With Valentine’s Day around the corner we decided to look into Love Apps and investigate the Business of Mobile Dating.

We will cover these topics and many more:

How to start a dating community from scratch?
Which features monetize most?
How long is the life time of a user?
Which days are most active?
What business model works best, subscription, ad supported, fremium?

Panel:

Romain David – Co-Founder – Meexo, http://www.linkedin.com/in/romaindavid

Neil Goldberg – CEO – Handmade Mobile Entertainment (Flirtomatic, Chaarmd and Take Me Out Flirting), http://www.linkedin.com/in/ondemandmediagroup

Sophie-Charlotte Moatti – Co-founder & CEO – Rendez Vous Labs,
http://www.linkedin.com/in/scmoatti

Steve Paddon – Vice President of Products and Services – Trilibis Mobile (Match.com), http://www.linkedin.com/pub/steve-paddon/0/5aa/524

MobileMonday Silicon Valley – Love Apps – The Business of Mobile Dating
Monday, February 6, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM (PT)
Palo Alto, CA

Registration.

Related posts:

1. Mobile Dating Apps Capture More Flirting Time Than Online Sites
2. Assisted Serendipity Blows The Doors Off Mobile Dating Apps
3. Trip Hawkins gets mobile dating

A great time was had by all at the eAmore Dating Industry Summit in New York. 150 people got together in Brooklyn to listen to dating industry executives, startups, financiers and vendors.

Overall, I was pretty pleased with the event. The main gripe was that the schedule ran too long, and this will certainly be addressed at the next event. From my perspective this was easy to overlook while engaging with a roomful of bright young and passionate dating entrepreneurs for a few hours at a hip event space under the Brooklyn Bridge.

I felt like an elder statesman. Some presenters were 12 when I started covering the dating space. I ended up spending a lot of time on stage and tried to educate and provide perspective by sharing what I’ve learned working with dating sites over the years.

One issue that was continuously reinforced throughout the night is that entrepreneurs tend to avoid focusing on previous attempts in their market. This can be useful if they leverage their myopia in positive ways, or may lead to pain-inducing times if they don’t understand how the market has evolved. That’s where I can help.

Some of my rapid-fire “state of the dating industry” presentation ended up repeating key points Sam Yagan made in his keynote. Example: Social exhaust data is interesting in dating profiles but no one is leveraging it to its full capacity. Mobile is easy to get into, difficult to succeed. The Q&A with Sam was super, he is one of the nicest and smartest people in the industry. We could have listened to Sam talk for an hour straight, he’s that good.

Here’s part 1 of a recap for those of you who were unable to attend. Leave a comment if you have found other write-ups of the event and I’ll add at the bottom. Speaking of attending, people came from all over the US and several people who went to iDate LA came to eAmore on their way home which was great!

As an optimist cynic who thinks he’s heard it all, I learned an incredible amount from some very bright people hell-bent on changing online dating for the better.

The event turned me on to a number of new concepts based on previously-attempted ideas that failed to get significant traction in the marketplace. Examples: mobile matchmaking, white label providers, introduction services and dating site meta-search. Reality is that sometimes it takes a few iterations of an idea for it to take off. Society has to be ready, technology advances, having enough money, the right founders and team and plenty of luck are required to succeed in the dating industry.

Mobile was a hot topic. Most services had or are planning some sort of mobile apps. HowAboutWe talked about their new mobile app.

Andrew Weinreich, founder of mobile dating service MeetMoi was the moderator. Kudos to Andrew for his efforts to keep the event moving along and insightful Q&A sessions.

Parlor.fm is soup-to-nuts voice-based social networking. Almost too much to comprehend in a quick demo. Founder brought LoveDetect to market, a concept I love to this day.

LoKast, creators of disposable social networks impressed. Great for parties and events.

MeepMe has a new take on flirting at events. Lots of UPenn/Wharton people at the event.

