Date.com

The first month of the New Year to Valentine's Day is the season where online dating is usually is at its busiest. The owners of Date.com and MatchMaker.com have a promotion which gives singles a 10 day free trial to try out their dating services (the original promotion was 7 days). The free trial acts just like a paid membership and gives you full email and instant messaging access. Just type in this coupon code when you sign up as a new member:

Newyears10

For more information on these 2 online dating sites, read our Date.com review and our MatchMaker.com review.

There is a promising future for mobile dating as predicted by Juniper Research. They claim the value of the chatroom market and mobile dating will grow to almost $1.4 billion by 2013. For the most part revenue will be generated by subscriptions but event-based charging (like paying a fee to contact someone or virtual gifts) and advertising will continue to become a larger part of the revenue stream.

... many companies which have migrated to this approach are seeing conversion rates amongst customers buying premium rate goods and services which generate revenues significantly in excess of those achieved under flat rate subscriptions.

By 2011 it is predicted less than 30 percent of mobile dating customers will be on a flat rate subscription model. China and Japan currently have the largest number of mobile dating customers.

There is no mention what the 2008 revenue is for this market. Currently from our reviewed online dating services, Match.com (called matchMobile), Date.com, Lavalife, DatingDirect and Shaadi.com all offer a mobile phone service along with their dating website. Other sites like MeetMoi also offer location based mobile dating based on the GPS in your phone (with lots of privacy options of course). With the rise of 3G and the large bandwidth it provides I expect to see the rise of video mobile dating as well.

For reviews on dating services that offer a mobile/cell phone dating service check out our new Mobile Dating Category.

As mention in a story we did in the spring, Avalanche is on track and has finished their first phase of international expansion. Avalanche is the parent company of Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor. These dating sites are now available in Spanish, Portuguese and German languages. Plus, subscribers can now pay by using the popular PayPal service. Avalanche decided to offer Paypal as a payment option because:

Statistically, Europe as a whole has less than 50% penetration rate for credit cards, with specific countries significantly lower, as Europeans prefer local payment options to pay for transactions.

Members who use Paypal gets the added advantage of not sharing financial information and are able to use many additional payment options. This means international members don't need a US bank account anymore.

Read our Date.com review, Amor.com review and Matchmaker.com review for more information on these dating services.

The company Avalanche, which owns Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor.com, released a press release which reviews how these dating sites are performing this year. Avalanche's revenue grew 17% in the first two quarters of 2008 when compared to the same period last year. The release also points out increased activity on the dating sites with members logging in more often and staying online longer. This activity has been increasing by at least 3% per month since the start of Avalanche's fiscal year. In total this means a 26% increase in member activity. New subscriber numbers have also risen but no percentages where released.

With many dating sites appearing to be reaching a plateau this year thanks to in part the recent economic conditions, the Avalanche suite of dating services have been performing well. While revenue increases don't help singles directly (unless used to help improve the site) the increase in member activity does. I just wish Avalanche had released their new subscribers numbers so we had a better idea on how things look.

For more information on these dating sites read the following reviews:

• Amor.com Review
• Date.com Review
• Matchmaker.com Review

Date.com, Amor.com and Matchmaker.com (all owned by Avalanche, LLC) will soon be available in multiple languages. Enlaso will be doing the translation services for Avalanche. They offer enterprise language solutions to companies who not only need translation services but business and cultural perspectives as well. In the press release they mention "localizing" the dating sites, I wonder if this means a redefining of the profile depending on the country and the culture? Match.com International does this with great success, they ask dating profile questions that are more relevant to where you live (see The Issues with International Online Dating).

By the end of 2008 all 3 dating services will be translated and localized into Spanish, Portuguese and German and by 2010 there will be another 15 languages added. With online dating growth leveling off in North America, Avalanche is looking to international markets to help grow its subscriber base. Since 1997, Avalanches largest dating site, Date.com, has had more than 20 million members worldwide.

I've decided to do a little more research of my own on the Better Business Bureau in regards to dating sites. This was after seeing an article about rising complaints (see Increased Complaints Registered Against Dating Services).

First a bit more on how the BBB works. To do a BBB search on a company visit their home page. The best way I found to find dating sites was to type in the domain name without the www prefix. Just a note here, most free or small dating sites are not found on the BBB. Once you have initiated a search, a list of companies may then come up. Some have nothing to do with what you are looking for while others may deal with separate branches or offices of the company. As an example, do a search on "yahoo.com" and you will get 22 results. Another thing to remember (which I didn't realize at first) is a company doesn't have to be a member to have a report on them. Actual BBB members are denoted with an icon and usually contain a lot more information than companies that are not members. When you click on the name of the company it will bring you to the report page of the company on the local Better Business Bureau website. These local BBB websites are not all the same and some have a lot more information available than others. All the information I am giving below seems to be how most of the BBB websites display their information. Some BBB sites like the one serving Los Angeles displays the information differently. They grade the company and actually shows some or all of the customers complaints. This seems to be an update to the service and may be how other BBB sites will soon follow.