Hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day. Today I feel like accountants must feel on April 16th.
In my quest to learn more about the role of fraud detection in online dating, I had lunch with Maxmind. Talking with the fraud guys is a real eye-opener. There are a number of companies working around the clock to make dating and social networks safer, and I will be showcasing the primary players in coming weeks.
Meetic Finds a Match in Ethoca, competitor to Iovation.
After lunch I did some retail therapy and went to an anti-Valentine’s Day party, which was more fun that expected. As soon as people found out what I do, it turned into an impromptu focus group, the results I will be integrating into a new project.
Nice piece in yesterday’s SmartMoney about PlentyOfFish (Hi Markus), MyPartner (Hi Patrick) and Cupid’s X Factors (Hi Ralph) and OkCupid (Hi Sam). Ok, enough with the shout-outs.
I’ve heard the latest version Boonex Dolphin is amazing, a quantum leap from the previous version, which I worked with for six months last year and have grey hair because of it.
Orange partners DatingDirect . Online dating service DatingDirect.com has struck a partnership with Orange UK to provide a converged web and mobile online dating service for the mobile network’s customers. Visitors to the Orange UK web portal will be offered access to the DatingDirect.com services via a dating channel on the Orange website hosted by DatingDirect.com.
SafeCheckIn.com Introduces A New Service to Make Online Dating Safer.
SafeCheckIn.com is a service where individuals can put in specific information about themselves as well as information about any activity they are going to do. When they “check out” SafeCheckIn will monitor their absence until the member “checks in” again. If the member is overdue then SafeCheckIn will attempt to contact the member to update their status. If SafeCheckIn cannot reach the member, we then contact the people that the member has designated as emergency contacts with the local authorities as being contacts of last resort.
Not sure why this is better than just telling a close friend but it’s interesting none the less.
Woome, speeddate and camlink, LoveDetect and other companies in this CNET video.
WooMe, which raised another $3 million, is getting traction in the speedmeeting sector. I call it speed meeting because it’s not just dating. The company is running about a thousand sessions a day, and roughly 3.5 sessions per person per week, with the average user spending seven minutes on the site, a number that has doubled in the last month. This bridge round gives them some breathing room before going after another $8 million to $10 million later this year. Big competition for speeddate.com.
Camlink is a new video speed dating concern.
myMatchPod.com speed dating.
Wired wrote that Dating 2.0 Picks up Speed.
One or two of these companies is going to take the prize. My money is on Woome at the moment. They have taken money from the Skype founders, solid media attention and the functionality and look of the site works for me. The rest of the market will be spread out among it’s competitors.
PotPartner, a niche site that could do very well for the 420 crowd.
How to find a millionaire. (actually, lots of great research stats here for you dating startups.)
JDate Up for Sale: Worth $185M?
Lavalife singles search on Facebook, with 26 members. Is this an official Lavalife application? The Past (and present) employees of Lavalife group has four times as many members.
Eharmony introduces “Who’s viewed me” feature.
Engage State of the Date Report 2008.
According to Compete, SinglesNet had 9,812,307 visitors lat month. That’s amazing for a site that feels like it was built in an afternoon. Let’s just say they spent more time on the payment processing than the features on the site.
I met the founder of BadOnlineDates in Miami. She is a real hoot. BOD is a new and different way to find camaraderie while meeting like-minded people. It’s unlike other dating sites and social networks in that BadOnlineDates.com has been created to connect people from all walks of life through their bad dating experiences.
I’ve been obsessed with my new iPhone. Reading this blog on the phone is fun, but I need to optimize it mobile browsing again, it used to be converted to WAP, which never quite worked so I turned it off. As I write this I see that Online Personals Watch is going mobile as well.
YesNoMaybe has a Facebook application. Watch as the swarm of HotOrNot copycat applications on social networks continue to grow.
JupiterResearch Sees Steady Growth for Online Personals. Usually Nate Elliot is the person at Jupiter that puts out dating industry statistics. This time it’s David Card, who says that online dating will grow to almost $2 billion by 2012. Cue Dr. Evil laugh. Other research firms peg the number at north of $900 million. That’s a $200 million discrepancy I’d like to see rectified.
