Online Dating Insider

Welcome!
Online Dating Insider delivers cutting-edge insight and commentary on all aspects of the online dating industry. Topics include industry news, site reviews, emerging trends, analysis of dating site features, discussion about safety safety, finance and other issues important to the online dating market. Don't miss our Tools & Services directory, useful to anyone running dating or social networking sites. Subscribe to the RSS feed (you can subscribe via email as well). Your comments and suggestions for stories are welcomed.

Press Release has full details.

Revenue up a paltry 1% for 2005.

Loss of $6 million in 2004 to a profit of $6 million in 2005.

Total operating expenses down 10% to 10.8 million.

JDate revenue up 10% to $6.8 million. 73,000 singles, up 8%.

JDate is saturated, they have to increase ad spend to go to after non-web channels. Up 15% to $12.25. For the year, SAC (subscriber Acquisition Cost) was up 57%. JDate may be a verb, but growth is clearly stalled.

American Singles got hammered, 30% decrease in subscribers.

AmericanSingles revenue down 22% to $6.7 million.

AS SAC was flat in Q4 04 vs. Q4 05. 19% decrease for the year.

Reduced marketing spend for AS resulted in 3% revenue decrease to $16.6 million.

Double-digit SAC decrease overall across all business lines.

Spark runs an additional 25 relationship sites that are never mentioned. These 25 sites are responsible for 4Q revenue of $3.1 million, up 41%. This includes MingleMatch.

To be clear, the new technology platform is for reducing costs, not scalability, as CEO David Siminoff would have us believe.

The generic cookie cutter look & feel doesn’t do it for me. Worse than FriendFinder Network or Relationship exchange. The sites look cheap and lack any personality. Several sites still need to be ported over to the new system.

Average paying subscribers for the Company’s JDate segment were 73,700, during the fourth quarter of 2005, an increase of 8%, compared to 68,500, from the same period in 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2005, average paying subscribers for JDate were 70,500, an increase of 1%, compared to 69,800, for the year ended December 31, 2004.

Average paying subscribers for the Company’s AmericanSingles segment were 91,900, during the fourth quarter of 2005, a decrease of 29%, compared to 129,400, from the same period in 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2005, average paying subscribers for AmericanSingles were 105,300, a decrease of 21%, compared to 132,500, for the year ended December 31, 2004.

Average paying subscribers for the Company’s Other Businesses segment were 58,600, during the fourth quarter of 2005, an increase of 88%, compared to 31,100, from the same period in 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2005, average paying subscribers for the Company’s Other Businesses were 44,200, an increase of 86%, compared to 23,800, for the year ended December 31, 2004.

Average paying subscribers for the Company, as a whole, in the fourth quarter of 2005, were approximately 224,200, a decrease of 2%, compared to 229,000, from the same period in 2004. For the year, average paying subscribers were 220,000, a decrease of 3%, compared to 226,100, for the year ended December 31, 2004.

Direct subscriber acquisition cost(4) (SAC) for the Company’s JDate segment in the fourth quarter of 2005 was $12.25, an increase of 15%, compared to $10.68, from the same period in 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2005, SAC for the Company’s JDate segment totaled $12.70, an increase of 57%, compared to $8.09, for the year ended December 31, 2004. “SAC metrics for JDate are not an apples-to-apples comparison when you consider the marketing mix has shifted from a primarily online, direct marketing effort to one that now includes a wide mix of offline initiatives focused on continuing to strengthen the JDate brand,” stated Siminoff. “Because of these efforts, we proudly feel that, within the Jewish community, JDate has become a verb.”

SAC for the Company’s AmericanSingles segment in the fourth quarter of 2005 was $36.66, compared to $36.52, in the same period in 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2005, SAC for the Company’s AmericanSingles segment totaled $35.16, a decrease of 19%, compared to $43.29, for the year ended December 31, 2004. The decrease in SAC for AmericanSingles is a result of the re-orientation of the Company’s marketing program during 2005, which resulted in a reduced AmericanSingles marketing spend.

SAC for the Company’s Other Businesses segment in the fourth quarter of 2005 was $29.73, a decrease of 11%, compared to $33.51, from the same period in 2004. For the year ended December 31, 2005, SAC for the Company’s Other Businesses segment totaled $32.05, a decrease of 8%, compared to $34.74, for the year ended December 31, 2004.

SAC for the Company, as a whole, in the fourth quarter of 2005 was $27.78, a decrease of 5%, compared to $29.37, from the same period last year. For the year ended December 31, 2005, SAC totaled $28.36, a decrease of 16%, compared to $33.85, for the year ended December 31, 2004.

Technorati Tags: spark+networks

• Spark Networks 1Q 05 Financials
• Spark Networks 1Q 2007 Financial Results
• What’s Happening At JDate
• Spark Networks Second Quarter Financials
• Spark Networks, Making More While Making Less