A Small World-inspired Invite-only services like Refreshing Note and Clique NYC caught my attention. Great examples of leveraging local networks and the social graph.

I enjoyed finally meeting Lori from Cheek’d. She has great energy and while I was lukewarm from the start on “dating business cards”, her foray into Facebook is worth paying close attention to.

Moonit is based on better relationships through astrology, and does a good job masking the new-age feel of most astro-based services. They have a new API available to dating sites. I can’t believe I didn’t get a chance to say to Dana, who I’ve spoken with a number of times but never met.

Same goes for so many people. I was on stage too much and didn’t get to mingle enough until the very end of a long night. If I didn’t get a chance to say hi, please don’t take it personally. I’d love to talk with you if you are doing something interesting in the dating space.

Spent time with Kareem Ahmed, the founder of Inbox Cupid, a Groupon-style service where members are the deal of the day. I am totally bullish on the concept, huge potential. I would be surprised if the company didn’t attract investment interest in the near future. Kareem called me the Simon Cowell of the dating industry. I’ll take that as a compliment.

Special thanks to Adam Ludwin at RRE Ventures for talking about some of his criteria for investing in dating-related companies. RRE’s money in HowAboutWe is being put to good use. There has been a lot of discussion in the crowd about if suggested date ideas are a strong enough driver of growth.

One key indicator that HAW is on to something is that dating sites are copying the idea.

eFlirt Expert’s “How to pick a dating site” eFlirt Engine service won my vote for most likely to succeed. Built in a “startup weekend” environment, singles need a place where people can go to select the dating site that is right for them.

I love Lokast and a few other demos were great, but there are 60 million people not dating online in the US and we need to get people educated and comfortable with online dating. Then they can go hog-wild with mobile apps and Twitter and all the rest. Plenty of room for new and novel startups, that’s for sure.

Luv@FirstTweet leverages Twitter to build your profile on the go and then match you with other people. I’m slowly warming up to the idea that Twitter can play some sort of role in the matchmaking process.

MyYearbook and Hotlist both talked about social sites with a dating component. Hotlist is a social discovery engine that enables you to view where your Facebook friends and crowds have been in the past, are checked-in right now, and plan to go in the future. MyYearbook, which has that Myspace feel it it, gets over a billion pageviews/month.

I’ll follow up with some more thoughts on eAmore in a follow-up post. Did you attend? Leave a comment and let us know what you thought, it will help us improve the next one.

My hat is off to Maria for putting together a solid event, thanks for all your effort. I’m already looking forward to the next event. In the meantime I’ve got some smaller get-togethers and webinars planned, stay tuned.

No related posts.

In the last few years I have found myself seeking balance and understanding in my life. Along this path I have tried yoga, several different types of energy work, meditation and the usual stack of self-improvement books.

Along the way I came across something called Binaural beats, which help induce relaxation, meditation, creativity and other desirable mental states. Centerpointe Research Institute offers a program called Holosync based on binaural beats.

I’m on their newsletter list, and received the following on Valentine’s Day.

Do you want to make 2011 the year you finally find your true love? If the answer is yes, I’m excited to share with you a special announcement that everyone who’s looking for love needs to hear.

It’s called The Ultimate SOULMATE Summit and it’s being hosted by two of my dear friends, who also happen to be two of the world’s leading experts on attracting love – Arielle Ford & Claire Zammit.

You’ll learn first-hand from experts like Dr. John Gray, Debbie Ford, Dr. Helen Fisher, Gay & Kathlyn Hendricks, Katherine Woodward Thomas, Alison Armstrong, Christan Carter and more.

Never before have so many experts in the field of love and relationships gathered in one place to help you discover exactly what you need to do to overcome the barriers that are keeping you from attracting the love of your life.

You’ll:

* Finally take the guesswork out of finding a Soulmate!

* Discover a simple series of proven steps that you could take  to attract a loving, committed, sacred partnership, not just with anyone, but with “the one.”

