Online Dating Industry News For June 29, 2010
I was interviewed for False sense of security in users of dating sites which ran in The SF Chronicle. “We’re dealing with a lot of people who lack those street smarts,” said Dave Evans, editor of Online Dating Post, a blog about the business. “They assume the site does everything. People say, ‘I thought everybody on here was supposed to be legitimate.’ What rock did you crawl out from? Every single dating Web site out there has child molesters and murderers,” he said. A few people aren’t happy about that quote, but it’s reality and needs to be addressed. Paid dating growth is slowing, free is on the upswing, and if free is going to supposedly overtake paid dating at some point, safety and security and identity and reputation must be addressed. From Slate: FleeHarmony.com Why the future of paid dating sites is rocky . Some good datapoints, good read. What’s Up with Match Mobile? OPW has a nice interview with Deepak Thomas, Head of Mobile at Match.com. I would be quite surprised if Match did videochats, perhaps they will re-introduce video profiles, but managing thousands of men hitting on women in real time? Doubtful. Capture video, review with Crowdflower, format and publish to profiles is the first step. Curious to see what the Match iPhone app looks like on the iPad. Does it make use of new functionality or just a scaled up version of the graphics or the little iPhone sized app in the middle of the screen? Herway goes live This site is such a great idea. Who knows if singles will warm up to it, but I like the concept. Here’s most of the press release…For today’s 20 million singles of online daters, the process of finding the right match online can be frustrating at best. If you’re female, you get inundated with winks and unsolicited messages from Mr. Wrong; you don’t know if your potential suitor is who he says he is; and you find yourself worrying about the potential embarrassment you will face if your quest for love online is discovered by your employer, friends and or family. And, if you’re male, it’s no better. You often times find yourself frustrated with the lack of response of replies to your winks and messages; no ladies approach you; and the dates you actually go on, aren’t what you thought they’d be. Until now. Enter HerWay.com. Unlike other dating sites like Match.com where women are inundated with requests from men who they’d never be interested in and men are frustrated because much of their outreach is unreturned, HerWay.com takes a Sadie Hawkins approach to online dating, making women the masters of the connection. On the site, women can search and identify men they find interesting. Only when they send an invitation to connect to a man can he see her profile. By giving women the power, Herway is able to create an environment where women can spend the time building connections with men that have a good chance of turning into love; while also allowing men to be relieved of the pressure of having to compete for a woman’s attention. With it being 5 times more likely that matches work when women do the choosing, HerWay is the first site that really allows women to determine their romantic destiny online. OneRiot Delivers Real-Time Facebook Content Unsurprisingly, real time search engine OneRiot is now tapping into Facebook’s recently launched Open Graph API. So now, actions made by Facebook users who publicly share links on their profiles or like stories across the web will now be indexed in realtime search results available through OneRiot’s API and the the third party developers who build apps on top of the search engine’s API. Via TechCrunch . I can’t wait to see dating sites leverage Facebook data in meaningful ways. Maybe if I repeat myself 100 times and click my heels together three times… Game Developers Wary of Facebook’s New Virtual Currency: I’m not sure how many dating sites are using Facebook’s new form of cash, but word on the street is that Some Game Developers Don’t ‘Like’ Facebook’s New Virtual Currency . Cheek’d says they expired my dating cards, so that’s how they make their money. Subscription model for introduction cards, not sure how well that is going to fly. When I got this emails I was bummed. Thanks again for joining Cheek’d. Just a friendly reminder that your current subscription is about to expire. To keep your deck of cards activated, please follow the steps below: Step 1: Go to www.cheekd.com . Step 2: Sign in to your account on the upper right hand corner of the home page. Step 3: Click on “BUY CARDS” on the lower left hand corner and follow the instructions under the “MONTHLY SERVICE” link. ‘Power Eye’ Lets Consumers Know Why That Web Ad Was Sent to Them . The first trial of what some hope will become the online ad industry’s long-promised self-policing system designed to stave off the growing forces for regulation in Washington, as well as give consumers more control over how they are targeted by advertisers. How will this affect online dating advertising?
