The virtual dating concept has “officially” been around for several years. I’ve been following the virtual dating scene because I think there is something there that some singles will find useful.

Today you will find that there are a handful of companies competing for singles’ virtual dating dollars, ranging from OmniDate’s Flash-based offering to several downloadable applications (Seriously, a downloadable dating client? Get in the browser, quick!)

I’ve wailed on the sector and its participants for years, because as someone who knows a hell of a lot about virtual worlds and what singles want, what I’m seeing delivered is not exactly what singles are clamoring for. Theres a few research reports flying around, but I talk to dating site owners every day, and the truth of the matter is that virtual dating needs to evolve before it starts to really take off, from the dating and and singles’ perspective.

OmniDate, the developer of a plug-and-play virtual dating application for dating sites, understands the concept of evolution. Recently they added a plug-in chat to their offering, which is good news. They also have some new customer wins, which is good for everyone involved. If OmniDate legitimizes the sector and proves that virtual dating works and makes dating sites money, they just might embrace it. Right now the equation is halfway-solved.

I keep reading that virtual dates tend to last substantially longer than chats, with the proportion of virtual dates lasting over 60 minutes being almost twice as high as that of chats. If there are ads in that chat, or product placements or people can click to buy their date a rose or a song or some other bling, we’ve got some revenue flowing, a more interactive exciting environment and something more akin to a win for the dating industry.

Chat is a good start, but let’s remember to keep the ball moving. Trial Omnidate and their competitors, kick the tires, and most of all, tell them what works and what doesn’t. Vendors absolutely need to hear their potential customer’s feedback. It’s not like they build Facebook or Quicken in a vacuum and just rolled it out to the public one day (Well maybe FB). Build, test, fail, iterate, test and eventually it all comes together and everyone is generally satisfied with the results and the service will be adopted. Thats how the Internet works.

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From Online Personals Watch: Omnidate is conducting a study with Professor Dan Ariely into the effectiveness of virtual dating and is looking for dating sites to participate in this research. That’s a smart move to align with Professor Ariely. I’ve read his research and seen some of the demos of their virtual dating application, fascinating stuff and the professor is definitely becoming a known entity in the dating space.

The majority of my business is connecting companies with dating sites. I spend a lot of time getting companies ready to talk to business development executives at dating sites. Value proposition, pricing, features and functionality and many other areas must be addressed before a company is ready to put themselves out there.

Like many of my clients, Omnidate wants dating sites to become customers. The problem is, The ROI on virtual dating, both for singles and dating sites, is unclear. While getting mentioned in a research report is a good idea, it’s perhaps less effective as a business development tool when the company itself is paying(?) for the research. And then there is the issue of research as opposed to real life usage. Do you think any of the applications on Facebook with over 10 million installs would have shown up in a research report as a sure bet? No way.

Usually these types of research reports begin like this:

Company: Here’s a bag of money, go talk to a bunch of people and make sure they say good things about our brand and make sure high ROI is a key finding.

Academic: Ok.

Not necessarily the case here but you get the picture.

Ed. note: Omnidate is not paying for the study.

Omnidate has chosen to put the future of their business in the hands of the online dating sites, much like how the lamprey eel feeds off of host fish. Instead of dating site partnerships, Omnidate should consider marketing direct to consumers, build out a Facebook app, etc. They *could* become a valuable traffic source for dating sites.

SpeedDate relied partially on acquisitions of Facebook applications to drive growth, and Woome relies on direct traffic. The numbers tell the story. Both companies have raised something like $15 million in total, which makes a big difference in terms of marketing and development.
Besides figuring out the channel situation, Omnidate needs to address issues with usability and user experience. All the talk about user engagement, age and gender data means little if people aren’t head over heels about the service.

Here’s what else needs to be addressed at Omnidate in order for it to get traction:

• More fun things to do on dates: games, quizzes and music. License from entertainment companies.
• Additional reputation and ratings features. Keep the scammers away.
• Product placement for additional revenue streams. This date sponsored by Heineken.

Just look at the drop-off in the number of dating sites that use chat. If the experience isn’t fun, safe and effective people won’t use it.

There are lots of great ideas out there that don’t necessarily translate into successful businesses. Perhaps it’s an issue with timing, consumers simply aren’t primed for virtual dating. For example, I’ve been videoconferencing since 1994 and it’s only recently that the concept has become widespread.

I’m curious about your thoughts on the outcome of the study. What do you think they’re going to find?

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I want to give OmniDate a fair shake. I looked at several other Flash-based casual environments and wanted to compare them to the OmniDate experience. Obviously the other sites are not dating-specific, but it’s a good idea to compare and contrast services to understand where this section of the online dating market is headed.

I waited 3 minutes for my date, then several more for the Flash to load, at least I think that’s what’s happening because I have no idea what’s going on. She’s nowhere to be found. Not a great start. Obviously it could be the connection here at the coffee shop, or she is on dial-up in Montana or something. But here I am, in limbo, waiting for my lady friend. I begin to pout.

Is she upgrading Flash? In the bathroom? Heavens, perhaps she is battling a thug during a home invasion? The problem is that I have no idea. Now it says she is no longer connected and I’m being asked to rate my date. WTF?

This was not supposed to be a review of the site. I was sitting here cleaning out my inbox and I received an email from OmniDate that I had a message. The woman was online so I attempted to start a date with her.

10 minutes later, time that I will never get back, and she’s gone and I am supposed to rate her. Huh?