* Learn these time-tested secrets from 21 of the world’s top experts without paying a dime

You can read all about it and register for free today.

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Loopt Says:

Fish are going belly-up, and it’s raining dead birds (in Arkansas, Louisiana and even Italy, oh my!). We can’t help but ask, “should we worry?”* Well, if it is the end of the world, we better try and go out with a bang. Here at Loopt, we thought we could make this a bit more fun.

Now through next Monday, Jan. 17, Check In at your favorite bar or restaurant on Loopt with hashtag #aFLOCKalypse (and push it to Twitter), and get all your friends to do it too. Whatever place gets the most #aFLOCKalypse Check Ins will get a Loopt-sponsored aFLOCKalypse party with food, drinks (if they have ‘em) and some cool prizes.

More at the Loopt Blog.

This is a great idea, similar to what Foursquare has been doing lately.

How AboutWe, Meetcha PODS, Match, heck even eHarmony could do something fun like this and get a group of singles together in many cities at once. Creative, fun and smart, me like? Could get pretty viral and bring non-members to events to check out the crowd. Its ridiculously easy to set up, what’s to lose?

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The daily email from Urban Daddy caught my eye. Love the nod to OKCupid’s Crazy Blind Date. Meeting people on ski trip, lots of socializing on the slopes and on the bus, sounds like a great time. A+ for creativity and lack of inherent creepiness associated with group dating events.

Introducing Ski Dating, the perfect marriage of skiing and crazy blind dating, now taking reservations for this Sunday at Mt. Snow.

So here’s the itinerary: you’ll rise before the sun comes up and get to the Back Bay by 5am, where a shuttle will transport you and a few dozen other under-45 singles up to Vermont. Your two commonalities: dating people you’ve never met, and thrashing some black diamonds (or at least some deceptively tricky green circles).

By 9am you’ll be pulling in to Mt. Snow, where you’ll be divided into groups of six to eight singles and let loose on the mountain (you may want to use the shuttle ride to start narrowing down your chairlift partners).

After you’ve made an indelible mark on the mountain (as well as the dating pool), you’ll retire to the Snow Barn (think: your typical snow lodge bar) for some après-ski cocktails and appetizers.

Then, it’s back on the bus to Boston, where they’ll have a movie waiting for you, just like ski club.

If you’ll recall, what happens on the bus, stays on the bus.

Trip is hosted by the  Boston Ski & Sports Club.

No related posts.

Back from New York. The meetup was a success, 12+ people showed up and we spent a lively evening at Apple Bar talking about the online dating industry, how startups are changing the game considerably by going after niche markets with new features and functionality and many other topics that I didn’t get to overhear because I was busy jumping from group to group to try and spend time with everyone.

Tobin and Jevaun, Cupids-Lab (check out their party invites); Meir from Date.com, Ross Felix, Dating Revolution; Gordon Gooch, DatingHeadShots; Cliff from SNAP (Are You Interested), Ken Deckinger from Spark Networks (HurryDate); Michelle Shani and Christina from [formula PR] (SpeedDate.com PR firm), Arthur from NewYorkDatingCoach; Charley Miller, GiveAndDate ( launch party May 27)  and a few others who’s cards I didn’t get or they didn’t want to be mentioned – sorry if I left anyone out. I enjoyed being able to match a faces with commenters, thanks to everyone who showed up. There were another 10 people who were out of town or busy that couldn’t make it. We’ll do it again in a few months, with sponsors, more lead time and earlier in the week.

Friday morning I visted with Sam and Vikram at Milabra, their image categorization services are taking shape nicely and the pr0n demo is entertaining. They have some serious H1N1-style flu going around there.

Friday afternoon I headed to OKCupid’s offices, which interestingly enough were previously occupied by OddCast, who’s custom avatar of yours truly has graced the pages of this blog in the past.

