Online Dating

A year after laying off 15% of its staff, Zoosk is ending things with another 40 employees. The break up will see the San Francisco-based dating platform part ways with 1/3 of the company.

Despite $61 million in funding, Zoosk has hit hard times. The old-school web dating app first hit it big building extensions for MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, and Bebo. Two years after launch, it reached 40 million registered users and 12 million active users. Bessemer Venture Partners, ATA, Crosslink, and more offered millions in funding. Other money came from selling subscriptions for premium features, like additional ways to contact dates.

Despite its early success, Zoosk has struggled in recent years. The company has found it difficult to adapt to the changing, increasingly mobile-focused times. Apps like Tinder, Hinge and Coffee Meets Bagel now dominate the market, edging out older dating services that haven't evolved to incorporate modern technology.

Zoosk has felt the sting severely. The company was forced to abandon its plans for an initial public offering in 2014, after filing for a $100 million IPO. At the same time, its founders stepped down and former CFO Kelly Steckelberg became CEO. The management shuffle was followed by a layoff of 15% of the company in January 2015.

Circumstances have failed to improve, leading Zoosk to its latest decision to let go another 40 team members. Steckelberg gave TechCrunch this statement:

“This reduction will increase operating efficiencies and streamline responsibilities as we prepare to bring several innovative product announcements to market in 2016. Our optimism for these developments that we expect to positively impact our growth does not diminish the reality of today’s news felt by our staff. We are committed to treating the impacted colleagues with respect and support during this transition.”

Zoosk is not the only one suffering in the current climate. As funding becomes harder to find, a number of startups are having to part ways with staff to stay in business. The online dating market is particularly difficult to compete in, as there are so many options for consumers.

Britanny Carter, an analyst for the research firm IBISWorld, spoke to the Wall Street Journal about the issue. “In terms of revenue, the online-dating industry has matured," she said, "but there are too many players and not a lot are generating sufficient revenue for these sites.”

Unless Zoosk has a major overhaul in store – something that can drag the dated service back into relevance – it may be doomed. It's best hope now could be a buyout from a bigger dating company. For more about this service you can read our review of Zoosk.

Your latest date loves movies, thinks soccer is the greatest sport in the world, and is dying to travel to Tanzania. But what do you really know about them?

Before meeting any online date in the real world, you need to feel comfortable. You want to know they're not going to be a con artist or a serial killer or secretly married. Founded in 2007, BeenVerified is a service that allows you to run background checks, which is ideal for checking out your dates.

BeenVerified is a one stop shop that searches a variety of records to bring you the most complete background checks possible. Using it is easy, fast and affordable, eliminating the need for multiple websites or in-person visits to courthouses and other government buildings. A BeenVerified search combs multiple sources and organizes the results into a clear, easy to understand report for your convenience.

Background check services have flourished in the age of digital dating, but BeenVerified offers one of the most comprehensive available. Records are searched across a wide variety of categories, including criminal history, relatives, addresses and property, names and aliases, phone numbers, and social networking accounts.

One of BeenVerified's most unique features is AlertMe, which monitors public record changes and sends alerts when updates are found. You're saved the tedious tasking of having to stay on top of the data yourself. Another special offering, available for an additional fee, is the Live Court Runner service, which dispatches a court runner to county court houses to obtain real-time criminal records.

Use of the site isn't free, but a variety of subscription options are available to suit different needs and budgets. Subscriptions can be purchased for one month, three months or six months. Each comes with unlimited: contact information, phone lookups, property address lookups, email lookups, criminal court lookups, and bankruptcy lookups. More advanced features can be purchased separately.

Once your report has been compiled, it can be accessed from your BeenVerified dashboard. Simply log into the site, select the report you'd like to view, and navigate using the table of contents on the lefthand side. You can view, download, or print your purchased reports at any time.

BeenVerified also offers free mobile apps for an on-the-go experience. An iOS app is available for iPhones and iPads, as well as an Android app and an app for Apple Watch. You could be mid-dinner with a date and run a check to help put your mind at ease. Staring at your smartphone isn't usually encouraged during dinner, but if it saves you from a dating disaster, you get a pass.

By merging public records into a single report, BeenVerified alleviates the need to visit county clerks, search multiple websites, and pay hundreds of dollars to find the information you need to make the dating process carefree and fun. For more information on this service please read our BeenVerified review.

