Sarah Lacy at BusinessWeek says it’s over between her and online dating sites. She thinks she’s going to find her mate on Myspace and Facebook. Good luck with that, Sarah. Then she goes on to state that online dating as we know it is dead. I don’t know whether I should laugh at her ignorance or join in.
Dating services have not done a good job leveraging social networking sites, except to spam everyone with lower-common-denominator advertising. The Facebook apps are boring for the most part. Prove me wrong and I’ll eat my words.
Sarah says the stigma is gone, I say hogwash. Even though my 65-year old aunt just met her mate online, there are still approximately 87 million singles in the US who wouldn’t touch an online dating site with a 10 foot pole.
My blood pressure lowered when she mentioned a few telling factoids about the online dating market.
According to comScore (SCOR), the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September from a year earlier at a time when growth has soared among social networking and user-generated sites.
Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com’s visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases.
Match, which is staying with IAC and not getting spun off, has not done well for members this year, although it’s making strong inroads into Asia and showing more money on the books.
If you are single, Match’s increased revenue means nothing. If anything it pisses people off to see them raising prices and making more money when they are not taking care of growing their brand and getting more quality singles on the site. How many people at Match have been there more than 18 months in Sr. Executive positions? Not many, it’s a Texas-sized revolving door when it comes to keeping talented people around.
Revenue growth was driven by an 11% increase in revenue per subscriber, primarily in North America. International subscribers grew 10% although worldwide subscribers declined 1%. Profits grew faster than revenue due to lower operating costs and a lower cost of acquisition as a percentage of revenue.
Operating Income Before Amortization was up 53%. Paid subscribers went DOWN 1%. Need I say more? “People don’t use our service as much, but we’re making more money!” Hooray for the suits and beancounters. For the rest of us in the US the news is not so rosy.
Did you know that Skype co-counder Nicklas Zennstrom is backing video speed dating site Woome?
WooMe, introducing the world, one person at a time. Different from Speeddate.com, a broader appeal. Minute-long video meetings. Blogforward has a good review of WooMe.
The Flake-o-meter feature is a novel way to work reputation into the mix. Planning to charge $1 to email users. Interested in each other to gain the ability to contact each other directly.
CEO Stephen Sokols says that WooMe is already in discussions with one of the top three dating sites in the US to offer its video sessions as an add-on; later, it may offer a white-label version to other companies that have a use for it (for example, a recruiting firm that wants to interview batches of candidates).
I love the signup process. The Flash interface is subtle and the simple questionnaire a welcome respite from the 20 minute signups for some sites.
Go buy a webcam and check it out. Speed/video dating is 1,000% more fun an effective than browsing static profiles, and you don’t have to waste an hour in a bar moving between 20 tables. I keep thinking of the speed dating scene in 40 Year Old Virgin, they nailed that perfectly.
