Susan Mernit, who used to run product at Yahoo Personals, had this to say about deal where Match now powers Yahoo Personals.

During the time I was running product at Yahoo! Personals, we had at least 3 different SVPs the unit reported to. Not only did the group get switched around repeatedly, it was clear no one at the top had strong interest in managing this kind of transactional revenue, despite good ROI, strong team, etc.

…And it is a great idea if Yahoo’s best plan is to be an aggregator and make $3-4 MM a year in affiliate referrals via partner payouts for customer acquisition rather than manage greater revenue against greater cost.

But is a great idea?

Not really, But Yahoo! stopped having great ideas a long time ago.

More at Susan’s blog.

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Newsflash: Match.com, an operating business of IAC, today announced an agreement by which Match will become the exclusive online dating site on Yahoo!. Yahoo! Personals users will have the opportunity to move to a new co-branded Match.com experience, “Match.com on Yahoo!” where they will combine with the greater Match.com community. The Match.com on Yahoo! service is available starting today.

Sure enough, the Yahoo! Personals home page is branded as “match.com on Yahoo!” Yahoo.match.com, who would have thunk it?

Several months ago I spent time with someone who put together a deal to acquire Yahoo Personals which fell through. Interesting back-story to say the least. Yahoo owned a (once upon a time) top-10 dating site where they got most of their business from marketing to their own 500 million members and to have to sell it to a competitor. Awkward, oh how the mighty have fallen.

Match, which just got a *lot* bigger, has done deals like this in the past. In November of 2008, eHarmony and Yahoo Announce partnership in Australia. I wonder how Match is going to deal with this?

Yahoo! Personals users will receive special offers designed to help them enjoy all that Match.com has to offer. The two companies are working together to help users easily migrate to Match.com on Yahoo!. Over the next two months, existing Yahoo! Personals members will be given the opportunity to seamlessly migrate their Yahoo! Personals accounts over to the new experience. Match.com on Yahoo! offers compelling features including mobile access, daily personalized matches and robust search tools and will fully replace the existing Yahoo! Personals experience at the end of the transition period.

If you migrate over from Yahoo to Match, let us know how it goes.

Yahoo tried to roll out social services like 360, new profiles and scores of other social services, the majority which have been shut down or buried. It sounds like someone at Yahoo finally decided enough is enough. Fish or cut bait, as they say.

Back in 2008 I said:

Yahoo spent an enormous amount of time and energy upgrading their dating site platform. I spoke with Yahoo a year ago, about the upgrade, back when Susan Mernit was still around. Doesn’t seem like anything has changed in ages. Why go through the process of a massive infrastructure upgrade and do so little with it? At least they can start to achieve feature parity with the competition.

At this point it’s safe to say that Match is the Honda Accord of dating. Nobody else come close in terms of worldwide brand recognition, marketing spend and mainstream advertising (the new commercials are very good.) I’ve known in my gut that Match was going to take the brass ring, just like I knew that YouTube was going to be the big winner in the online video business. Both exhibited traits of winning companies and continued to build upon a strong foundation and make solid strategic deals for the most part (Singlesnet, cough, cough.)

Who the heck is Match going to acquire next? Place your bets in the comments.

Congrats to Match, and if you worked at Yahoo! Personals, contact me for help getting another job in the industry. Better yet, come freelance with me while you figure out your next move.

I hope that someone at Yahoo will comment on this. In the meantime, what do you think the sale price was?

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I created a new Match profile a few weeks ago and still haven’t paid for a subscription. I wanted to see what it was like to receive a number of “taunts” from Match about women emailing me. I am keeping track of each and every “So-and-so sent you an email, subscribe to read it” to see if there is a 1-to-1 correlation between notifications and actual emails from people.

Match has interpreted the results of the recent survey they commissioned in a way that burnishes their reputation as a top dating site.

See How To Lie With Maps:

All maps deceive, says Monmonier, because they must be selective in the information they present: projections distorts, angles or shapes; maps at small scale leave out detail included in large-scale maps; lines must be displaced, smoothed or simplified and area features simplified for readability’s sake. But, he writes, “[b]ecause most map users willingly tolerate white lies on maps, it’s not difficult for maps also to tell more serious lies” (p. 1). The reason for this is that maps have a dual purpose: not only to inform their audience, but also to impress them — to persuade, to make a point, to sell a product. (emphasis mine.)

Putting aside for a moment Match’s interpretation of the survey results, Match was smart to take member survey results and use them in their marketing. The question remains, which is the most effective dating site? We’ll never know for sure, but it is interesting to watch companies awkwardly comparing apples to oranges in their efforts to be perceived as the “best” dating site.

Every few days I receive emails from people who feel they have been overcharged by a dating site. Today I looked at the fine print at Match. After your three-day trial, they charge you $107.94 for a six-month subscription. Didn’t the auto-subscription used to be one month? As a dating industry guy, I understand their motivation to drive subscriptions, but from the perspective of singles this is troubling.

