Contributed by: ElyseRomano on Thursday, June 27 2013 @ 11:03 am
Last modified on
Let's face it: when you think of finding love online, you don't think of POF.com. Though the site started out with good intentions, it's now known as a seedy den of no-strings-attached hookups and dubiously real profiles.
But that's all about to change. Markus Frind, CEO and Founder of PlentyOfFish.com, is taking radical action to revamp the site and restore its reputation.
"When I created POF," he said in an email to users, "I wanted it to be all about finding relationships with the right person. For the first 7 years this worked really well, I got the site to 10 million users without any employees and POF was generating a ton of relationships." Then the smartphone became the most popular technological gadget in the world, and online dating changed.
"Today about 70% of POF use is via a mobile phone," Frind explained, "and unfortunately about 2% of men started to use POF as more of a hookup site mostly due the casual nature of cell phone use." Displeased with the turn his site has taken, Frind is determined to give POF a makeover.
To bring the site back to his original vision, Frind is making three major changes:
Frind promises that the vast majority of POF users will not be affected by the changes taking place. Those who are using the site as he intended - to find real, lasting relationships - will barely be impacted, other than by a welcome decrease in spammy, sex-seeking messages.
The old POF was the most popular free dating site in the country. Can the new POF live up to the success of its predecessor? Post your own Plenty of Fish review and let us know.