Well another year has nearly gone by and the dating industry has changed a lot.
Singlesnet has come from no where and keeps gaining steam. I saw it first last year and thought their paid business model was killer and would easily overtake match.com The site has since then grown in leaps and bounds and should pass Match.com and become the largest paid dating service in terms of number of relationships created in the United States in the next couple of months.
hotornot seems to be coming back from hibernation, and they want to hire people and expand that should be interesting. The founders seem to have been away from the industry for a little to long judging from this quote.
We met up with James a few weeks ago because we had recently heard about a mobile application that the company had been working on. He says Hot or Not did have a mobile application created, but decided not to release it to the public. “The market is just too early,” he says.
Every time I get pitched by a mobile phone company they say the biggest money maker along with chat/dating are their hotornot clones.
As for plentyoffish, We are now the largest dating site in the world as measured by number of relationships created. Match.com may get 75,000 signups a day but only 10% of those users can actually use the service. Match breaks out some of their stats on their chemistry site. Match.com creates 100,000 relationships a year on 27,375,000 signups. 1 in 137 singles who signup on their site meet someone. Match.com will earn $320 million this year so that works out to about $3,200 a relationship. With numbers like that no one can convince me that the paid dating industry is built on a sustainable business model.
The last 2 years has seen the 2nd and third tier dating sites pretty much completely replaced and 2007 will see the first tier sites being replaced.
November 22, 2006 at 11:00 am |
Nice insight Markus, statistics are great
November 22, 2006 at 3:59 pm |
I am always impressed how good you are when talking about competition.
Are you monitorize them somehow?
I am just wondering how could we easily monitorize the competition in our own industry.
November 22, 2006 at 4:11 pm |
It would have been useful if you stated what ratio you have between sign-up and meeting someone.
Also, how is ‘meeting someone’ defined, by survey etc?
“We are now the largest dating site in the world as measured by number of relationships created. ” My feeling is that statements like this should be backed up.
November 22, 2006 at 5:33 pm |
I cannot disagree more with your assertion that the dating industry has changed except for the fact that there are a few new players going up against the status quo, which is business as usual. There are lots of smaller success stories but in terms of large trends, where’s the big story?
SinglesNet is getting some traffic, but how many people are going to pay $25 a month for a service lacking most of the features on other comparable sites?
A quick search through the listings in my area leaves much to be desired in terms of they type of people on the site. That’s the primary measure I use when selecting a new site. Look at the search functionality is by zip code or state, not very useful, especially when there are literally only a handful of people in my area. How can that be? The site is not strong on a metro basis, better for outlying area codes.
Match making $320 million a year is not a sustainable business model? What’s your reasoning? Try measuring revenue per employee, not revenue per relationship, that number is not useful for comparison, because we have no idea how many relationships are created, on your site or any other. That’s just marketing speak.
I would be good to come up with the agreed upon metrics to evaluate dating sites, everyone has their pet metrics, most of which are not as sound as we in the industry would like.
November 22, 2006 at 6:46 pm |
What is Singlesnet’s business model (I can’t find any info on it), and what makes it so killer?
November 22, 2006 at 7:33 pm |
singlesnet allows free members to contact any paid member, and a paid member can contact anyone on the site.
This has the effect of dropping the critical mass point 4 or 5 fold. Its given the site huge viral growth.
November 22, 2006 at 8:59 pm |
Cool twist. But u usually say that anyone charging their members is gonna get beat by someone free, like u. What’s their added value that makes them grow despite the fact that sites like POF are out there?
November 23, 2006 at 3:00 pm |
Marc,
I think it’s the fact of VC capital involved, they have assurance that they will get their money back if it’s pay-per-view option vs. free-for-all – so they can with leisure invest in MM-ons in marketing – this is only way someone could get into top 1000 dogs…
November 23, 2006 at 3:01 pm |
Besides POF, of course
November 23, 2006 at 5:11 pm |
Markus, what do you think of niche dating sites? Do you think they will be able to survive? Have you ever seen one called ChristianCafe.com ? They are located in Markham, Ontario.
November 24, 2006 at 1:41 pm |
The main point in dating is to reach a critical mass. Noone will register for a dating site (free or paid) if there are only a couple members there.
Markus, how did you reach the critical mass? Can you share some of your experiences?
November 25, 2006 at 1:47 am |
Hi Markus,
What are your thoughts on all the video sites, YouTube, MetaCafe? And now some sites paying for videos. Is video dating something you see in the future?
Best,
John
November 25, 2006 at 3:10 am |
Reddiance, I think we will (continue to) do just fine, thank-you very much:-) We’ve been at this since the late 90’s and have a pretty good handle on our market. We’re a great brand in a great niche.
And, Marcus knows us well – he and I have had lots of fun teasing each other on various dating blogs, right Marcus?;-)
We don’t agree on everything, esp. Marcus’ contention that paid dating sites’ days are numbered. I echo Dave Evan’s comment about Match and their $320M/year site. It is all about profitability (for them and others, like us).
Sam Moorcroft
President & CEO
ChristianCafe.com
November 28, 2006 at 9:41 am |
I am guessing they dont really have a mobile app at all…
December 28, 2006 at 1:58 pm |
to be clear.. we created a mobile app in 2001, and what I said is that it was too early then (in 2001).
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August 3, 2008 at 10:43 am |
[...] vous propose de nous intéresser ici à leurs statistiques. Comme le fait remarquer Markus Frind, le P-DG d’un concurrent gratuit canadien, Plenty of Fish, certaines statistiques de Match [...]