Internet Dating Video News Summaries

Internet Dating Video News Summary #34

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 messmo Media.

According to ComScore Online Personals sites grew in popularity during the month of February, with a 5-percent increase to 24.2 million visitors. eHarmony ranked as the #1 personals site during the month, and attracted 5.0 million Americans alone. Match.com sites ranked second with 3.4 million visitors. PlentyOfFish.com attracted 2.8 million visitors, followed closely by SinglesNet with 2.6 million.

eHarmony recently invested in German dating site eDarling. eDarling was founded in the summer of 2009 and carries an estimated value of around 15-20 million EURO. eHarmony supposedly acquired 30% of the company as a result of the investment .

Match.com has officially launched an app for Android. The app gives users the opportunity to find their soul mates right from their Android handset. The best part is the app is free to download.

Australian dating site RSVP recently launched a new campaign focusing on RSVP’s dating success stories. The campaign known as ‘Everyday Moments’ features real life couples sharing their relationship experiences and success stories. The new campaign will see 15-second vignettes online and televised nationally.

According to studies by comscore, Canadians are the world’s most active online daters. Canadians supposedly spend more days a month and minutes per day on dating sites than users in the U.S., U.K., France, and Germany. PlentyofFish is one of the most popular dating sites benefiting from Canadian daters. The site recently surpassed 105M logins in one month with as many as 1.5M people visiting daily, and as many as 380,000 messages being sent between members hourly according to Markus Frind.

UK based dating site BeNaughty.com has been growing rapidly over the past couple of years. The website has officially reached 3M member profiles.

Online dating for single seniors has also seen a substantial increase lately. According to the latest DatingData poll from SeniorPeopleMeet.com. 43% of single seniors named the internet as the best transformation in regards to dating and communication.

Dating service GameCrush has launched a new service to help connect male Xbox fanatics with game-playing females. Featured dates cost 400 GameCrush credits which can only be bought in batches of 500 for $8.25 USD. The service currently boasts ~1,200 profiles and hopes to expand to other game consoles in the future.

Cinema chain company Cineworld is partnering up with Easydate to form a new online dating service called Back Row Dating. The service will offer an innovative feature to help single movie lovers meet their perfect partner through similar taste in movies.

The official iDate Awards video is now live at iDateAwards.com. You can see all the award winners there, along with some video of the event itself.

Last but not least, the International Marriage Brokers Bill could seemingly prevent online dating sites from running gender specific pricing schemes.

According to Legislative staff member, Lisa Baugher, "the term “international marriage broker” does not apply to an organization that does not charge a fee based on gender or country of origin to any party for the services provided. This would apply to temporary promotions offering different pricing schemes based on gender or country of origin as well." It wasn’t specified whether or not the regulations will have an impact on a “ladies night” event in real time.

This edition of Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by messmo Media.

Make real money with mobile dating. Talk to Brendan O’Kane of messmo Media.

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 Video News Summary #33

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 iTelebill.

Plentyoffish.com recently made a surprise appearance in Lady Gaga’s music video for “Telephone,” Which premiered on a Thursday of this month. The appearance was the result of ongoing talks with Gaga’s marketing team at Universal Music to find the right project. Plentyoffish supposedly saw a 15% increase in search by the close of the following business Friday. It has not yet been determined if the product placement has increased traffic of the website.

eHarmony has posted a job opening for an app writer. The job will require a Mobile Engineer to create a mobile-consumer application platform from the ground-up. The app will cater to the iPhone and other devices alike.

eHarmony also recently closed the doors on its marriage counseling feature. The marriage feature now reroutes to eHarmony Advice. eHarmony Advice is an innovative feature that offers dating advice for real people seeking love and better relationships, and it’s free to join!

Match.com has inked yet another deal with Australian web publishers. Match has added Yahoo!7 to its existing partnerships with eBay Australia and NineMSN. Match.com will be the exclusive dating partner of Yahoo!7 in Australia. The two companies will team up to launch a new dating service on Yahoo!Xtra in the New Zealand market.

Moving on, iovation was named a finalist by TechAmerica Oregon for the 2010 Oregon Technology Awards. iovation was nominated in the technology-service company of the year category. This year’s winners will be announced at the Oregon Technology Awards event on May 6, 2010 at the Portland Art Museum in Portland.

Online Matrimonial site, SetForMarriage.com, is looking for funding if you have $500k to $1M handy. The website started about 6 months ago and has seen positive signs for growth. SetForMarriage takes a niche approach but unlike eHarmony, does no match making. Marriage minded users can create free profiles and browse for matches.