After taking in the view, Sam Yagan gave me a tour of the space and we ended up standing next to The Wall Of Stats (no photos, please), a gallery of performance metrics on the wall which tell a very clear story: OKCupid membership, interactivity and engagement are on the rise. When looking at a variety of metrics its interesting to see spikes, drops and other disturbances in activity graphs.

Here is Sam holding up the Sprint ad that ran in most national newspapers as a full-page ad recently. This type of exposure is a major coup for the brand.

I kept on asking Sam what they attributed various disruptions in the graph to. Some are easily explainable when viewed in relation to certain dates, others fall into the “who knows” category. Fun with statistics, advanced edition.

After waiting forever for lunch, I got to sit down with the whole team and talk shop. Employees can sometimes be nervous about open forum conversations with bloggers. big companies always have at least one PR person in the room when I’m on a call with executives. Not so with OKCupid, the dev team didn’t seem to read this blog, which was refreshing and made the ensuing conversation that much more interesting (converts, I hope).

The OKCupid team is heavily skewed towards Computer Scientists and incredibly bright people. Some of them read their email in Pine, which made me smile. They live and die by their stats and are *always* working to improve the site. I was by far the most ignorant person in the room and I learned a lot. It’s good to get out of your chair, hit the streets and see what’s happening out there in the online dating industry. Very different from the experience at iDate, where everyone is pressed for time, deal-hungry and generally doesn’t have the time to sit back, relax and let the conversation flow for several hours.

I’m sworn to secrecy but OKCupid is coming out with some very cool stuff very soon. Hopefully you will get to read about it here first.

Meeting so many intelligent, fun and driven New Yorkers working hard to make online dating a better experience was both humbling and a great learning experience. Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy day to meet with me, talk about their business and tell their stories. That’s a big part of what makes my job satisfying.

I would like to visit more companies like this, thinking about putting together a tour of a few states and a trip up to Canada to have informal meetup, followed by a few visits with companies for informal, mostly-off-the-record lunches. Let me know if you would be interested in participating and I’ll start scheduling the road trip.

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The Online Dating Insider Dating Industry New York City Meetup is taking place this Thursday, May 14 between 6-8pm at Apple Restaurant,17 Waverly Place.

Come mingle with Dave Evans from Online Dating Insider, dating site executives from the New York area as well as others involved in the online dating and matchmaking industry. It looks like some dating executives from out of town will be attending as well.

If you’re in New York City Thursday night, you’re not going to want to miss this fun opportunity to network with other online dating industry folks.

Several people have contacted me privately about the event. Please add your name in the comments so we know who and how many people plan on showing up.

If you get lost, have questions, etc, my email is dave [at] digicraft [dot] com.

See you Thursday!

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OnlineDatingPost is heading down to New York City next week for meetings, a party and some much-needed R&R.

Because there are so many people in the dating industry in New York, and my bandwidth is limited, I am considering scheduling a meetup where anyone who wants to can show up, grab a drink and some apps, talk shop, and share what we’re all doing these days.

To get an idea of how many people to expect, if you want to meet up, let me know via the Contact Form and we can work out the where and when. I’ll pick a restaurant and post the details here.

Attending:

• Tobin Schwaiger-Hastanan, cupidslab
• Jevaun, cupidslab

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Friday night I participated in The Man Panel in Boston. More than 40 people showed up to listen to us talk about online dating. We were fortunate enough to have Sam Yagan, CEO of OKCupid sit down and share his insight into online dating and how OKCupid leverages what they know about members to continuously improve the site. Someone I went on a first date with was at the panel, and an ex of mine just emailed to say that a friend of hers was in the audience. Small world. Thanks to Laura Warrell for setting it up and inviting us to participate.

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I am participating in an event in Boston called The Man Panel, Friday January 30. Sam Yagan, CEO of OKCupid, will be a fellow panelist. We will be answering panel and audience questions, including talking about online dating and how to improve your personal ad. From talking about Revenue Generation at iDate next week to talking to a roomful of single women about online dating, I’ve got you covered.

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