It's the busiest time of year for online dating. The stretch between Christmas and Valentine's Day is peak season for tech savvy singles. Some are scoring big while others are striking out.

With any luck, you're in the first category. Your date card is so full it's practically become a full-time job. Things are looking up for 2016.

Or maybe not. Maybe you're in the second category, sending message after message into the ether and getting nothing back. That's no way to begin a new year. Fortunately, the folks at Zoosk have compiled some simple suggestions for changing your luck in their "7-Step Guide to Landing a Date."

Here are the highlights:

1. Suggest a date activity if you're really into the person. A recent survey of 3000 Zoosk members revealed that suggesting a movie date increases the response rate to your messages by 91 percent. Other compelling keywords include the beach (59 percent) and a park (39 percent).
2. Send messages in the morning if you're a man and in the evening if you're a woman. Men increase their chance of a response by 10 percent if they send messages between 9 am and 10 am. Women, on the other hand, are nocturnal creatures. Their messages are best sent between 10 pm and 11 pm.
3. Reply within 24 hours. The internet isn't exactly known for its patience. Of those surveyed by Zoosk, 94 percent said they expect a response within 24 hours. Playing too hard to get can easily backfire when more options are only a swipe away.
4. Highlight your individuality. What makes you unique? Your special characteristics are what separate you from the vast sea of singles online. Embrace your glasses, flaunt your tattoos. Just stay away from overtly sexual messages, which Zooskers give a digital thumbs down.
5. Watch the character count. Men aren't picky when it comes to message length, but women expect more effort. Forty percent of the female users Zoosk surveyed said they prefer messages that are longer than the 140 characters of a tweet.
6. Expect to send multiple messages. Establishing rapport online takes more than a single sitting. Around half of singles polled said they exchange five messages before meeting a new suitor in person.

What's step 7, you ask? Start adding dates to your calendar.

Follow Zook's seven rules and you'll set yourself for a 2016 that's brimming with romantic possibilities.

You'd think we'd all be experts at choosing photos by now. We need them for Facebook, for Twitter, for Instagram, for Snapchat, for LinkedIn... even our Gmail accounts can display an image. So why do we still find it so difficult to select photos that are accurate, flattering and appropriate?

The pressure is even stronger on a dating service. You're desperate to find the photo that says “I'm fun, laidback, ambitious, adventurous, funny, friendly, good with pets and parents, and – duh – attractive as hell.” It's enough to make any head spin.

It's time to end your era of inadequate photos. If you have any of these images on your profile, delete them ASAP.

1. The bathroom mirror selfie. Let's start with the obvious. It's 2016, so selfies are standard – but that's no excuse for taking one with a toilet in the background. Ideally, you don't need a mirror at all. Step up your selfie game and use the front-facing camera. If you just can't resist the allure of a mirror shot, use one somewhere else in the house. No one needs to see how often you scrub your shower.
2. The behind the times photo. Once you had hair like Fabio. Now you're Bruce Willis bald. Who cares? There's no shame in embracing your current self in all its glorious imperfections. What is shameful is pretending you're someone you aren't anymore to get more dates. It will be obvious immediately when you meet in person. Save yourself the embarrassment and your date the irritation by posting current pictures.
3. The heavily filtered 'gram. See above. Do you want to be greeted by a look of disappointment on your date's face when they realize you look nothing like your photos? It's the era of Instagram, so you're bound to run into filtered photos on dating services, but don't edit your face until you look like a completely different person (or, worse, an alien).
4. The group shot. Um... so which one are you? Today's singles are impatient and it only takes a second to swipe left on your profile. Don't make prospective dates play a game of Where's Waldo? with your photos. Even if you include a caption identifying yourself, there's only so much someone can see when you're just one figure amongst many. Your dates want to know what you actually look like.
5. The cropped out ex. Yikes. Did every single picture of you get deleted except that one? Because that's the only excuse for using it. Sure, your ex is out of the picture (literally), but isn't it still kind of weird that that's the photo you chose for your dating profile? A cropped or blurred out ex just looks odd. And for that matter, don't leave the ex in, either.

What's the worst photo you've seen on a dating profile? Share your best snap mishaps in the comments.

