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Traffic up 8%, pricing $59, 16,000 marriages, $80 million ad spend. IPO planned. Eharmony has stopped mentioning the number of paying members and instead publishes the number of monthly visitors as the metric. Lame but understandable as their growth has flattened out along with almost every other site in the dating category. Last public figure I read was that Eharmony had 300,000 paying members but that was many months ago.
Eharmony is becoming more blatant about their “acceptable singles” standards. I can understand not letting those under 21 join. But not being able to join the service if you have been divorced more than three times? How are they going to enforce that? They won’t match taller women with shorter men either, and don’t bother if you’re a Log Cabin Republican.
How many married couples will spend $239 on the new marriage wellness program which consists of a 310-question quiz and exercises? That’s a lot more than Match’s FindBindMind.
Employee Discount: The program seems to work. Dr. Warren took his own medicine and found out that after 47 years he didn’t know his own wife thought he wasn’t sharing all his feelings.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Investors could ask:
What could happen if Dr. Neil Clark Warren (71_year_old founder and chairman) suddenly dies?
Will eHarmony be able to survive him?
If they plan to reach the IPO, they should substantiate the matching algorithm == Scientific Papers Available (”…development and validation of online compatibility testing and disclosing those findings for public and academic scrutiny without divulging proprietary information….” )
Also Public Dot Com Companies have to comply/agree/fulfil Sarbanes Oxley Act (aka SOX NORMS)
“International expansion”???
eHarmony works only in English for the United States AND for “Catholic and religious persons”. Uses a proprietary test AND proprietary comparison method between prospective mates (matching algorithm, seems they include an adapted DISC model) invented by Dr. Neil Clark Warren (Psychologist). A person needs to be matched (with other) on 29 dimensions of compatibility.
eHarmony, as many actual online dating sites that use proprietary tests and models, CANNOT change nor ADJUST its compatibility matching algorithm in its huge database. (i.e. cannot add more precision nor more reliability than they actually have.)
eHarmony’s compatibility test CANNOT be simply translated to German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, etc.
Kindest Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
I don’t understand what Eharmony wouldn’t work in other countries. Translation is one part, new questions based on different social mores and cultures is another. They have many millions of dollars, I think they can create another test for large markets.
Careingly,
Anita