right.”  The Chairman of Manhunt provided additional commentary.  Proponents for both sides weighed in and fantastic arguments were made both ways. We’ll keep you up to date on further developments from Compatible Partners and how well they fare in the coming months.

CNN recently reported that matchmakers are thriving during this economic slump. Founder and CEO of LifeWorks Matchmaking, Ann Robbins, stated that “people shift their focus in times of uncertainty to the things that are sustainable and the things that get them through, and that always comes down to relationships.” Her clientele doubled in the first quarter of 2009 as compared to the previous quarter. The report also noted that online dating sites are doing well for the very same reason.

Next we bring you a story of geek love online. Lillie and Hawkins met four years ago on Second Life, a 3D online virtual world that lets users interact with each other through avatars. Before they had ever seen or heard each other’s real voices, they got married – in Second Life. Lillie lives in California, and Hawkins in Wales. They did finally meet in 2007 when Lillie was asked to come to the UK as part of a web documentary about people living lives on the Internet. This is just one love story in what researchers estimate will become an even more popular trend among Internet users. Gartner Research estimates that by 2011, 1.6 billion of 2 billion Internet users will have experimented with a virtual medium like Second Life. If all of these people use virtual currency, who knows what kind of profits these sites will see!

And finally, we at Courtland Brooks are excited to announce our new blog that was launched a few days ago. For those of you who don’t know, Courtland Brooks is a team of 15 Internet dating industry professionals and experienced advisory executives who focus entirely on serving the internet dating industry. The new blog will feature handy analyses and our views on the business of internet dating. We hope you will stop by to check it out!

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. Arrivederci, Buon giorno from Venice.