It’s mobile app mania in the dating world this week.
Christian dating goes mobile with iPhone app: ChristianCafe.com, a Christian-owned online dating service, launched an iPhone app for Christian singles this week.
SpeedDate is launching an iPad app tomorow. SpeedDate for the iPad is specifically designed for the iPad’s large screen experience allowing singles to finger-swipe through photos, search for matches, and meet via email or by sending a flirtatious “wink” that lets someone know you are interested. Instant notification alerts are sent when emails or “winks” have been received or when a person of interest is online.
Confusion ensues about claims of “first!” on the iPad, as many iPhone apps will run on the iPad, albeit in a small window.
Kinda-sorta: David Levy, founder of Tigerbow, the real-world gifting service known to many dating sites, announced the latest release of Philo. Philo helps you enjoy TV with your friends and other viewers around the world. Just watch TV, tune-in on Philo, and join the conversation. You’ll see what all of your friends are watching and what they’re saying. And, of course, you can contribute your own comments to the real time stream, which will update your status on your favorite social networks like Facebook and Twitter. New version of the app is due next week.
Andrew Fiore has a great site at Berkeley which lists his online dating research.
Online dating companies can learn a lot from social games. Jeremy Liew at Lightspeed Ventures has invested in a number of gaming companies. His Lessons from the leaders – Engagement in social games explains how games drive engagement and shares lots of fascinating insights from the recent Social Gaming Summit.
Real Life relationships, love, flirting and friendship, can drive special actions which support long term engagement. e.g. Pet Society and Restaurant City drive tens of millions of virtual roses, and many real roses, to be exchanged on Valentines Day. Friends For Sale (launched by Lightspeed portfolio company Serious Business, now part of Zynga) is the prototypical example.
Building great games is incredibly difficult but now companies like Zynga have platforms and frameworks for launching permutations of popular games like Farmville, making it easier to launch massively popular games in a fraction of the time and cost it took a few years ago.
