In November 2005, Court Rye wrote a Match.com case study. I stumbled across it doing a random Google search for industry information. His portfolio states he worked with Match.com employees to identify alternative business strategies, marketing techniques, and technology related opportunities and proposed RSS integration and chat room facilitation with sponsored events as a means of increasing customer interaction and retention.
Weighing in at 21 pages, there is a lot of information about business models, early corporate history, affiliate networks, and details about their IT infrastructure that is sure to make Markus crow about ineffective use of IT resources.
There are some good ideas here, and some not so much. Nothing we haven’t discussed here ad nauseam. For example I’ve mentioned dating sites utilizing RSS feeds a few times and the notion of a smaller, fresher database has been around forever.
Good food for thought if you run a dating site.
Related posts:
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
In between Gary Kremen owning it and Barry Diller/IAC, Cendant owned it. That part of the story is missing
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D01E6DA133EF93AA25756C0A96F958260
Overall it’s a nice piece of reading…Match has certainly done a great job.
Hi David, thanks for referencing my Match.com case study. I’m glad it got you thinking a bit and it sounds like you have had similar thoughts on improving the model. Meir, I appreciate the background link at NY Times.
I found the Online Dating Insider blog as a result of someone else reading my case and emailing me. Jason Tarlowe, CEO of Online Singles LLC creator of Matchdoctor.com had contacted me about it. I’m glad to know people are enjoying it and I really do appreciate the reference :)
I’d like to take this opportunity to promote another project I’m currently working on with independent college student artists. It’s called ABSTRACTmall.com and it’s an online ecommerce site built as a platform/community to build credibility and cross pollinate customers. I’s almost like a matching service for indy artists and the corporate world, pairing community with shopping… I’d love your feedback!
In conclusion… I met my girlfriend on Match.com and we are both very happy. Online dating has been a great thing for me, having recently moved from Colorado to California and then all over the Silicon Valley area.
Rock!
Court, I will check out Abstract. I recently met someone on Match as well, online dating does work if you work it.