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European VC Index Ventures has pumped €15 Million into dating site Be2. The test is mainly based on the “New York Longitudinal Study” about the five factor model of personality development and Sternberg “triangular theory of love.” I took the test. Seemed very basic in nature. Personality testing aficionados, what do you think about it?
The user demographic of be2 is also slightly older, compared to other dating sites, with an age range of 25 – 69 years and a majority of users aged 30 – 49 years. Not a demographic well served by most dating sites. Perhaps as a results of this focus it now has 12 million members in 34 countries and was cash flow positive 6 weeks after a launch, despite having 225 employees.
Pricing:
- $1.00 per month as part of a special offer.
- 3 Months at $64.99 per month.
- 6 months for $38.99 per month.
There is something fishy here, between the number of employees, members and finance situation, things don’t add up.
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Nearly the same story in different countries.
- Argentinean site says
Silvia from Cádiz and Juanjo from Girona
http://www.be2.com.ar/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=91
Cádiz, Girona and Jerez are in Spain
- Chilean site says
Silvia from Cádiz and Juanjo from Girona
http://www.be2.cl/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=96
Cádiz, Girona and Jerez are in Spain
- Mexican site says
Silvia from Cuernavaca and Juanjo from Acapulco
http://www.be2.com.mx/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=66
——————————————————————–
- Italian site
http://www.be2.it/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestories
Luciana, 31 anni, consulente finanziaria, e Sebastiano, 35 anni, architetto
Manuela, 34 anni, giornalista e Max, 36 anni, consulente in proprio
Tina, 33 anni, designer e Christian, 38 anni, commercante di vini
- Portuguese site
http://www.be2.pt/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestories
Carolina, 31 anos, consultora financeira e Sebastião, 35 anos, arquitecto.
Marta, 34 anos, jornalista e Sílvio, 36 anos, consultor.
Tina, 33 anos, designer e Christian, 38 anos, comerciante de vinhos
——————————————————————–
- Brazilian site
http://www.be2.com.br/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=57
- Argentinean site
http://www.be2.com.ar/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=90
——————————————————————–
- Colombian site
http://www.co.be2.com/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=445
- Spanish site
http://www.be2.es/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=205
——————————————————————–
- Colombian site
http://www.co.be2.com/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=442
- French site
http://www.be2.fr/guest/lovestories.jsp?page=lovestory&storyid=279
——————————————————————–
and many more!
Does Be 2 think persons are stupid?
Be2:
Fee is USD 240 per year.
Be2 uses a Pseudo Normative Personality Test in different languages.
http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=be2scshotxw1.jpg
Results are points in bars and compatibility is expressed with a “be2 Index”, a 3 integer figure, like 105, 67, 92, etc. It resembles WeAttract’s tests and results.
http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=be2resultsyq4.jpg
As Parship, Ulteem, Corazona and others, reverse engineer (whith dummy profiles of men and women I had invented and used as tests points) clearly shows the whole precision of Be2’s matchmaking process is less than any person could had achieved searching by his/her own!!!
As Parship, Ulteem and others, there is not any Scientific Paper PEER REVIEWED that substantiate “be2 is the professional, scientifically based personal introduction service for creating lasting relationships.”
http://www.be2.com/tourpage/page1
http://www.be2.com.au/tourpage/page1
“be2 is trusted by millions of people on 5 continents”
http://www.be2.com/tourpage/page1
“be2 is trusted by millions of people on 6 continents”
8.161.973 registered members! 13 May 2008
7.951.773 registered members! 02 May 2008
http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=be2scshot02mayka6.jpg
Diff: 210.200 nearly 19.100 new users per day? Seems as inflating.
12.319.994 registered members! 12 Nov 2008
12.319.994 – 7.951.773 == 4.368.221
4.368.221 / 164 days nearly 26.635 new users per day?
How many of them are subscribers?
How a prospective client could differentiate Be2 from Ulteem and Be2 from Parship? They all three have a whole precision of their matchmaking algorithms less than any person could had achieved searching by his/her own!!!
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
from Buenos Aires. Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Nearly the same story in different countries.
