According to Mark Brooks, iDate is having a conference for background checks in San Francisco on July 13-14. No link to conference from his blog, and when I went to iDate, I don’t see a link to the event page either. Not the best way to promote an event.
Besides learning that Verified Person raised $12 million in January and that Pat Mangiacotti has left Trufina and is now at Backgroundchecks.com, not much has been happening in regards to background checks being implemented at major dating sites.
There is a new crop of companies who have jumped into the space during the last year including Honesty Online. My money is on one of these three companies having the best chances at landing deals with the major sites.
Everyone else is simply too late to the party, arriving fresh-faced and eager, albeit with undifferentiated offerings. A successful employment screening business does not mean you can walk into a meeting with the Yahoo Personals Biz Dev team and secure a pilot program. Many companies have tried and failed at that in the past.
I don’t care how good your data is, that’s not the main selling point. Sites that gush about databases will never win, data are only one part of the winning mix.
The company that wins must have a rock-solid web-based service, intimate knowledge of the online dating industry and a business model that works, including pricing, marketing and customer service. No one single company has been able to deliver on all three counts.
To make matters more difficult, for several reasons, dating sites don’t like the idea of background checks and have said over and over they are not interested in offering the service. With a hostile audience, it’s an uphill battle all the way. Even the recent media hoopla or the effects of legislation efforts made by certain dating sites has hasn’t done much to accelerate the adoption of security-related services for dating sites.
I’m sure a few west coast companies will have a presence at the iDate event, but if you’re a dating site that appears even remotely interested in background checks, you’ve no doubt already had discussions with the primary vendors. I’ll post more when there is an actual link to conference information.
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