Buyer’s interested in Sex.com will have to wait for their chance to bid on the coveted Internet Property. The initial auction was postponed after the previous owner, Escom, was forced into bankruptcy court by a group of creditors.

Law offices of Howard G. Smith is investigating potential claims against the board of directors at Spark Networks. The investigation is related to a proposal by Great Hill Partners,to acquire Spark Networks. Under the terms of the proposed transaction, Great Hill Partners would acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of the company that they do not currently own, at a cash price of $3.10 per share.

If the transaction takes place, Spark Networks would no longer be a public reporting or trading company. The investigation concerns possible breaches of fiduciary duty and other violations of law, related to approval of the transaction by the Spark Networks Board of Directors.

Gays are “grinding” with the latest verb in the gay lexicon. The term “grinding” refers to the newest gay dating app for the iPhone called Grindr. The app uses GPS technology to download hundreds of pictures of available men within walking distance. As of this month, Grindr has 500,000 users worldwide, with 2,000 more joining daily. The free version of the app is supported by ads, and the $2.99 monthly ad-free version allows users to view twice the number of men.

Last but not least, a hearing on Senate Bill 129 is scheduled to be heard by the Economic Matters Committee, on Wednesday, March 24th. The hearing is in regards to the ongoing fight against the International Marriages Brokers Bill.

The Bill’s passing would prevent Maryland Men from associating with foreign women without legal preparations, which could render problems for the online dating industry. If you’re interested in fighting the Bill, Maryland local, Michael Parrotte, will be compiling and delivering letters for the cause. You can reach Parrotte with your letter of opposition at [email protected].

This edition of Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by iTelebill.

iTelebill – The mobile and voice payment specialists for all your online & micro billing payment 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.

Internet Dating Video News Summary #29

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.

Internet Dating Video News Summary #28

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.

Internet Dating Video News Summary #26

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 messmo Media.

Real Simple Magazine recently ranked four of the most popular internet dating websites in what could be considered a battle of the titans! Here are a few of the stats:

• Plenty of Fish came in at number 1 with free membership, 3 million users per month and a 12 minute registration time.
• Match.com is a close second with a membership fee of $30 a month, 3 million users per month, and a registration time of 15 minutes.
• True.com came in third with a membership fee of $50 a month, 2.5 million users per month, and a registration time of 10 minutes.
• eHarmony came in fourth with a membership fee of $60 a month, 2 million users per month, and a registration time of 25 minutes.

Moving on, the parent company of extramarital websites AshleyMadison.com, CougarLife.com, and EstablishedMen.com is pushing for IPO! Avid life Media has raised $60m and is pursuing a listing on the Toronto stock exchange. Avid Life Media posted $30 million in sales and $8 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization in 2009.

Match.com recently launched a new relationship website. While Match.com focuses more on dating and allowing members to look around for suitable partners, their new brand MatchAffinity takes a more scientific approach to match making. Each user takes a simple psychometric style test and will then be matched with other members on the site based on a percentage compatibility ratio.

iovation is very successfully fighting internet crime. The website stops over 30,000 fraudulent activities per day to be exact. The provider of reputation services for preventing online fraud and abuse has announced monthly recurring revenues are up 50% since the beginning of 2009. iovation has performed 2.7 billion reputation checks on behalf of customers, processing nearly doubled in 2009 over 2008.

Now for our hookups and breakups.

Lovestruck.com partnered with Fetch Media to manage their mobile media strategy and advertising campaigns. Lovestruck.com matches daters whose offices are located close to each other in order to meet for coffee, lunch or after-work rendezvous. Boonex, meanwhile, has teamed up with Messmo for their mobile offerings. Thanks to messmo, sites can now easily extend the reach of their existing member-to-member communications through the use of mobile messaging.

Just in case you missed the announcement, WhiteLabelDating.com is now offering profile matching technology to all of its partners and brands looking to build online dating sites after signing a deal with IntroAnalytics. The technology matches member profiles based on implicit behavior as they move around the site, rather than relying on the user’s preferences or questionnaires.

Finally, here are the winners for the first ever 2010 iDate awards:

• Zoosk took home 2 awards for the best up and coming dating site and best mobile dating site
• Match.com also took home 2 awards for best dating site design and best dating site
• eHarmony won best marketing campaign
• FriendFinder was announced best affiliate program
• PayPal was named the best payment system
• iovation was acknowledged for best new technology
• OKCupid won an award for most innovative company
• Cupid's Coach Julie Ferman was awarded best matchmaker
• and White Label Dating snagged the award for best dating software provider

Congratulations to our winners!

This edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by messmo Media. Make real money with mobile dating. Talk to Brendan O’Kane of messmo Media.

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 Video News Summary #22

OPW Weekly News Roundup - December 10th, 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 messmo Media

Mobile Dating is growing gangbusters now, and it’s all about location. iPhone apps abound, and smart phones, led by the iPhone are driving internet and social dating into ubiquity at last. In a 2007 review the global mobile dating market was pegged at £200M in worth. That figure rose to £332M worldwide in 2008 and is expected to more than double over the next five years reaching £784M by the year 2013.

Ashley Madison, the actress, is suing the website of the same name for the humiliation she has endured because of AshleyMadison.com. But now the website is suing her in return for using their trademark to “inappropriately garner goodwill” to support her acting career. How can they possibly do this? Well, Ashley Madison, the actress, has apparently only been using the moniker as her stage name since, 2005. Ashley Madison have had their name trademarked since 2002.

Hey, I came across a handy little social media monitoring tool that you may want to use to see how your name or brand name, is fairing in the social media-sphere. SocialMentions.com measures the strength, sentiment, passion and reach of keywords that you can type in to the site. Check out our post on Online Personals Watch on the 15th of December for the results that we got when we typed in 17 different internet dating brand names. eHarmony, Gaydar, and Hotornot were the strongest of the brands we measure, meaning they were the most likely to be being talked about at any one time. Zoosk was by far the most likely brand to have people saying nice things about them, apparently. Anyway, give it a shot, measure your social media prowess at SocialMention.com, and post your comments on OPW pretty please. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this tool, and any other social media monitoring tools you know of.

Need a new COO? Sandra Williamson, the former COO of TRUE is on the market. We’ve listed her email and Linkedin contact on OPW so you can contact her directly.

Now for hookups and Breakups!

Spark Networks has launched spark.com as an amalgamation of American Singles and date.ca and they’ve thrown in some magic potion. A compulsory compatibility test. All members must take a free Color Code Personality Test. Online Personals Watch is interviewing the president of Spark Networks and the interview will run in January. We’ll be asking about this new site, and asking about the sites that they acquired, Engage.com and Hurrydate.com. So, watch this space.

London based development partnership Luvdoo teamed up with Redberry Digital Agency to launch a twitter based dating service called Luvtweets. Luvtweets allows users to define themselves in their own terms; using a user defined tagging system rather than the traditional pre-defined criteria of dating sites. The service intends to utilize the Twitter API and include new functionality to tackle some of the documented issues with current online dating services.

Blackbox Republic has joined forces with several venues around the world such as Vibe Entertainment, Concept Entertainment, Subspace, Skin, and Paradise lounge to present entertainment features to it s members. In exchange, entertainment partners will gain access to the “create once, promote everywhere” option. This value will greatly reduce the investment of time needed to post event details on several locations across the web. Just in case you missed the announcement, Blackbox Republic just recently debuted as a “label free” dating website.

As a reminder, the voting for the iDate awards is now also open! You have until January 7th to get your voting in. Let your voice be heard. Submit your picks for the best dating site, best matchmaker, best dating software provider, most innovative company and more. Awards will be handed out in a special ceremony on Jan. 28 in Miami.

That’s all for this week’s news roundup. To listen to our interview with the the Founder and CEO of Manhunt.net Jonathan Crutchley and Adam Segel, head over to OPW1.com.

This edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by messmo Media. Make real money with mobile dating. Talk to Brendan O’Kane of messmo media.

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 Video News Summary #20

OPW Weekly News Roundup - December 3rd, 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 ads.pof.com.

Jeff Ullman, is arguably the 20th century’s most successful matchmaker and he’s on a mission to save relationships and make “happily ever after” a reality. He is doing so by teaming up with his wife and Co-Chief Cindy Ullman with the creation of HappierCouples.com.

Did you know that 50% of U.S. marriages are ending in divorce with a whopping 75% of America’s 168 million spouses claiming to be ‘unhappy’ after 10 years or less of marriage? The website seeks to stem this unfortunate rising tide of unhappy marriages in the 21st century by infusing happiness back into relationships with all-inclusive online marriage counseling.

