OkCupid Developing Facebook Application

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I had a great conversation with OkCupid’s Sam Yagan last week. Sam had this to say about social networks and the Facebook application OkCupid is developing:

OkCupid.com has always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the social networks. Our user-generated content is syndicated across sites like MySpace and LiveJournal which in turn drives tremendous traffic back to OkCupid.com. Our F8 app will take that model to a new level. The key to a successful app is that it promotes something (a) free and (b) fun – and OkCupid is the only dating site with that compelling combination.

I’m getting more calls from dating sites asking about Facebook applications. The idea that a dating site can tap into 30 million people by creating a basic application had dating site executives wondering how they can take advantage of the inexpensive traffic. There various tips and pitfalls to pay attention to when developing Facebok applications.

A look at the 100+ dating apps on Facebook shows that not all implementations are equal. In fact, most stink, thrown together in a few days, difficult to understand and suffering from a lack of interest, as everyone is busy with the Slidem HotorNot and Rockyou applications.

Most dating sites want to know how to take advantage of the potentially massive amounts of traffic a popular application can drive to their site without spending the millions that Match, True and Mate1 are on traditional social networking advertising. I’m here if you want to Talk.