GigaOM has details on activity-based matchmaker MatchActivity. I’ve worked with a few similar site in the past and remain somewhat skeptical about how the current crop of services are going to grow large enough to sustain customer acquisition costs. I use Upcoming.org, a Yahoo property for all of this. Millions of events, huge traffic drivers and social networking built in. This doesn’t mean there is room for competition.
Tagging and Ajax are good things to have, but these user experience features have nothing to do with the business model.
Om says:
The flip side is, that these start-ups will have to figure out a low-cost way of building traffic, and figure out how to build a profitable franchise. Exits-via-acqusitions by big boys are an option, but its like betting on Portugal to win the World Cup.
I couldn’t agree more.
The reliability rating looks promising. I’ll be signing up for a few things to see how the whole process works.
Rapleaf + Opinity + Craigslist/Upcoming = MatchActivity.
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This is a decent concept, but I think it’s crazy to think that people will sign up just for an activity, without any interaction beforehand. Our “group dates” feature is very similar to this, however it brings in the comfort of a group of people, not to mention a higher probability of safety. I think a lot of women would be afraid to just meet some stranger without some interaction first. Our concept will be a more casual way to meet people, similar to speed dating, but without the time constraint, and uncomfortable atmosphere.