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, and messmo Media.
Spark Networks financial stats are in for 2009 and here are the results! Spark Networks revenue for the fourth quarter of 2009 averaged in at $11.1M, with a 16% decrease compared to $13.2M for the fourth quarter of 2008.Revenue for the full year was at $45.4M which also decreased from $57.3M the prior year.
The average paying subscribers for the company, as a whole, in the fourth quarter of 2009 was 168,646, which decreased 5% compared to 177,011 for the fourth quarter of 2008.
The fourth quarter revenue for Jewish networks was $7.1M, at a decrease of 11%. Q4 revenue for general Market networks was $477,000, at a decrease of 63%, and Q4 revenue for Other Affinity Networks was $3.0M, at a decrease of 15%.
PE firm, Great Hill Partners, is currently working on making Spark Networks private. Great Hill initially bought a minority stake in Spark Networks in late 2005, and now owns about a quarter of the company’s stock. Great Hill is offering to buy the shares it does not own in a deal that would value the company at roughly $64M.
Moving on, EasyDate’s numbers are certainly on the rise. EasyDate boasts over 7M members, across a wide range of websites. 1.5M new members signed up in the second half of 2009 alone. According to Bill Dobbie, the company’s chairman, the company recorded £2.8M in profit on a £12M turnover on its last accounts, and expects turnover to reach about £20M this year.
Casual dating website First Affair is also growing at a steady pace. The website has obtained ~900K members so far since its initial launch in 2008.
Just in case you missed the announcement, Smartdate managed to raise €1.7M with European VC 360 Capital Partners. The estimated €2 million amount of seed funding will mainly be used to market the service, as they have an objective of one million users before the end of the year. Smartdate’s intent is to use Facebook Friends as a criteria for dating searches.
SeniorPeopleMeet.com recently launched a new magazine. SeniorPeopleMeet.com Magazine is a free online magazine designed to serve the particular needs of singles within that community. The magazine should enable all senior singles to benefit from the latest dating tips, trends, and topics that are unique to them.
Match.com has officially retired the animated Jack and Jill lovers that have fronted its advertising for the past five years. Their new campaign features a trendy couple who find love singing as an unlikely duet. The new campaign was estimated at around £7m.
Finally, we have a plethora of interviews for you to check out this week! Head over to OPW1.com and look for our interviews with Bradley Boyd, CEO of matrimonial website SetForMarriage, posted on March 8th, Dave Wilkie, CEO of virtual dating service Weopia posted on March 2nd, and CNN’s interview with Jim Houran of OnlineDatingMagazine.com posted on March 5th.
This edition of Online Personals Watch’s Weekly News Roundup has been sponsored by iTelebill, and messmo Media.
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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.