Let me tell a few truths, which have nothing to do with Omnidate specifically. The concept of graduated communication appears sound and I agree with with 100%. The execution at Chemistry, eHarmony and Omnidate remains flawed. But this is a process, we’re not going to get it right the first time and nobody in the industry expects that, but those pesky paying customers, they want everything perfect.

Meeting up in a fun online environment before going on a physical date is going to work for a certain percentage of people out there. Nobody has any idea who or how these services will be used.

In order to become the first company to offer a well-adopted virtual dating service, Omnidate needs a usability expert to go through the system. If this is what’s being pitched to dating sites they want to parter with, I’m not surprised at the overall lack of enthusiasm (that has been shared with me, not accounting for all the happy partners and soon-to-be partners I no doubt expect to be signing up).

Selling a hot concept and tracking poorly on execution is frustrating for all parties. Here’s to Omnidate learning what other companies are doing in the avatar space and implementing best practices.

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Signed up for Omnidate today. Haven’t been on the service for a while and I wanted to see what’s changed since I went on a “date” there with co-founder Ravit Abelman last year.

Compete says Omnidate has about 2,000 monthly visitors. any number under 10k I usual triple, so around 10k visitors. I’m not sure what Omnidate is trying to be at this point. Is it a destination or a service that dating sites can embed or both? As with all startups, there is the official company line and then there is your gut reaction to a service. What does you gut say about virtual dating? Leave a comment.

Facebook applications like SpeedDate and Zoosk can drive people back to their websites from within their applications. I’m not sure Omnidate can do this. If I’m on JDate, could I go on a virtual date with someone from ChristianCafe?

Omnidate has clearly morphed into a dating site and is now competing directly with its partners. Why else would they recreate a complete dating site along site their virtual dating environment? My gut tells me that they are going to link dating profile data with Omnidate profile fields. i’ve never actually seen Omnidate integrated with another site, so I can’t comment on what it looks like. If I fill out a profile on a dating site, that data should show up in my Omnidate profile. Otherwise you end up with a situation like the original Match mobile, which was two separate databases and never really worked.

Interesting that Speeddate and Woome are getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors and “dates”. The 18-30 crowd isn’t afraid of webcams and the free voyeurism can’t be beat. Is Omnidate going to benefit from the recession? Is it limited to people who have trouble with first dates? What other factors suggest that the overall market for virtual dating is in fact smaller than expected?

I see complete profiles, reputation tools, hotlists, search and most other common dating site features. Do I go to OkCupid, Match or Omnidate?

Upcoming features include the ability to tack your dating site headshot on your avatar. I can’t wait to see what that looks like.

I wish Omnidate was a Skype plugin, that would be cool. Once you chat via avatars, you can go right to voice and video.

Dating sites can integrate Omnidate, starting at $500/month. That right there excludes 90% of the dating market, so they’re going for mid-tier sites. Larger sites are wary of virtual dating, much like how they react to background checks and anonymous calling. Only Omnidate knows how dating sites are reacting to their pitch. The Omnidate partner page certainly hits all the right notes, now it’s up to the marketplace.

I’m a fan of SecondLife and have followed the virtual reality market since 1992. I grok the concept of virtual dating and think that the technology basically needs to catch up with the intent, which is to bring people together in new and novel ways.

Some people immediately meet for coffee, some want to chat with avatars online first. Thats both the blessing and curse of choice in the online dating industry, there is something for everyone. Omnidate is certainly getting the press they deserve, but is that and a good value proposition for partners enough to drive success? The question in my mind is whether or not the timing for virtual dating is right or if it’s going to take a while for consumers to warm up to the concept.

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Virtual dating startup OmniDate has partnered with BadOnlineDates. Online Dating Insider advertisers Dating Ad Network has an interview with Ravit Abelman, CoFounder of OmniDate.

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Over the summer, Google launched Lively after three years of development. After four months, the project has been deemed a failure and is shutting down December 31st.

I wrote about The Effect of Google?s Lively On Virtual Dating Applications, which talks about the launch details as well as OmniDate, another browser-based virtual environment attempting to make it safer and easier to meet someone online before venturing out on a real date.

I asked:

What does this mean for OmniDate when you can create a similar environment in the browser based on Google API?s, platform and data-sharing?

Apparently, nothing. Irony alert: When Google attempted to buy IMVU at the beginning of Lively development, one of the co-founders left the company for Google. Oops.

I remain somewhat enthusiastic towards browser-based virtual environments. Computers are just about fast enough to run them without slowing your system to a crawl, and the tools to create realistic environments continue to improve. Now someone has to figure out how to make these environments compelling and fun. Give people the tools to collaborate, create and explore, without turning into anything-goes SecondLife.

Vivaty launched a similar virtual environment several weeks ago. Read Vivaty?s Great For Virtual Dating for more information.

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Dating simulators seem to becoming more popular these days. OmniDate helps people find life partners through online dating adventures by building highly interactive dating adventures. OnmiDate recreates real-life dating situations by using video and 3D animation.

It’s unclear how many people will decide to ask some out on a “dating adventureâ€? instead of simply emailing them to go grab a cup of coffee. I’ll withhold judgement until I can review the system in full, but at first look, it seems like a simulation/solution in search of a problem. Why add all the complexity and cost to the introduction process?

OmniDate is set to launch summer 2007. You can sign up to be notified on the home page.

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