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OmniDate has landed it’s first dating site as a customer. Ireland’s AnotherFriend now offers virtual dating to it’s 200,000 members.
OmniDate is a mashup up Userplane, IMVU and OKCupid.
OmniDate says that sites that don’t use their system are second rate. Perhaps not the best way to introduce yourself to the industry. That’s desperation marketing, whereas OmniDate needs to be as nice as possible to the dating industry, especially given the fringe nature of virtual dating.
Flash-based avatar chat is interesting and certainly some dating sites will adopt it as an additional feature. As Markus says, virtual chat is a 5% feature, meaning 5% of a site’s membership will use it.
Compete and Quantcast say Anotherfriend has around 6,500 unique visitors a month. That means 325 might use the virtual dating application at AnotherFriend.
I’m talking to a company that has a very exciting demo thats somewhat similar to OmniDate. I can’t talk about it yet but it’s great to see companies offering more advanced communications features.
How does Omnidate make money? They are not embedding ads into their environment yet. Is the dating site expected to absorb the cost?
I haven’t talked to OmniDate in a while so I’ll throw out a few questions that might make it easier for dating sites to understand what they offer.
What is the value proposition to dating sites?
Does virtual dating convert more visitors to members, extend the subscription duration or increase pageviews?
How much does it cost and how complicated is the integration?
Dating sites won’t touch a new feature without having answers to these questions.
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Great questions. You can find an overview of virtual dating on http://www.omnidate.com/partnership.aspx, along with Top 10 reasons to implement this technology. Our integration is “plug and play” and pricing starts at only few hundred dollars a month. Over the coming months we’ll be updating this page with case studies. Meanwhile, we will be presenting some of our preliminary numbers next month at the iDate Conference in London; will you be attending?
It’s good to hear you are working with a company that’s “somewhat similar to OmniDate.” Seeing new companies follow OmniDate into the “virtual dating” space further confirms the view that “virtual dating” is the next step in online dating.
We have not spoken in a while and I would be happy to give you an update, 416-623-7445.
Talk to you soon, Ravit
BTW, just to clarify, Dr. Kotlyar did not say that “sites that don’t use [OmniDate] are second rate.” Rather, he said that sites that will choose not to provide their members the “best communication tools available will be seen as second rate” (http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/news/2008/08/anotherfriend-a.html).
The first major advantage that internet dating sites offered over flat newspaper personal was search. Internet dating sites allowed users to search and find what they were looking for instead of having to skim through ads looking for someone in the right age range, sex, locale, etc.
The second major advantage that internet dating sites were able to offer over flat newspaper personals was communication. Internet dating sites allowed users to email each other, instant message, wink, chat in forums, and message boards. Once they found someone, they were able to communicate in a number of different modes.
There’s room for improvement on most dating sites for both search and communication. Many sites use Userplane or an in-house instant messenger. At its simplest form, I see OmniDate as more interesting then plain Jane IM. It offers an environment. I’m not sure why an internet dater would want to tappity-tap into a box, when they could have a more interesting experience with virtual dating avatar environment. Seems like the next step for IM.
I was a cynic until I tried out OmniDate. I completely didn’t get it. But Ravit showed me and I just found it more interesting than IM. The characters react to the text. They smile and laugh and nod and motion. You can make the characters carry out gestures. There’s a little 10 question quiz both commenters can take in the background. I found the experience to be fun, and dating sites should try and be more fun.
Psismic is taking a ‘fun’ approach. New dating sites are certainly putting more effort into making their sites more alluring and interesting. They have to. SNS are fun, so dating sites need to be as well. OmniDate helps them with that cause. IM is great, but do something more interesting.
Mark Brooks
212-444-1636
mark@courtlandbrooks.com
http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com
Anonymous calling is still the best option by far. If you really want to know more about someone before a date, what beats the phone? Omnidate definitely needs to offer voice chat. Avatars are cute but who has the time? 15 minutes in Omnidate or 5 minutes on the phone?
I agree, Omnidate is fun, but being concerned about the personality and soundness of mind of the other person is not a laughing matter.
I personally don’t want my dating site to be fun. I want it to be effective.
Cheers, Igor
Define successful and it would be good to see a comparison between phone calls and virtual dates.
Your readers may also enjoy this Scientific American article: http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=the-truth-about-online-da&page=4
We have just launched a new site at http://www.cameyeo.com. Our add-on is an online video dating feature that can be used with ANY existing online dating site.
We would be another alternative for those seeking a better communication mechanism.
Dan Wellisch