- Argentinean site says
Silvia from Cádiz and Juanjo from Girona
lovestory id=91
Cádiz, Girona and Jerez are in Spain
- Chilean site says
Silvia from Cádiz and Juanjo from Girona
lovestory id=96
Cádiz, Girona and Jerez are in Spain
- Mexican site says
Silvia from Cuernavaca and Juanjo from Acapulco
lovestory id=66
——————————————————————–
- Italian site
Luciana, 31 anni, consulente finanziaria, e Sebastiano, 35 anni, architetto
Manuela, 34 anni, giornalista e Max, 36 anni, consulente in proprio
Tina, 33 anni, designer e Christian, 38 anni, commercante di vini
- Portuguese site
Carolina, 31 anos, consultora financeira e Sebastião, 35 anos, arquitecto.
Marta, 34 anos, jornalista e Sílvio, 36 anos, consultor.
Tina, 33 anos, designer e Christian, 38 anos, comerciante de vinhos
——————————————————————–
- Brazilian site
lovestory id=57
- Argentinean site
lovestory id=90
——————————————————————–
- Colombian site
lovestory id=445
- Spanish site
lovestory id=205
——————————————————————–
- Colombian site
lovestory id=442
- French site
lovestory id=279
——————————————————————–
and many more!
Be2:
Fee is USD 240 per year.
Be2 uses a Pseudo Normative Personality Test in different languages.
http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=be2scshotxw1.jpg
Results are points in bars and compatibility is expressed with a “be2 Index”, a 3 integer figure, like 105, 67, 92, etc. It resembles WeAttract’s tests and results.
http://img248.imageshack.us/my.php?image=be2resultsyq4.jpg
As Parship, Ulteem, Corazona and others, reverse engineer (whith dummy profiles of men and women I had invented and used as tests points) clearly shows the whole precision of Be2’s matchmaking process is less than any person could had achieved searching by his/her own!!!
As Parship, Ulteem and others, there is not any Scientific Paper PEER REVIEWED that substantiate “be2 is the professional, scientifically based personal introduction service for creating lasting relationships.”
Australian Site
“be2 is trusted by millions of people on 5 continents”
Main site
“be2 is trusted by millions of people on 6 continents”
8.161.973 registered members! 13 May 2008
7.951.773 registered members! 02 May 2008
http://img528.imageshack.us/my.php?image=be2scshot02mayka6.jpg
Diff: 210.200 nearly 19.100 new users per day? Seems as inflating.
12.319.994 registered members! 12 Nov 2008
12.319.994 – 7.951.773 == 4.368.221
4.368.221 / 164 days nearly 26.635 new users per day?
How many of them are subscribers?
How a prospective client could differentiate Be2 from Ulteem and Be2 from Parship? They all three have a whole precision of their matchmaking algorithms less than any person could had achieved searching by his/her own!!!
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
There seems to be nothing particularly special, innovative or effective about this approach. Sternberg’s model is well respected, but it seems infeasible to match strangers on its components since Sternberg’s model describes drives/processes that are at play in existing relationships. Thus, it’s more a model for relationship maintenance than initial compatibility per se.
Matching people strictly on personality is ineffective/misguided since there are no predictable patterns in this respect. Reviews of research show that couples show little to no similarity in their over all personality structures. Thus, there can be diverse patterns in personality between two people and yet a relationship can still thrive.
Thanks,
James Houran, Ph.D.
http://www.OnlineDatingMagazine.com
So could you specify a little bit what your really wanted to telly our readers? and do you really think you can compare be2 with OKCupid?
sehpferd
fromGgermany
A dating site with 225 employees that’s cash flow positive 6 weeks after a launch is troubling. If that doesn’t bother you, you don’t know the industry well enough.
I mentioned the funding because I found it remarkable on many fronts. That’s all I wanted to say in the post.
I will argue the issues when I know more about the company. Happy to hear your side of the story.
I compared them because OkCupid raised $6 million to start the site and they have around 600k monthly visitors. Merely trying to see how funds raised correlates to visitor traffic over time.
This site isn’t a startup but probably the third or 4th biggest paid dating site in the world.
If they could actually grow that fast, they’d own the world.