Happiercouples.com has three levels of services that are intended to educate and empower, and most notably has 1,000 hours of custom produced relationship videos from numerous relationship experts. Pricing and membership categories consist of happy, which is free, happier for $19.95 a month, and Ecstatic for $99.95 a year.

More than 27,000 single Americans responded to People Media’s Dating Data poll. 51% of respondents indicated that their attitude toward dating has not wavered at all despite the recession. The rest were not so sure.

24% said that they would not date anyone unemployed

17% said they are less motivated to date

6% view dating as a way to network for job opportunities

eHarmony has recently announced that they’re hooking up with Donat Wald for the launch of a new TV advertising campaign.

Donat Wald has been the creative force behind eHarmony’s television commercials since 2002 and will be heading up the campaign and he plans to continue featuring real eHarmony couples.

The agency founder believes that, “The challenge is that the public today is inundated with ‘fake real’ content, with so-called Reality TV, sponsored blog posts, and publicity stunts.” With thousands of success couples expressing interest in the commercials, eHarmony intends to spruce up the campaign with a different format in hopes to debunk the overall skeptical view of online dating.

This of course, is also going to help promote the entire concept and industry that is online dating. So, thanks eHarmony.

Congrats to London based dating agency Dinner Dates, who recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Founder Hillie Marshall has played cupid for more than 20 years and first came up with the concept in 1989 following her own divorce. Marshall has hosted thousands of singles events and played a helping hand in 150 weddings. fyi, after 20 years of success and finding love herself through Dinner Dates, Ms Marshall has decided she would be willing to sell the company to the right buyer.

Perhaps we’ll see her at the buyers and sellers session at iDate Miami in January.

The real world service VirtualDatingAssistants.com has decided to open up its doors to accommodate time-strapped women. The company has enabled men to outsource online dating since June of 2009. The company’s assistants handle everything from profile creation to online interaction, and ultimately bring online dating offline for a price of $480 a month. Now they will assist women.

Finally as a reminder, you have until January 7th to get your voting in for the 1st ever Internet Dating Industry Awards. Let your voice be heard. Submit your picks for the best dating site, best matchmaker, best dating software provider, most innovative company and more. Awards will be handed out in a special ceremony on Jan. 28 during the 7th Annual Internet Dating Conference in Miami.

This edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by ads.pof.com. Now you can place your highly targeted internet dating ads directly on Plentyoffish.com.

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 Video News Summary #18

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.

Internet Dating Video News Summary #17

OPW Weekly News Summary November 12th, 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.

Hitwise has released their online dating rankings for October. In the United States, there was no change in the order of the top 10. PlentyofFish remained #1 in total site visits. Match came in second, followed by Singlesnet, Yahoo Personals, DateHookup, eHarmony, Adam4Adam, TRUE, SeniorPeopleMeet and BlackPeopleMeet.

Yet abroad, the big mover and shaker was Indian dating site Shaadi. In just a month, Shaadi leapt from #21 to #11 in the U.K. and #16 to #9 in Canada.

Also on the rise: Canadian versions of mainstream U.S. dating sites. While Match.com stayed steady at #4, Match Canada jumped up from #14 to #8 and Yahoo Personals Canada rose from #13 to #10. 

October in Canada was not as kind to Christian Mingle and Singlesnet. Both sites plummeted five spots over the course of the month. Christian Mingle dropped from #7 to #12 and Singlesnet fell from #10 to #15.

There was more bad news for Christian Mingle. The site’s parent company, Spark Networks, reported revenue in the third quarter dropped by 21% to $11.1 million. That’s down from $14 million from the same period last year.

Paid subscriptions are also down by 12% from the third quarter of last year. Spark’s number of paying members now stands at around 187,000.

In terms of net income, Spark raised $1 million in the third quarter of 2009. That’s 5 cents a share. In comparison, Spark in the third quarter of 2008 brought in $1.7 million in net income, or 8 cents a share.

In addition to Christian Mingle, Spark also operates several other targeted sites, like BlackSingles and most significantly, their hallmark Jewish dating site, JDate. For more information on Spark’s third quarter results, visit opw1.com.

European dating network Meetic also published an earnings report this week. During the first nine months of 2009, the company was able to consolidate activity at Match International. In turn, Meetic’s revenue grew approximately 21% to 117.2 million Euros. In the third quarter alone, Meetic earned 47.1 million Euro in revenue and acquired 25,000 subscribers. For a more detailed look at Meetic’s recent earnings report, also head over to opw1.com.

