I met with WebDate last week before iDate and had a great conversation with CEO Abe Smilowitz. They have cool offices in South Beach, restaurant downstairs and a recording studio. Talk about synergy.
The big news is that WebDate will be switching from a free to a paying model soon. From our conversation and this Miami Herald article, Smilowitz is well aware of the risks:
Even with an attrition rate of 90 percent — and we think it is more likely to be 50 or 70 percent — we still expect to be adding a minimum of 25,000 new paying users per month.
I don’t believe for a second that they will get anywhere near a 50% take rate for the service unless they seriously sweeten the deal for subscribers. They do have things brewing behind the scenes that I can’t talk about to address this issue.
WebDate announced last week that it will expand its mobile dating service by March cover 80 percent of all data-ready cellphones. ”Webdate MobileT” allows clients to use their handsets to search for potential dates, download profiles and initiate text messages and anonymous phone calls. The functionality was developed by Trilibis. nce its launch in December, some 40,000 users have subscribed to the mobile service at $2.99 per month. I’ve seen it in action and it’s pretty slick. Much better user experience than MatchMobile.
