Online Dating Insider

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Online Dating Insider delivers cutting-edge insight and commentary on all aspects of the online dating industry. Topics include industry news, site reviews, emerging trends, analysis of dating site features, discussion about safety safety, finance and other issues important to the online dating market. Don’t miss our Tools & Services directory, useful to anyone running dating [...]

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Match has hit the wall in terms of US growth, continuing slight increase in revenue per subscriber. 1% subscriber growth to 1,326,500.
Revenue growth was driven by a 4% and 15% increase in international subscribers and revenue per subscriber, respectively, and 3% growth in revenue per subscriber in North America where subscribers were flat year-over-year. Chemistry.com [...]

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Two big fundraising events in the past week have occurred.
First, online videochat service WooMe has raised $12.5 Million. That’s an enormous amount of money for a videochat site, but after having a conversation with CEO Stephen Stokols I’m pretty confident that they know exactly what they are doing. The Series B round was led by [...]

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European dating network Parship has doubled revenue to $46 million Euros in a single year.

Until recently, premium matchmaking services were viewed as a niche segment of the mainstream online dating market, which is dominated by players with big TV campaigns and even bigger boasts about their membership. It is now apparent that the market is [...]

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Markus points out an article about OKCupid in INC Magazine. This is a great overview of free dating and how difficult it is to compete with subscription sites like Match.com that pay $50 for each new subscriber. Founder and CEO Sam Yagan is quite open with how much he spends on marketing for OKCupid.
Link love [...]

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SPARK NETWORKS REPORTS FIRST QUARTER 2008 FINANCIAL RESULTS
So much for Mark Brooks saying niche sites are growing more than mainstream dating sites, Yes I am green with envy of his TechCrunch connection. I have a lot to say about the post, which will have to wait.
Onward to Spark, let’s dig into the details in [...]

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Spark Networks earnings call is scheduled for 1:30PM PST today.
Call Title: Spark Networks Q1 ‘08 Financial Results Toll-Free (United States): +1 800-355-4959 International: +1 416-695-9719 In addition, the Company will host a webcast of the call which will be accessible in the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website at: http://www.spark.net/investor.htm.
A replay will begin approximately [...]

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Revenue
Q1 2008 90.5, Q1 2007 82.4, Growth 10%
Operating Income Before AmortizationQ1 2008 10.1, Q1 2007 8.4, Growth 21%
Operating IncomeQ1 2008 7.1, Q1 2007 8.2, Growth -13%
Revenue growth was driven by an 8% and 12% increase in international subscribers and revenue per subscriber, respectively, and 6% growth in revenue per subscriber domestically where subscribers declined slightly. [...]

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Dating site owners, time to polish up that P&L statement and start buying massive amounts of traffic. Judging by this job posting, eHarmony is gearing up for a buying spree. Good timing, I’m doing due diligence on a number of dating properties at the moment, I wonder what the parameters are for an eHarmony acquisition?
Why [...]

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Question for matchmakers — what kind of insurance do you carry to protect your business? Is there a specific insurer that is matchmaker and/or dating site friendly, who understands the specific risks you face? Also, what type of corporate structure have you implemented? LLC, S or C corp? This could be a great example of [...]

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