The New Year is here – and the majority of us seem motivated to make positive changes in our lives. In addition to healthy diets and exercise regimens, many people have also vowed to make changes to find love this year – whether it’s making more time to date, committing to finding a relationship, or even making an attitude adjustment.

So what has been holding you back from pursuing a long-term relationship? Do you find yourself getting frustrated from the online dating process? Do you feel that relationships don’t ever work out for you? Or are you just not meeting the right person?

With dating, we have to get clear about what we want before we can expect a relationship. And that means looking at our online dating profiles and making some changes. After all, it’s your marketing tool – your first introduction to potential dates and your chance to make a good first impression. So why not spend some time on it, so you can attract the kind of person you’d like to meet?

Following are some simple profile changes to make to get 2016 started on the right foot:

Change your photos. This is an easy and effective way to spruce things up in 2016. Look for photos that show your whole body as well as a headshot. Include shots of you doing yoga, surfing, hiking, playing guitar, or whatever else you like to do. People look through photos before reading profiles, so try to tell a story through yours.

Reconsider your handle. People do make snap judgments about handles. If you have a sexually suggestive one, get another – it’s a big turn-off for women. Or if it’s too generic, like John1987, opt instead for one that includes a hobby or favorite song, for instance. Get creative.

Pick a topic and get specific. Instead of including a laundry list of likes and dislikes in your description, try naming a specific thing and telling a story. For instance, if you like to travel, instead of just listing where you’ve been, think of a favorite trip and describe what it was like, or tell a funny story of something that happened to you. The goal is to get potential dates to message you, ask a question, start a conversation.

No generic phrases. Liking to “Netflix and chill” is not a good way to attract a potential relationship – nor is the fact that you are “looking for a partner in crime” or that you “love to laugh.” Doesn’t everyone love to laugh? What tells a story about you is what makes you laugh. Do you like comedy shows, or telling bad jokes, or is there a favorite Instagram feed that makes you giggle? Show that you have interests, where you like to go on the weekends, or the fact that waking up to Rihanna's music helps get you through the work day. Potential dates know that anyone can sit on the couch and watch TV, but they really want to know who you are and what sets you apart. Think of it this way: write phrases that can start conversations.

Admit it: you're no stranger to taking selfies. In 2015, it's inevitable that you've at least tried it (even if you deleted it immediately afterwards in embarrassment).

But what if your selfie could do something useful? That's the premise behind dating app Blume, which hopes to solve one of the biggest problems in the dating industry: the uncertainty about who’s actually behind the profiles you're into.

Con artists lurk in the darkest corners of online dating. And even if you manage to avoid the seriously scammy profiles, there's a good chance you'll have a run in with someone who just doesn't match their photos. It's practically a rite of passage for online daters.

On Blume, photographic self-portraits save the day. Users connect via profiles, but match via freshly taken selfies. Deceptive profiles are more easily weeded out, and catfish may be more discouraged from joining in the first place. Add it all up, and you have an app that creates a safe and trusted environment in which users can feel certain about each other's true identites.

Blume users begin with a main screen that shows people nearby. If two people 'Like' each other, they connect. When a connection is made, both parties must send a selfie to each other. The photo lasts seven seconds after it's opened before disappearing forever and, in another shoutout to Snapchat, text can be placed over the picture as an icebreaker.

If you're not in selfie mode when a match is made (because let's face it, you're probably searching while you're languishing in bed with a head-pounding hangover), you can reuse a single selfie up to five times.

If you take a screenshot on Blume, you will automatically be banned for 2 hours for a first offense. Further screenshots result in a 7-day ban, a 30-day ban and, after 4 illicit screenshots, a permanent ban from the app. Blume is serious about keeping conversations, selfies and other user content private.

When a mutual match is made, any text laid over the top of the selfies is automatically transferred into a chat session and full profiles are revealed. Once in the chat, you can swipe left to send further selfies.

If uncertainty about who is behind a profile is the top problem for online daters, the second could be difficulty establishing real emotional connections when you meet through a screen. Blume also hopes selfies will help with the latter by making online dating a more intimate experience.

"We really wanted to solve these problems and make online dating a lot more personal, fun and safe at the same time,” co-founder and CEO Daniel Delouya told Bustle.