PlentyOfFish surveyed 100,000 US members, the results are interesting.
People get sick of PoF and go join a paid dating site, PoF is actually helping paid dating. I’ve been saying this forever.
People pay for one dating site, but belong to one or more free sites. All the hype about belonging to multiple dating sites has always been incorrect.
People who took the survey in the US are older than I expected.
I also asked a few questions about ads, only 30% of people admited clicking on them, most said they look at the ad and than check out the site later and signup.
As long as PoF sets a tracking cookie, Markus makes $30 or more every time someone signs up for a dating site through PoF. What a great business model.
The survey is too focused on the relationship between PoF and paid dating sites. I wish they had asked more questions about social networks and other free dating sites. He’s most likely going to sell the site and wants to make the strongest case possible for PoF revenue potential and as a traffic driver to paid dating sites.
Dating sites traditionally sell for around 2x revenue, depending on the quality of the membership database. If PoF revenue is in the neighborhood of $25 million a year, that’s somewhere between 50-100 million.
Markus doesn’t collect credit card numbers, which is why most sites are acquired, the ongoing re-billing revenue is often worth the initial cash outlay.
Monthly traffic is a factor as well, even if they’re not clicking the junk ads on PoF, they’re on the site and can be marketed lots of stuff if a more lucrative advertising plan and cross-promotions are put in place. Imaging the new IAC/Match.com ad platform running on PoF.
What do you think PlentyOfFish would sell for?
