I’ve been holding back on this for a while now but I can finally tell you a bit about a new site that I think could have a good chance at heralding in the next generation of online dating.
Engage.com Launches World’s First Online Relationship Community Where People Help People Find Love Through Personal Introductions
Press release.
Engage was founded by Suneet Wadhwa (co-founder of Snapfish.com, a recent HP acquisition) and also has industry notable Trish McDermott on board. You might recognize Trish as the previous Vice President of Romance at Match.com.
Disclaimer: I worked with Engage during the launch.
I’m a big fan of the concept of people matching people. There is no scientific testing. The execution looks great and the site is coming out when singles are looking for something different. Features include references, reputation and a built-in Matchmaker community on the site.
Early members who are daters will receive a free six-month membership, a $200 value, with no credit card required to join. It’s free to be an Engage matchmaker.
Check out Engage.com and come back and share your initial reaction here. I’m interested to see what the dating industry insiders think about the concept and the execution..
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{ 10 comments }
Dear Mr. Evans:
In my own opinion, I do not think that persons want their friends / mums / parents / neighbours / relatives to be involved in a private matter as building a personal relationship with future in mind.
A single who wants a “compatible real quality contact” needs professionalism / scientific matching techniques and allowing friends / mums / parents / neighbours / relatives to be involved will add “interested third parties” in a process that only concerns TWO PERSONS.
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Are they well funded to gain critical mass? If they start paying $20 an acquisition like True.com did, be sure to give them our name Dave.
Short answer is yes they are funded to get to critical mass.
Dave is it pretty similar to the old Webwoo? Here’s a look at them from ‘03: (Takes a while to load)
http://web.archive.org/web/20030202132452/http://www.webwoo.com/
Fernando, I am surprised to hear you say that friends and family have no place in helping people find a date. Is that a personal view, a social norm or something else?
Where is it written that singles need professionals to help them find their mates? I’ve never read that is a requirement to dating success except from sites that use scientific matchingmaking as a major marketing point.
Engage, like Consumating.com and Tribe.net, is innovating at a time when most introduction sites are laser-focused on the bottom line and have no desire or resources to “push the envelope” as membership numbers contract at many sites.
I for one welcome sites that takes a chance to apply reputation management, especially when it comes to the matchmaking process instead of relying on third party rate-a-date sites.
Some services are more valuable when tightly integrated, like rating people. Others, like photos or profile enhancement, are better left to partners.
Would you say that the Amazon recommendation engine is not useful because your results are based on the likes and dislikes of other people? Or do you consider the dating space differently?
Whether not not the site is successful, watching how consumer react to a new model where the introduction process is distributed across social networks, from 2 degrees to infinite, will be interesting to watch.
Dear Mr. Evans:
As you said “share your initial reaction here”
The comment was my initial reaction.
You also said “Would you say that the Amazon recommendation engine is not useful because your results are based on the likes and dislikes of other people? Or do you consider the dating space differently?”
I personally consider the dating space differently.
It is good to not mistake:
books, cars, songs, films, things, gadgets recommendation lists
from
persons with high degree to be compatible to others.
With books, cars, songs, films, things, gadgets One can choose-use-and-discard-as-much-as-it-is-wanted.
or One can say:
“Please, give me a cars/houses/books/films/songs brochure, I want to see recommended ones”
With persons: Dating / Matchmaking / Feelings Involved is very different; it is not a “meat marketâ€Â?
Let’s wait and see!!
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Engage is very similar to LoveHappens.com, which was formerly Tickle Matchmaking. I don’t know when Tickle relaunched as lovehappens, but anyone with a Tickle Matchmaking account now has a Lovehappens account.
hmmmm.. I wonder if we are going the whole circle – back to where we started.. way back when the barber was the yenta [ jewish for matchmaker] centuries ago. somewhat tangential – some may call – lateral thought – cant help but say that this social networking thing is all sounding like Indian arranged marraiges – with a difference – brought to a browser near you – courtsey TCP/IP
ajay
So exactly how is this site supposed to help a “matchmaker” fix up two people? There is no better information to go on than a traditional venue such as match.com. There are the same old tired questions. The only thing I like about this is you can make feedback to members – I think that may be the most innovative concept. The match-me-up concept is really questionable — all you’d be matching on is a picture and that’s wholy unreliable online.
no the matchmaker doesn’t match up random photos/folks. a matchmaker matches up two from a list of folks he/she knows and wants to match up, typically friends or friend-of-a-friend
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