Its been five months since the last iDate dating conference in Miami. What has changed since then? Well I’m going iDate LA next week for the first time to find out. I’ve waiting until now to attend because mobile dating has left my nonplussed for the most part. That tide is turning, my iPhone is full of dating and social apps, ranging from Brightkite to Are You Interested to Match, Zoosk and several others in private beta.
iDate LA Twitter hashtag #idatela2009
The money isn’t there yet but the technology finally is. Nobody has created the killer mobile dating app yet, perhaps one of the companies in LA next week will take that honor.
Minor balks: When will iDate start filming sessions for those of us unable to be in two places at once? A $300 video camera is all it takes. Yet again, no pre-event online networking session. I guess nobody cares about these.
At iDate, the event kicks off with investors talking about going public. This is the absolute worst time to take a dating site public. The presenters should focus on raising capital and title the panel “how to write a business plan and P&L statement that doesn’t suck.”
I’ve been pitching dating-related companies to VC lately. Investors have little interest in funding online dating companies. So much effort goes into finding the 1% that do, and of those 1%, finding the handful of “helpful” money as opposed to the “easy” money. Perhaps some bright individual will create an angel investor network for online dating. Wouldn’t that be a good idea? Pitch your ideas to a well-defined group of people who have expressed interest in the sector. Why hasn’t anyone done this already?
If I don’t come back with a photo of me and Patti Stanger several of my female friends say they will never speak to me again.
The session 3 Mobile Dating Strategies That Work should be interesting. Hint: location, proximity and communication. Throw in some virtual goods, a game and an identity verification and we’re done.
Looking forward to hearing Deepak Thomas at Match speak. I hope he provides usage stats, Match has a slick interface on the iPhone, but do people actually use it? The reality distortion field surrounding Match is strong, hopefully we’ll get some useful insights.
I wonder if anyone from SinglesNet will attend? As the number one trafficked dating site, they sure keep a low profile.
The boys at viximo are doing a demo. Virtual goods, people, virtual goods. A billion dollar industry that the online dating market totally ignores. Why is this?
Trilibis is going to walk us though “Top 10 Decision Criteria For The Selection of Your Mobile Dating Enabler”. I’m thinking this is *the* session to hit if for dating sites looking to develop a mobile strategy.
Some company is going to create a white label solution for mobile dating and dating sites will bolt it on. Game over. The thing is, few vendors are close to being able to offer this bolt-a-bility. Trilibis has a partnership to create mobile platforms for IAC, owners of Match.com. This puts them at the front of the pack. But what about mid-tier sites? Most dating sites don’t have a lot of technical chops or resources for intensive integration programs like mobile. Plug-n-play is required, will Trilibis deliver or leave the rest to the competition (Skout?).
Competing for attention with Trilibis is Match Matrix. I really like their energetic matching stuff. They are so far ahead of everyone else when it comes to taking advantage of things humans have known for thousands of years, but it’s a bit too touchy-feely for most people.
Next up, MatchMatrix again, talking about Increasing Customer Retention. Isn’t it the job of the dating site to get people off of it as quickly as possible? this is where my dedication to the customer comes in direct contact with the business goals of online dating sites. Someday dating sites will understand that high churn rates are good, but that appears to remain beyond most people’s comprehension.
Mark Brooks is going to review all of the IM services trying to get the business that Userplane is ceding to the marketplace by basically going out business. Chat is a dead issue in online dating, the money and focus is on Instant Messaging. The company that wins is going to be cheaper than Userplane, feature newer technology and have absolutely stellar privacy controls and filters to manage the onslaught of messages (women) receive.
The demos are mostly payment processors, which get an inordinate amount of attention at iDate given there are about 50 companies max that are large enough to warrant their interest. I’m spoken with Vindicia and a few other companies multiple times. Once you understand their corresponding value propositions it’s like a giant light bulb going off. You have to be a serious player to work with them though.
Friday morning is, you guessed it, more payment providers trying to get online dating business. This is getting to be a bit much. It’s time for iDate to rethink what attendees want to experience at the only online conference. Maybe everyone wants to hear from payment processors and I’m off base?
The Zoosk presentation, Online Dating & Social Networking: A Marriage Made in Heaven? Is another must-attend session. Although yesterday Zoosk got spanked by Facebook for autofilling profile fields with Facebook user data. this is a sticky situation, but if you can’t actually use Facebook data in your apps, it kind of kills the purpose of using Facebook Connect. Facebook has access to everything you do on other sites, but won’t share their data automatically. This is going to be a huge issue down the road.
Facebook is 200 million people. Why the hell aren’t 50 dating sites slugging it out to dominate Facebook? Am I missing something here? Running apps on Facebook is hard and takes a lot more effort than buying cheap traffic, which is easy. There, I answered my own question.
Dr. Helen Fisher is going to tell the Chemistry.com story again. Fascinating stuff, I need to finish her last book.
Then viximo is up again, talking about The New Money Paradigm: Virtual Goods & Virtual Currency Primer.
I’m not going to miss Assessing Profiles for Compatibility. Looking forward to meeting Dr. Jim Houran in person and hearing about assessment company.
The final panel debate is titled $5 Billion and Beyond 2012. Seriously? With everything happening in regards to the Craigslist killer, poor effectiveness of dating sites, skyrocketing ad spend, shoddy business practices and poor customer service, not to mention monumental legal issues, and the topic is how to make more money? This is going to be an absolute free-for-all. I will drink lots of beer and talk about robots (inside joke). The social media guy from Intel is going to freak out.
