True.com interview with OPW

Mark Brooks interviews Herb Vest over at Online Personals Watch. A little less fluff than the last interview with PerfectMatch CEO. High point of the interview- Vest now wants dating sites to label their personality tests as “fun” or “serious.” Did I read that right?

True is Mimicking Eharmony’s goal of lowering divorce rates. Vest knows that they will never beat Eharmony at the “serious dating” game. Now they’re going after guys with cleavage shots in all their ads. How is addressing the market for casual dating going to reduce the divorce rate?

Vest is unable to clearly define the difference between True and Eharmony when asked point blank.

He fumbles while trying (I think) to say that True is for less serious daters.

I would like the industry to look at compatibility testing on a more professional level. I’d like to see these tests certified against principles set up by professional psychologists. I think the public is going to wake up and feel duped unless we conform to professional standards.

The bickering about scientific matching is getting old. Time to retire that horse, Herb. I welcome an attempt by an industry coalition to form a committee to develop professional standards for matching, testing, etc but it’s most certainly not going to start with True. The industry wouldn’t stand for it.

Why does the industry need parity in testing? Each site is free to interpret how people measure up to potential mates, that’s what gives each site it’s own personality.

I wish Dr. Mark at WeAttract would chime in on this. I am a big fan of their tests, the user experience is superb, fun to take and informative, you really learn something about yourself at the end. And, their results are directly integrated into Yahoo! Personals search results. Thomas and some other companies are coming on strong as well, expect new tests to show up on dating sites over the next few months.

The final kicker- Vest now identifies True as a relationship company. They have plans to enter European market. They’re going to introduce pre-marriage counseling, self-help guides and conflict resolution services. That’s a lot of new ground to cover and I don’t see the benefit of offering services like that as a way to increase their customer base.

The True-Eharmony-PerrfectMatch battle rages on. Spark is quiet due to their quiet period, not that they would jump into the fray. FriendFinder doesn’t bother getting involved with these situations, better to keep raking in the cash and letting their competitors shoot themselves in the foot.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Relationship Exchange as the merger progresses.

Lot’s of site are on the block, people know it’s time to get out before the going gets tougher. Customer acquisition deals are on the rise for those with the stamina and funding to make go of it . A few new services are launching soon, some of which will fundamentally change how introduction services work.

Should be an interesting summer for those that can weather the lean months.

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Related posts:

1. True.com: Hot but Virtuous
2. True.com’s Pert Advertising
3. True lobbying efforts
4. Match and True outgrowing their digs
5. Forbes Interviews True.com Founder

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