JDate

Spark Networks released their 3rd quarter financial results this past week. It wasn't a very good quarter for the company when compared to 2007 Q3 and last quarter.

Revenue for the third quarter of 2008 was $14.0 million, an 11% decrease compared to $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2007, and a 6% decrease compared to $15.0 million in the prior quarter. Revenue for the nine months was $44.1 million, a 10% decrease compared to $49.2 million for the same period last year.

Subscribers are also down.

For the last number of years eHarmony has been playing up the fact that a large number of people get married everyday who originally met each other on their dating site (current published average is 118). JDate appears to be copying this market tactic. They are currently advertising:

Each day over 60 people tell us they found their soul mates on JDate.

Finding a soul mate is not the same thing as being married but it does lead people to believe it is something more than love. It makes it appear as if the relationship may be leading to marriage. 60 is a fairly large number for a dating site which serves a specific niche. I wonder if we will see other popular dating services following suit and start advertising similar facts.

See our JDate Review for more information on this Jewish matchmaking service.

With all the news about internet dating safety bills lately, I noticed that the Spark Networks dating sites have a new warning at the bottom of their home pages. Here is the text I am referring to as quoted from AmericanSingles.com:

Spark Networks Limited does not conduct background checks on the members or subscribers of this website.

I wonder if this background checks warning is response to the New Jersey's Internet Dating Safety Act. If so, and since I don't live in the state of New Jersey, it appears they are displaying the message to everyone and not just New Jersey residents.

I've been meaning to post this information for a while.

Spark Networks released their First Quarter 2008 Financial Results on May 1, 2008. Spark Networks revenue for this period is $15 million. This is $1.8 million less from the first quarter 2007 and a decrease of 6% over quarter 4, 2007. It is not all bad news though as operating expenses where cut 27% over quarter 1, 2007 which resulted in a $1.6 million net income. Spark Networks reported a net loss of $1.4 million last year in the first quarter.

As far as subscribers are concerned, Spark Networks in the first quarter of 2008 had 195,325 subscribers. This is a decrease of 16% from 231,313 from the first quarter in 2007 and a decrease of 3% from the fourth quarter of 2007.

The online Jewish dating service JDate has been selected as an Official Honoree in the Social Networking category for this years Webby Awards. This is the 12th year for the awards. The Webby Awards recognize websites that are superior in quality and sets standards on the internet. To get your site nominated in the Webby Awards is very difficult, your website must stand out in all categories including functionality, usability and the over look of the site. According to the awards website:

Of the more than 10,000 entries submitted to the 12th Annual Webby Awards, fewer than 15% were distinguished as an Official Honoree.

The one thing I was surprised about was JDate was put in the Social Networking category. Since there is no Online Dating category listed at the Webby Awards I guess it was the closest match. A press release by JDate also calls their site an online community. While this is true, JDate's primary focus is still online dating. The community is a result of the dating. As social networking sites try to take away dating site members (just take a look at all the new dating applications available at MySpace and Facebook), dating sites are now including more social networking features to lure these members back and then some.

Read our review for more information on JDate, the online Jewish Community.

The Philadelphia Jewish Voice has an article about the Jewish dating service JDate. In it the author Gabrielle Loeb, talks about the problems of intermarriage in the Jewish community. Intermarried couples usually raise Jewish children but, by the next generation only 13 percent of the grandchildren identify themselves as Jews (according to the NJPS 2001 study). Also, a Jewish Population Survey reported that Jews who married between the years of 1996 and 2001, 47 percent of them did so outside the Jewish faith. As a comparison, in 1970 only 13 percent of Jews intermarried. It seems that intermarriage is resulting in a decrease of the over all growth rate of the Jewish population in North America.

Part of the reason the founders of JDate decided to create a dating service in 1997 was to combat this problem. They realized Jewish singles needed another way to meet someone of the same faith. Since then, this site has become very popular. Even Rabbi's have been promoting this service (see story Rabbis Helping Single Jews with Subscriptions to JDate). The media seems to love JDate as well. There are a ton of articles on this Jewish dating site and it has been mentioned in several TV shows over the last few years which also has helped it popularity.