Internet Dating Video News Summaries

Internet Dating Video News Summary #12

Weekly News Summary 9 Oct 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.

Let’s start with the bad news about Userplane. The IM guru will no longer support a free, unlimited service starting November 6th.

The good news is that Userplane will instead be introducing a low-cost, all-in-one-package. This will include their Webmessenger with Presence Bar, Webchat with Minichat and Webrecorder, Desktop.

Here's an interesting little side story. Toksta, a Userplane competitor, has changed its name to Stickapps.com, in response to an alleged trademark infringement. Stickapps is for sale and will probably sell for a low six figure amount very soon.

Moving on, it’s time to bid adieu to BBW Personals Plus. The dating site for plus-sized singles has re-launched as MoretoLove.com. Despite the new name, the system and features have remained the same. MoretoLove is run by Spark Networks. Company president Greg Liberman said in a press release "MoretoLove.com isn't just about body type. Our members want to find people who want more out of life and have a lot more love to share."

Now, it’s time for our weekly hook-ups and break-ups recap. There could soon be a new power couple over in the mobile dating sector. Flirtomatic is set to announce a major deal with a U.S. carrier, according to the Daily Finance. Signs seem to suggest the carrier is AT&T, since their ex-exec Gary Cohen now works for Flirtomatic as the VP of North America. Flirtomatic has pulled in $15 million in revenue from its social network and sales of virtual goods. The company has $11 million in venture backing to date and expects to turn a profit by next year.

There's no break-ups to report this week, but there is news about one scientist who is trying to break down eHarmony’s secret matching formula. eHarmony’s mathematical algorithm pairs up members based on their responses to a 258 question personality test. The site is now trying to figure out how their algorithm correlates with physical chemistry. Singles come into the eHarmony lab in Pasadena, California. They then go on mini-dates, and their body language is monitored. The findings are then cross-referenced with the daters’ responses to the eHarmony questionnaire. Among the constants in their research, physical attraction, they say, is a poor predictor of long term relationship success.

To watch this full report from ABC News, head over to opw1.com

Watch out for our review of the eHarmony test vs The Compatible Partners test. That's coming up on the weekend. The conclusions were pretty straightforward. The two tests are indeed near identical, but we did tweeze out a few differences.

That’s all for this week’s Online Personal Watch’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 #6

Online Personals Watch Weekly News Summary, May 11th, 2009 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo.

Welcome to the Monday May 11th Online Personal Watch Weekly News Roundup. I’m Mark Brooks, we're at Kings College in Cambridge, England, and this is what made industry news over the last several days.

Several dating sites have been launched this week, including eHarmony’s new site Compatible Partners. For a limited time, Compatible Partners is offering a free 6 month membership to anyone who joins. SNAP Interactive also announced the beta launch of their stand alone site for Are You Interested, which is currently available through Facebook as well as on the iPhone. MatchMakingInc.com is a new site for single entrepreneurs and business owners who want to meet like-minded singles. They also offer a number of live speed dating events hosted across the country.

Matchmaking website BharatMatrimony plans to grow by about 50% this year and will expand its online matrimony services to a couple of south Asian markets. The online matrimonial site is considering tapping countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, where the institution of marriage is quite similar to that in India. Most of the company’s services and business models that have been successful in India will be replicated in these foreign markets. BharatMatrimony recently launched the religion-based matchmaking services ChristianMatrimony and SikhMatrimony in addition to personalized services for the super-rich and celebrities called EliteMatrimony and BharatMatrimony Privilege.

Rumors have come in from multiple sources now that Userplane, the world’s premier social software provider for online communities, is closing up shop. It’s too small for AOL to consider selling, and apparently not worthwhile for them to continue running. Companies like Toksta and Ekko.tv stand to benefit from the void Userplane will leave. We received a number of comments on this post, including one from Jason Grunstra who stopped by the Userplane offices in Santa Monica this week to find all the doors locked and not a person in sight. Felix from Toksta also commented and invited Userplane members to a 15 day free trial at Toksta as well as a 10% lifetime discount for current Userplane members if they sign up by May 15. All signs point to Userplane being well on its way to gone, but we will keep you informed on any further information that pops up.

