Types (Niche)

The Grindr iPhone App which allows gay men to locate one another has had phenomenal success. Grindr was launched in March of 2009 and is widely used at clubs and parties to allow like minded men to hook-up with each other. The app uses the GPS located in the phone to determine how close people are to each other. More than 700,000 men from 162 countries are using this App with the United States and the United Kingdom being the most popular countries. Everyday Grindr is downloaded over 2,000 times. A Blackberry Grindr version was also just launched in June, which is sure to increase Grindr's popularity.

A straight version of Grindr is in the works now with plans to release it by the end of this year. Soon heterosexuals will be able to figure out who in this room would appeal to them. Joel Simkhai, the creator of Grindr, says they get a lot more request from straight women than men men for this type of Grindr based app.

For more on the story read The Observer.

It looks like members of PlentyofFish.com will have another way soon to access the dating site. In a few weeks (July, 2010) an iPhone Application will be released which will allow members to access the dating site directly on their iPhone, iTouch and iPad. No information has been released yet on what features will be available on the dating application but I assume profile editing, searching and sending messages will be possible. I am curious to see if location based dating will be included with this new application.

Since an iPhone POF Dating App will be here soon I wonder how far off an application for Android will be? Android mobile phones are now outselling the iPhone here in the States.

To find out about POF, you can read our review of PlentyofFish.com.

Last week JDate officially announced the launch of JDate Mobile in Beta. JDate Mobile is compatible with any web enabled phone, including all of the smart phones like the iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile and BlackBerry. When you sign up for JDate Mobile you will get instant text alerts when:

• You receive email or some other form of communication.
• Someone views your profile.
• If you get added to someone's Hot List.

These text alerts are free to all members. Current subscribers of JDate will also be able to send and receivie email messages right from your phone.

For more information on this dating site, check out our review of JDate.com.

The popular Christian dating site, ChristianCafe.com, released an iPhone dating app (which also works on the iPad) this week. With this App, members can search and view profile information and photos of other singles. They can also send and receive messages and winks as well. Non-members who have never visited the website before can download the app and use it to create a basic profile and sign up for the 10 day free trial. To download the ChristianCafe.com app for your iphone visit iTunes.

Here is a short video of the ChristianCafe iPhone Application in action:

Members on the go who have a Google Android phone are in luck too. ChristianCafe expects to release an app soon for Android.

To find out more about this dating site, read our review of ChristianCafe.com.

The Skout dating application for the iPhone has reached version 2.0 and not only did it get some new features it also got a design makeover. New features include virtual gifts, a game called "Look at Me" which allows you to bid for attention of other members and a Wink-Bomb. The bomb allows members using Skout to reach hundreds of singles in your proximity all at once with location based dating and the GPS in your phone. With the app you can then find out who has been looking at your profile and think you're hot. With this information in hand you can then contact these people to meet up somewhere close by.

If you are interested in trying out Skout for your iPhone here are a few more interesting stats about the dating service.

• Skout was the first iPhone Dating Application
• Skout members send on average 100 messages in 1 month.
• Currently over 750,000 people have used Skout's location based dating option.
• A Skout iPad dating application is currently being developed.

Here is a sneak peek video of the dating app in action:

For a few more details read the press release. Here is our list of other dating sites which offer their services on mobile phones.

Classified Intelligence Report disclosed today that they have estimated for 2010 that Craigslist will generate $122 million in gross revenue with profits ranging from $88 to $99 million. This works out to about $4 million per employee. Last year (2009) revenue was estimated to be $100 million and back in 2003 revenue was estimated at $7 million for Craigslist. According to the report, half of their revenue in 2010 will come from recruitment advertising while 30 percent comes from the Adult Services listings and a further 17 percent coming from apartment ads in New York City.

In 2009 Craigslist was accused of being a large source for prostitution. In a bid to appease lawmakers Craigslist renamed their "Erotic Services" category to "Adult Services" and upped the fee per listing to $10 (it was $5). Craigslist also agreed to manual approve each listing. When the Erotic Services category was around Craigslist donated the proceeds from these listings to undisclosed charities. Since the name change, Craigslist has stopped this practice.

Find out more at AimGroup.com and for further details about this classifieds website, read our review of Craigslist.