Types (Niche)

The dating sites BlackSingles.com and HurryDate (both part of Spark Networks) have partnered with Eizzil Entertainment in a marketing campaign for the movie "SPEED-DATING". The movie is slated for a 2010 release and is a feature length romantic comedy starring Mekita Faiye and co-starring Clint Howard and Chris Elliott (among others). As part of a combined U.S. national promotion tour, Spark Networks and Eizzil Entertainment will present BlackSingles.com and HurryDate events in 12 major cities across the country.

For the full press release, visit SOA World Magazine and for more information on the movie, visit the SPEED-DATING website (including a full cast list). To find further details about the dating service for African-Americans mentioned in this post, read our review of BlackSingles.com.

Spark Networks Jewish dating site called JDate got a nice bit of publicity in The New York Times last week. The paper publish an article about a JDater's success story in their Fashion & Style section.

After a 13 year marriage, a 48 year old man named Ron James decided to get right back into dating. In the same month as his divorce he joined JDate.com. In the beginning months, every night for 2 or 3 hours he searched for woman between the ages of 30 and 50, and who lived within 50 miles of his apartment. He kept his profile full of energy but not head strong. In 18 months Ron emailed between 500 and 600 women, in which he dated almost 50 of them. This many dates was expense since, he had to pay for the date and usually commute an hour into New York City. This was all done on a modest salary. What Ron ended up doing to save money was stacking first meet dates. Every other Sunday he would have dates with as many as 3 women. He kept the date times spread apart and at different locations so he could "retain some sense of integrity".

Online entertainment is increasingly moving to mobile devices. You can find dating sites, social networks, music and TV all on your phone now days.

According to the trade association Mobile Entertainment Forum, the global mobile entertainment industry is now worth some $32 billion dollars.

Revenue is expected to rise in 2010 another 28 percent to almost $41 billion. The top earning industries for cell phone companies from Britain are music, social networking, text chatting and news alerts.

For more on the story, visit Reuters. For dating sites that you can visit on your cell phone, check out our Mobile Phone Dating category.

I'm late on a few stories but I thought I should get this one out. Lavalife is now offering Speed Dating and it is currently free to try until June 24th, 2009 (2 days left)!

Online Speed Dates at Lavalife starts 8 pm each night (local time), and you get the chance to meet 10 singles in your area and all in 30 minutes. The events are arranged by location and age group. The age groups span 10 years (i.e. 30 to 40). Your current Lavalife profile will have to be completed and you will need to fill out an additional speed dating profile. This includes a picture, (the one from your Lavalife profile can be used), 'Ask me About' phrases which includes 3 topics you enter that your speed date may want to ask you about, and your email contact information.

Once your profile is complete you click 'Sign up now' below the event of your choice and you'll be presented with a confirmation screen. Once the event is about to start you log into Lavalife and click on the speed dates tab to enter your event. Make sure you show up on time as you cannot join in once the event starts. Each speed date allows you to text chat with the other person in real time. You get 3 minutes on each speed date and at the end, you get 30 seconds to decide if you clicked with the person. At the end of the 30 to 35 minute event you will receive your click list. This list provides you with the email addresses of the members you clicked with and who have clicked you.

Once this free offer is over, speed dating events will go on sale for $4.99 each. You may also purchase 3 event passes for $3.99 each and a package of 5 events cost $2.99 each. Passes only expire if your Lavalife account has been inactive 180 consecutive days (6 months).

For more information on this dating site, read our Lavalife review.

Match.com is definitely serious about the mobile market. Yesterday Match.com announced the availability of a application for the new Palm Pre which can be found now on the Palm Pre App Catalog (U.S. only). Now Match.com members with this cell phone can online date on the go by communicating and searching for other members. They can even edit their profile and receive wink and email notifications. Palm Pre's location-based capabilities can also be used that allows a unique search feature. You can find other Match.com member's in your area (this is not enabled by default).

Match.com has been in the general mobile phone dating market for a few years now with a product called MatchMobile. It was recently revamped with a new updated interface and features. Last March, Match also announced their iPhone Application (see Story) which has near identical features as their application for the Palm Pre.

For more information on this dating site, read our Match.com review.

We recently looked at the advertising market for this year and last (see Story) and in 2009 we are expected to see a decline in revenue earned when in previous years, online advertising was experiencing large double digit growth. I don't expect to see the free business model disappearing but it is going to get a lot tougher as companies spend their advertising dollars wiser. The funny thing with free dating sites is, they rely largely on paid dating sites for their income by displaying ads for them. If paid dating sites ever disappeared (which I do not see happening) then the free dating sites will as well.

Barry Diller, CEO of IAC (which owns Match.com and Chemistry), at a keynote address for the Advertising 2.0 conference said

I absolutely believe that the Internet is passing from its free phase into a paid system.

Diller is positive that relying on just advertising as a business model for most websites will not be sustainable in the near future. For his proof of success, Diller points to the iPhone and its popular App Store.

The problem with Barry Diller's iPhone example is, while the App Store has done extremely well, it never had any real competition. Once Google's Android mobile phone operating system matures and more companies bundle it with their phones similar to the iPhones functionality, it should be interesting to see if the iPhone continues to grab as much market share. The App Store is a very structured environment and Apple controls everything, this is both good and bad for developers. Android is open source software and free, this will spark more innovation but could create confusion for less tech savvy consumers.

For more on Diller's keynote address, read CNET News. Read our Match.com review and our Chemistry review for more information on these dating sites owned by IAC.