What do you mean they own non-english markets? Are there stats to back that up? I hear they want to go after Meetic, but really, is that even possible at this time?
10 million is about a Month of Match marketing dollars, is that really going to make a dent?
I’ll admit, some of these “large” multinational sites make it under my radar, amazing what’s happening in other countries and how little is known about them. Try to Google Be2, practically nothing show up.
When you compare the Compete stats of one site vs. another they are likely counting US traffic only. Since Be2 is new in the US their stats are reporting very small compared to okCupid.
I know that Comscore reports US traffic seperate from their other reports which you can get by subscribing to their metrix from International markets.
According to their press release they launched in 2004 so the company is not new. I am inpressed by how many languages Be2 is translated into, I also think that the design is very nice.
But like you I am surprised by the fact that they have 225 employees. I’d be interested to hear what all of these employees do.
They also claim to be signing up 20,000 members a day. I’m curious how this traffic breaks down between all of their markets.
Why don’t you see if they will do an interview with you. Very few people in the US are familiar with them, it would be good PR…
please ask him about:
- Be2 service under fraud investigation in Mexico and Spain, seems they have some denounces in consumer associations. [You can use Google/Yahoo and search: Be2 + fraude]
- Who are the brains behind its personality test? Who validated it and how? If Be2 is going to publish a Scientific Paper to substantiate its matching method.
- How many of Be2 12.500.000 members are paying subscribers? and how many are scammers?
- How a prospective client could differentiate Be2 from Ulteem(Meetic), Parship or iLove?
They offer nearly the same, a Pseudo Normative Personality Test in different languages and low precision in their matchmaking process.
- Why Be2 post fraudulent lovestories?
Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
Sincerely,
we started be2 with 2 people in the garage, put our website life in Germany, and where indeed cash flow positive within 6 weeks.
Already 3 months later we launched the first international markets (Spain and Italy) and continued to grow out of our free cash flow.
Only during 2007, we decided to take on first external funding to accelerate our growth.
Now, 4.5 years (not 6 weeks) later we are 225 people working for be2, covering 34 countries on 6 continents.
We typically add between 15-25,000 new members every day, bringing the total number to over 12 million members worldwide now.
A look into ComScore, NielsenNetratings, even Alexa would show that the numbers do add up and should not be fishy. Of course be2 has also 34 different domains to better serve our local markets, so any query on alexa has to be done domain by domain (be2.com only shows what we are currently testing in the US market).
Hope this additional information helps
robert (be2)
How to get international traffic stats without paying Comscore? (way too expensive.)
I have sent numerous emails informing them I wish to cancel, with no personal reply, sickening, such a scam.
Dr Robert Wuttke seems a sucessful, respected buissnessman, I wonder if he’s aware of the way in which the company are financially conning the public?
Why dont you clean up your act be2.com and stop raiding peoples bank accounts.
“Our most popular membership, the 6-month premium membership costs $233.94. Or use all of be2s services with our smallest package: 3 months for just $194.97!”
Yikes !!! That’s pretty expensive for a run of the mill dating site. I wonder if they just charge in Euros, and that’s gotten expensive due to the strength of the Euro compared to the dollar.
I immediately reported this breach of security to be2 through the customer service link on their website, and sent another message the next day. Still have no response from them.
First, I should note that I DID hear back from be2.com’s customer service department overnight, and they apparently are investigating what happened. There is no way that the person who sent me the message got my information from anywhere other than be2.com.
Second, I had picked up from the above posts that there is a difference between be2.COM and be2.NET, the latter being your company. To be clear for everyone, my problem was with the former, be2.COM.
Third, there is a be2.RU website, which other than being in Russian, looks identical to the be2.COM website. I presume that is related to be2.com rather than be2.net?
Sorry for any confusion or consternation caused by my previous post.
By providing be2 with payment information, you authorize and instruct be2 to bill your credit or debit card account for the amount of the fee payable for the Services you ordered, and to bill your account again prior to the expiration of the current term of the subscription for these Services,
You didn’t read the fine print. I’m not saying the billing situation with dating sites couldn’t use a major overhaul, but complaining because you didn’t read a web page close enough is not a great excuse.