In 2007, OkCupid founder Sam Yagan decided to launch a marketing campaign in the form of a website called CrazyBlindDate.com to help drive traffic back to OkCupid. It did not go well in the beginning, but after it launched in New York, Boston and San Francisco, the media began to take notice. By early 2008, OkCupid had doubled its monthly userbase to about 2 million, with just over half a million active daters. CrazyBlindDate has become a dating site in its own right, and matches up singles for short-notice blind dates the same night. Yagan says he will continue to expand the CrazyBlindDate network and has tentative plans to integrate the two sites so users can access the CrazyBlindDate platform from OkCupid.

It's certainly not unusual for people to look for romance online. But should prisoners have the right to do just that? Thousands of them, many who will spend the rest of their lives in prison, have personal ads looking for love. But some family members of victims say that is just not right. Prisoners, themselves, are not allowed access to the Web, so they pay an Internet company to post the ad for them. Women either write directly to the inmate in prison or the company forwards the message. Some sites do include the crime the inmate committed, but not "Hot Prison Pals." Founder, Sam Wagner, said anyone who may be thinking of writing to inmates should do their own homework. The courts have repeatedly ruled that inmates have the right to send and receive mail, but many of the victim’s families feel that someone is put in prison to be punished for a crime, not to make new friends.

And finally, WealthyMen.com made news recently when one of the stars of the reality show “Real Housewives of New Jersey” planned to meet a potential new boyfriend she found using the site. Her date, who goes by the screen name “Guccilove”, sadly stood her up at the restaurant. Wealthy Men is a site for women looking to meet men who make over $100 grand a year. Perhaps she will have better luck next 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, from Kings College Cambridge, good afternoon.

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.

Internet Dating News Briefing #1

Online Personals Watch News Summary #1, 4 3 09 from Mark Brooks on Vimeo. 

Hello, and Dobry Den, we're in sunny Prague today on the very day that Obama is here.  Prague is one of the most romantic cities in the world, so its an appropriate place to kickoff these weekly news summaries. Welcome to the very first Online Personals Watch Weekly News Roundup, this Friday 3rd April, 2009. I’m Mark Brooks, and this is what made industry news this week.

Skout, which last year changed its business model and joined the growing wave of companies trying to turn smart phones into dating devices, has plans to change their free service into one that requires a $5 to 10 monthly subscription fee. Though adoption of mobile dating has been rather slow so far, Skout is hopeful that the iPhone is going to help change that, and bring the instant gratification provided by their product into more hands and onto more phones.

In other news, Mobestar, which provides white label technology and mobile content for dating sites, announced that they are opening a new office in Central London following a successful relaunch of the business in February. Mobestar closed up shop in December 2008 after some financial troubles, but reappeared last month after an apparent sale of the company. Though they have a new location, neither the new technology nor clients they are promising have appeared anywhere on their website.

Nightline recently reported that though the economy is hurting, subscriptions to Match.com are up 20% over last year with eHarmony doing just as well. Not surprisingly, free dating sites are doing even better. It seems that people are looking for a partner to ride out the recession with, and since they are not out spending as much money in shops and restaurants, they have the time and extra cash to look for love online. Is the industry still up? Are YOU seeing year over year growth, or are revenues sagging? Your comments please.

In response to discrimination litigation, eHarmony launched their new same-sex dating site this week called Compatible Partners. Though some are skeptical that the site will actually work, since the compatibility questions are only slightly adapted from those on eHarmony, the site has a lot of potential. Undoubtedly it will be very closely watched in the coming months.

Online fraud is up. The Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3, is composed of the FBI, the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. IC3 saw an unfortunate rise in the number of Internet fraud complaints last year, after two years of declines. 33% more complaints were received by the group in 2008 than the previous year. Total losses from these cases of fraud are estimated to be about $265 million.

And of course, in the spirit of April Fool’s Day, OPW posted a number of mostly daft but somewhat plausible  headlines and stories relating to the industry. ChristianCafe acquired JDate and called their new site The Crusades; we covered White Label Dating’s launch of a new online dating site for dogs called fluffHarmony.com. Also eHarmony's partnership with Ashley Madison, and Plentyoffish opening a customer service center in Mumbai. My favorite April 1st gag has to be Steve Wozniak's new movie trailer, Footloose. See the link on OPW to see the video.

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 with Online Personals Watch. Nashledanou from Prague.