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Several readers have pointed me to this recent statement from Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com.

The dispute comes as Match.com’s traffic has been dropping off sharply, according to comScore. But Blatt calls those numbers “sort of silly,” noting that Match.com recently purchased Singlesnet, which regularly ranks among the top dating sites by traffic, “for virtually nothing.”

Blatt is dismissive of two seemingly obvious holes in Match.com’s portfolio: A free offering and one based on an existing social network. Blatt says free is a “misnomer” since most so-called free sites, including PlentyOfFish, do have paid options. As for a social dating site, like Zoosk, Blatt says it’s a “subscription-based, paid dating site that does exactly what Match does only with far fewer people and not as good tools and features.”  

Besides confusing freemium as subscription paywall, thats some zesty verbiage from Match. I wonder how much “virtually nothing” is? I have heard numbers all over the place from people close to the deal.

Read Match.com’s Dating Stat War Goes Beyond PlentyOfFish.

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Match has release a study, The Evolution of Dating: Match.com and Chadwick Martin Bailey Behavioral Studies Uncover a Fundamental Shift in How People Meet.

Match found that one in five people in new relationships met online. Results also revealed that 1 in 6 marriages are now between people who met through an online dating site – in the last year more than twice that of people meeting at bars, at clubs and other social events combined. This represents an increase of more than 40% over the past 5 years.

The studies reveal that Match.com is by far the most successful online dating service, having led to approximately twice as many dates, relationships and marriages as its closest competitor.

Match PR had this to say when I contacted them about the stats in the study: “Eharmony claims they’re responsible for 236 marriages a day, or 2% of all marriages. Our study found that we’re responsible for 4%.”

This quote from Match CEO Gregg Blatt explains why singles should try Match better than I’ve ever heard it described.

The studies confirm what we have known for quite some time – Match.com is the clear leader in online dating,” said Blatt. “We don’t overpromise. We don’t tell people we’ve figured out the secret to human happiness. And we don’t say we’re the answer. We’re simply a new and effective way to do an old and important thing, which is meet great new people with whom you really have a chance of hitting it off. If you’re single, there is no good reason not to join Match.com. It’s just something a single person should do in addition to all the other things you do to meet people and put yourself in a position to find romance.

Read the full Match.com study. What do you think about the results?

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Can you tell that I joined Match.com again? Lots of changes have happened in the last year, some more remarkable than others. I think its great that they figured out that personalization is important when it comes to member communication. The text under the red line is my membername. What would be even cooler is if the woman holding the card was the woman who expressed interest in me. Why stop at the disembodied hand and stock photography in the background? I’ll be writing up my Match.com “It’s been a long time” impressions soon.

Related posts:

1. Match.com Launches Voter Awareness and Registration Drive
2. Why is this Match.com Member Crying?
3. Match launching member magazine

Several weeks ago I heard from a reliable source that IAC Has Acquired Another Top Dating Site. I’ve known who it was all along, and decided to do the right thing and not mention the name of the company being acquired on this blog. I just heard from Match’s PR team and the public announcement is happening shortly, the big news is that Match.com will acquire Singlesnet. Here are the important parts of the press release:

Match.com, an operating business of IAC (Nasdaq: IACI), announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire Singlesnet, one of the most visited online dating sites in the United States. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.

“Singlesnet has built a heavily trafficked site with an active and dedicated community of users,” said Greg Blatt, CEO of Match.com. “While Singlesnet’s traffic is currently in decline, we believe that by applying our category expertise we can reverse that trend, increase the site’s profitability and improve the overall user experience. This is more of a value acquisition than a strategic one, and Singlesnet will predominantly be run as a standalone business. Nonetheless, the addition of the site’s considerable traffic to our existing aggregation of traffic in this single category should open new monetization opportunities for Match.com’s collective portfolio of domestic online dating brands.”

“Match.com has been the standard-bearer for the entire online dating industry, so we’re excited to team up with them,” said Singlesnet founder and CEO Quinn Lipin. “Singlesnet boasts a vibrant user community where members are constantly emailing and IMing each other, and I believe working with Match.com will enable us to re-start growth in the business.”

Adrian Ong, who joined Match.com from Soulmates Technology, a company acquired by Match.com in 2002, will assume responsibility for Singlesnet. Mr Ong has held various leadership roles within Match.com’s International business, primarily in the areas of product and technology, and most recently has led Match.com’s effort to transition its European business to Meetic in connection with its sale last year. Mr Lipin will continue to work for the company in an executive capacity.

Quinn Lipin is the guy behind the curtain at Singlesnet. Notoriously tight-lipped within the dating industry, the founder of the one-time most-trafficed dating site in the US has managed to sell the company as the serious decline in traffic continues.

