Last week BBC1 linked singles with scientists for one-to-one consultations via 3G (think third-generation, fast video) mobile phone services.
From the sounds of a leading 3G analyst in the UK, using video calls to give practical advice to the public on how to succeed in the dating game is going to be the leading 3G application in the UK.
The 3G Dating Agency Limited, is supposedly the worlds first and largest provider of mobile video dating opportunities. Wrong on both counts, but hey this is a press release, where reality rarely coincides with the myopic visions of marketing departments.
Using mobile phones as alternative access to dating sites will be big business in the US someday, right now it’s a $2.5 million dollar market, which is about what I think I spend on dating site subscriptions each year. Tiny market.
Replicating generic dating sites on mobile phones is a colossal waste of time for all parties involved. New features and services will be required to leverage the GPS and location-based features of the new crop of mobile phones. That’s the only way they are going to achieve critical mass. Without it, nobody is going to use the services.
Why do you think Google bought Dodgeball? Google could become a big player in the dating space if they add dating profiles and features to the existing Dodgeball service.
Interstitial time is good for messing around on your cell phone and checking out profiles is one option, but who’s going to pay for that? So far, not many people. Why pay to look at a tiny screen when you can wait a few hours and look at it back home or at the office on a large monitor?
Serious daters will pay for mobile access to profiles. Serious daters are usually in the 30-50 year old crowd.
How much interstitial time does a 45 year old woman have? Is she going to use her phone to check out pictures of men on the internet during the few minutes the kids are at soccer practice or she is waiting for her plane? I don’t think so. Men will pay to look at pr0n on their phones, but not women’s profiles.
If Myspace goes mobile, and you can download blogs and band MP3’s, that will take off like a rocket. The merging of phones and MP3 players will drive this market. dating sites don’t get anything out of the convergence.
If Trilibis or Enpocket get that deal they will be in a great position to lead the mobile content market.
[tags: mobile dating]
