Signed up for Omnidate today. Haven’t been on the service for a while and I wanted to see what’s changed since I went on a “date” there with co-founder Ravit Abelman last year.
Compete says Omnidate has about 2,000 monthly visitors. any number under 10k I usual triple, so around 10k visitors. I’m not sure what Omnidate is trying to be at this point. Is it a destination or a service that dating sites can embed or both? As with all startups, there is the official company line and then there is your gut reaction to a service. What does you gut say about virtual dating? Leave a comment.
Facebook applications like SpeedDate and Zoosk can drive people back to their websites from within their applications. I’m not sure Omnidate can do this. If I’m on JDate, could I go on a virtual date with someone from ChristianCafe?
Omnidate has clearly morphed into a dating site and is now competing directly with its partners. Why else would they recreate a complete dating site along site their virtual dating environment? My gut tells me that they are going to link dating profile data with Omnidate profile fields. i’ve never actually seen Omnidate integrated with another site, so I can’t comment on what it looks like. If I fill out a profile on a dating site, that data should show up in my Omnidate profile. Otherwise you end up with a situation like the original Match mobile, which was two separate databases and never really worked.
Interesting that Speeddate and Woome are getting hundreds of thousands of monthly visitors and “dates”. The 18-30 crowd isn’t afraid of webcams and the free voyeurism can’t be beat. Is Omnidate going to benefit from the recession? Is it limited to people who have trouble with first dates? What other factors suggest that the overall market for virtual dating is in fact smaller than expected?
I see complete profiles, reputation tools, hotlists, search and most other common dating site features. Do I go to OkCupid, Match or Omnidate?
Upcoming features include the ability to tack your dating site headshot on your avatar. I can’t wait to see what that looks like.
I wish Omnidate was a Skype plugin, that would be cool. Once you chat via avatars, you can go right to voice and video.
Dating sites can integrate Omnidate, starting at $500/month. That right there excludes 90% of the dating market, so they’re going for mid-tier sites. Larger sites are wary of virtual dating, much like how they react to background checks and anonymous calling. Only Omnidate knows how dating sites are reacting to their pitch. The Omnidate partner page certainly hits all the right notes, now it’s up to the marketplace.
I’m a fan of SecondLife and have followed the virtual reality market since 1992. I grok the concept of virtual dating and think that the technology basically needs to catch up with the intent, which is to bring people together in new and novel ways.
Some people immediately meet for coffee, some want to chat with avatars online first. Thats both the blessing and curse of choice in the online dating industry, there is something for everyone. Omnidate is certainly getting the press they deserve, but is that and a good value proposition for partners enough to drive success? The question in my mind is whether or not the timing for virtual dating is right or if it’s going to take a while for consumers to warm up to the concept.