No word on the pricing or other details, we’ll update you as our sources check in with us. For more about Singlesnet, read about thehive (website), its parent company. Search LinkedIn for people like Richie John, the Anti-Fraud guy at Singlesnet and other Singlesnet employees. Try searching for Singlesnet here at OnlineDatingPost.com and you’ll come up with a wealth of information about this secretive company that took the online dating industry by storm.

Congrats are in order to Match and Singlesnet. I’m sure there are champagne corks popping all over the place down in Texas with the marketing team all excited about the potential reduction in customer acquisition costs and other benefits that Singlesnet brings to the table.

When the dust settles, a few questions:

How Match is going to siphon off, I mean cross-sell, members from Singlesnet?

Are Singlesnet members a good fit for Match? It’s like going from a horse-drawn carriage to a Ferrari in terms of site functionality and membership base.

Will Match tone down the big boobs and hookup-style advertising that grew Singlesnet?

What was the sale price and how much of it is tied into earn-outs?

What do you think of the deal? Do you think Match should have acquired Yahoo Personals instead?

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During the last year, Match.com has refined and upgraded its daily personalized matching program, The Daily 5. Match.com has introduced several additional matching programs to provide a variety of choices for members and centralized them in one place in the ‘My Match’ area of the site for ease of use.

My Match offers the following programs:
– Daily 5 – Daily introductions to people based on how likely you are to
strike up a conversation together.
– Mutual Match – Daily introductions to a handful of people based on
your stated preferences and their stated preferences.
– Singled Out – Introductions we only make when we believe there is an
especially high likelihood that you will hit it off with the person.
– Like At First Sight – Introductions to people who we think you’ll find
immediately appealing based on your responses to a fun online quiz
regarding first impressions.

I haven’t been a paying member of Match since April of last year, I check in on a friend’s account regularly, plus it’s more interesting to see how other people use Match and I ask a lot of questions about what they think of the service (most of my friends use Match exclusively). It’s time to re-subscribe and check out the new Match features.

Related posts:

1. Match launches $495 Personal Introduction Service
2. Match.com Launches Match My Friends
3. Match.com changes photo access in search results

Match.com announced Q1 2009 financial results today. Don’t worry, It’s Ok To look. Match.com has had a busy past few months. In December, Match.com Experiences Strongest November in Seven Years. With the launch of the Daily5, which introduces five new matches daily to every member, Match.com members initiated 400,000 more connections with other members this November compared to last November. Match members were showing up in Are You Interested search results on Facebook, but that went away quickly as Match rolled out their iPhone app.

In January Match.com Launches Free Online Dating Site DownToEarth.com. In February, IAC Appoints Greg Blatt CEO of Match.com. March saw Meetic and Match.com Announce European Partnership.

Highlights of the financials below.

Paid Subscribers: (000s) 1,438 up 6% from 1,352.

Revenue: $90.1 million, down 1%, about $400,000.

Operating income: $9.9 million, down -2%.

Operating (Loss) Income: $9.7 million up 37%.

Worldwide subscribers grew 6% in Q1 driven by gains in the U.S., the UK and Japan. Match announced an agreement to sell Match Europe for shares of Meetic and a promissory note, with a total current value of approximately $140 million. Will close in June. Match has 27% stake in Meetic.

Barry Diller: “Personals continues to grow and extend leadership.”

Revenue declined slightly reflecting a 15% decrease in revenue per subscriber in international markets, due primarily to the unfavorable impact of foreign exchange rates. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates, international revenue grew and overall revenue grew 6%. International revenue declines were offset by a 9% increase in U.S. subscribers due in part to continuing improvements in features and functionality. Operating Income Before Amortization declines reflect $3.3 million in expenses associated with the pending sale of Match Europe to Meetic (announced February 19), partially offset by lower customer acquisition costs as a percentage of revenue, due to lower partner related costs in the current period. Operating income benefited from a decrease in amortization of non-cash marketing of $2.8 million.

Full IAC Q1 2009 financial report.

The number of subscribers remains flat, it was 1.2 million in 2007. Revenue is the same as 2007 levels as well. International expansion continues, new social features have been added and a new iPhone application has been recently released.

All eyes are on the International expansion war between eHarmony and Match. eHarmony is just getting started and Match is pretty much everywhere they need to be, tweaking the creative, reducing customer acquisition costs and performing all the regular dating site duties across a broad spectrum of markets. I’m especially interested to see how Match approaches the Chinese and Japanese markets.

We’re jaded here in the US, the needle will hardly budge anymore for large dating sites that aren’t actively acquiring new sites. Interesting to see what percentage the UK and Asian markets are of Match’s overall revenue.

Dating is becoming more and more like any sector of the online space, a few top leaders and the rest of the spoils divided up between a few mega niche sites and networks.

There are always plays that come from out of nowhere to command a few hundred thousand members based on small ad spends who basically have a great spider-sense for acquisition strategies and then there are companies like Skout who are taking the mobile dating space by storm.

Smaller dating sites without big bank, great service and unique marketing will continue to have a difficult time attracting, converting and retaining members, recession or not. I expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.

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