Perhaps Spark and Meetic could increase their revenue by focusing on senior singles, a group now totaling 16 million, according to Senior-Dating.org. The site predicts that number will likely double within the next 30 years.

eHarmony’s membership statistics certainly support this prediction. The Detriot Free Press reports that eHarmony saw a 20% increase in users over 60 during the first quarter of 2009, compared with the same time last year. Another interesting statistic -- 40% of seniors now have a computer at home, according to Senior-Dating.org.

Let’s move on from senior singles and talk about Gelato. No, not the dessert. The new site that combines online dating and real-time search. Gelato users create profiles by importing information from their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Netflix and more. In an interview with Online Personals Watch, Gelato founder Steve Odom explained why he thought his dating site was unique:

“We’ve all heard problems of people fibbing on their profile. Um, and Gelato it’s what you’re actually doing. Its stuff you’re doing at Twitter or Flicker, so it’s more authentic. You get a better idea of, um, who I really am. Instead of thinking about my favorite movies, ah, I can also write about them but also show you what I’ve rented at Netflix. And that tells you more; it gives you a much more richer view of what kind of movies I like.”

Gelato plans to eventually charge for premium memberships, which will include special features like match alerts and profile analytics.

Finally, you have until November 15th to get your nominations in for the 1st ever Internet Dating Industry Awards. Let your voice be heard. Submit your picks for the best dating site, best matchmaker, best dating software provider, most innovative company and more. Awards will be handed out in a special ceremony on Jan. 28 during the 7th Annual Internet Dating Conference in Miami.

This edition of Online Personal Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by Talkster. Talkster, your best option for robust anonymous calling solutions.

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 Video News Summary #13

OPW Weekly News Summary October 16th, 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 begin by clearing up some confusion. Match.com was NOT hacked this week. What set off this false alarm? It started on Tuesday, when Match.com was down, and at the same time corp.match.com was forwarding to the homepage of GPS site Globe Track Wireless. It kinda looked like they had been hacked. The next day, Match set the record straight. The company had been in the middle of an upgrade, and a human error on their end caused the accidental redirect. The CEO of Hausertech commented on OPW and helped provide additional clarification and assurance. So, Match.com was not hacked.

We have an update on the U.S. online dating rankings from September. According to Hitwise, the top five most-trafficked sites remained, in order, PlentyofFish, Match.com, Singlesnet, Yahoo! Personals and DateHookup.com. eHarmony moved into the #6 position, bumping gay dating site Adam4Adam down a spot.

In the top 25, the biggest jumps were Mate1 and Zoosk. Mate1 moved from #15 to #12, and Zoosk rose from #20 to #17.

Mingle2 had one of the biggest falls, dropping from #16 to #19. Also falling three spots was Dream-Marriage.com, from #19 to #22.

Show me the money. That’s probably what some of FriendFinder’s investors are saying. The company had around 81 million dollars in debt at the parent level as of June 30. It also had approximately 442.1 million dollars in debt in connection with its acquisition of Various.

However, FriendFinder Networks announced this week that it intends to finish its IPO process by year’s end. In a press release, the company said “The primary purpose of this offering is to repay some of our outstanding debt, including certain debt held by our affiliates.”

FriendFinder operates the AdultFriendFinder network, as well as about two dozen other dating and networking sites.

While FriendFinder needs money, virtual goods companies could soon be raking it in. A new study shows total U.S. market size for virtual goods will hit 1 billion dollars this year. That’s nearly double the amount from 2008. The report by Justin Smith, editor of InsideFacebook.com and Charles Hudson of Serious Business, also projects that virtual goods sales will reach 1.6 billion dollars in 2010.

Now for our weekly hook-ups and break-ups segment. No break-ups to report this week, only new couples. One is Match.com and Mother advertising agency. Being the good “Mother” that it is, the agency will be reviewing Match’s entire U.K. advertising plan. Match spent 6 million pounds on TV, outdoor and radio ads last year, according to Nielsen.

High-end publisher Conde Nast also had a high-profile hook-up this week. Conde Nast just launched its new dating site, TrulyMadlyDating.com. The site is now teaming up with Glamour.com and GQ.com. The goal is to bring together Glamour’s fashionistas with the clothing-conscious male readers of GQ.

Last, but not least, White Label Dating has a new feature that addresses concerns over outdated profile photos. Users can now upload a photo directly to a partner’s site using their Webcam. The photo is then stamped with a date.

That’s all for this week’s news roundup. For more headlines and to check out the latest iDate job postings, head over to OnlinePersonalsWatch.com. Then 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.