The UK dating industry is going through some ownership changes. Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND), a division of Associated Newspapers has acquired Allegran, owners of a number of UK dating sites including dating sites including LoopyLove. Allegran Ltd operates GirlsDateForFree and LoopyLove were rated number two and three by Hitwise during March 2006. The firm also owns dating brands DreamsDiscovered, Pocado and the newly-launched DatingforParents. Allegran recently integrated Thomas Technologies assessment tools with several of their dating properties.
I’ve gotten several emails about this deal from people calling this a big deal. Without knowing revenue numbers and active profiles, it’s difficult to tell. What we do know is that the Daily Mail & General Trust recently merged Associated New Ventures with Northcliffe Electronic Publishing to create a new digital division spanning the firm’s national and regional online operations. AND sites and services will reach 24 per cent of the UK online population – a total of 7.27 million unique users – every month.
This looks similar to the SpringStreet model of placing dating sites on major online media properties. The problem with Spring Street was that they were never able to effectively generate the ad revenue they initially expected. Springstreet had over 100 partners and sold for around $1,000,000. AND needs to focus on tying classified and local ad revenue to the new properties in order for the deal to make sense.
Press release.
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