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On September 15th, 2010 SpeedDate.com announced that they had reached 10 million users. SpeedDate is different than other dating sites because their main focus is to connect singles in real-time via internet video chat and mobile phones (with an iPhone application). Members go on five minute online dates to determine if chemistry exists between them. These short dates puts the emphases more on communication and less on the dating profile. Other popular mainstream dating sites tend to work the other way around. This is the first time that a speed dating site has reached the 10 million member mark.

For more on this story, read the press release. To find other related dating services, you can check out our Speed Dating reviews category.

Craigslist has had major problems in the past with their adult services section (see Story). On September 4th they temporarily suspended all sex ads on Craigslist (see Story). On September 15th:

Craigslist told the House Judiciary Committee today that it had closed its sex ads section forever.

The reason for Craigslist backing down on having an adult services section is the mounting bad press from the media and pressure from a number of state attorney generals. Closing this section down is estimated to cost Craigslist $44 million per year. The company held nearly 70% of all sex ad revenue which totaled $63 million.

This leaves a giant hole in the sex ad industry in which I am sure Craigslist competitors will fight over to fill. I expect to see a lot more affair dating site and sugar daddy dating site advertising coming to a website near you.

To find out about this classifieds site, please read our review of Craigslist.

Plenty of fish launched a new dating website called eVow early this September. It is a service which allows singles to find long term relationships only. Instead of focusing on providing matches like other dating sites which specialize in long term relationships and marriage, eVow plans to allow searching of their profiles. This is the main selling feature of the site at the moment.

In less than 7 days of operation, more than 100,000 people signed up to eVow (thanks to being advertised on POF). The site is currently free but there is a plan to make it a paid dating site soon. New features are also planned for the site which took just under 30 days to create (from when programming started).

You can expect a review of this new relationship site to be available soon.

For more on the story read the POF Blog and to find out further details on the largest free dating site in the world, read our Plenty of Fish review.

Match.com's free dating site DownToEarth.com was launched in early 2009 but by October of the same year the dating site was taken down and replaced by Stir.com. Stir was aimed more at the college age crowd as it allowed singles to more easily find each other and meet up at bars (think a social networking website for the club scene). Well, as of the middle of this month both Stir.com and DownToEarth.com redirect to SinglesNet.com, which Match.com just recently acuired.

For the moment It seems Match.com has stopped with experimenting with new dating and social networking type sites and instead has opted with acquiring other dating sites and creating partnerships (like the latest one with Yahoo! Personals).

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.

The Game Show Network has a new dating TV show called Baggage and it is hosted by none other than Jerry Springer. The show first aired on April 19 and runs weeknights at 6:30pm / 5:30pm central time. Perfectmatch.com is a featured partner of the GSN and will be featured on the show as well. So what is the half hour show Baggage about? It involves 3 contestants and one dater. Jerry Springer coaxes the dater to choose among the others who should reveal their hidden flaws, what people would consider relationship baggage and what most would keep hidden well into a relationship.

Here is Jerry explaining in his own words what his new show is all about:

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

If you are a fan of the Jerry Springer show (which is in its 19th year by the way and one of the longest running TV shows) you should enjoy Jerry's new show Baggage. For more on this new dating show you can check out the Baggage website on the Game Show Network. For further details about the dating site featured on Baggage you can read our Perfectmatch.com review.