General News

There’s no doubt about it, mobile dating is on the rise, and poised to take over the traditional online dating industry.

The figures are staggering: mobile dating apps were a billion-dollar industry in 2011, and by 2016, the market is poised to be worth 2.3 billion. This is a huge opportunity for some of the newer dating app developers, and also an opportunity for traditional online dating companies to improve their mobile platforms, as most have been doing the past couple of years.

While many app companies offer free downloads, they make money through advertising deals or through “freemium” services – that is, offering the basic service for free with added “extras” like more matches or instant communication features for a price.

According to an article in The Washington Post, a recent conference in June brought together people from the tech industry to try out different mobile dating apps for a couple of weeks, to see how they fared. The experiences varied for both men and women, with most agreeing that mobile dating offered a more casual dating experience. However, the more a dating app mimicked real life, the more successful the users’ experience with it.

Many daters find a level of comfort in apps that verify through Facebook or other means, for obvious reasons. With online dating, there is a safety factor to consider, especially for women, when you are meeting a complete stranger. There are also plenty of fake dating profiles with traditional sites and some apps, sometimes used to lure unsuspecting singles.

Most mobile apps however are tied to social media accounts like Facebook in order to verify that the dater is a real person. This adds a layer of security that allow users of an app like Hinge to meet someone they don’t know through friends.

Of course, meeting someone through friends is preferable in real life, so it makes sense that it is also preferable in a mobile dating app. Coffee Meets Bagel is an app that provides matches through your Facebook circles – that is, friends of friends - so you have to have a mutual friend in order to date. According to the company, the more mutual friends two singles have, the more likely they are to say yes to a date. In fact, if they have four mutual friends, they are 90% more likely to say yes.

This isn’t a coincidence. Since so many people are online dating, and dating with technology can feel intimidating to many, it makes the experience easier when you have friends in common.

Will newer dating apps come up with even more organic ways of meeting people? Since the mobile dating industry is only getting bigger, it seems the likely choice.

To find a list of popular services that you can use on your phone, please check out our Dating Apps category.

Starting tomorrow and ending this Sunday eHarmony is offering a coupon code for members to receive 50% off on a 6 month membership. You can use the coupon code on the eHarmony website or dating app but it must be used from September 25th to (and including) September 28th, 2014.

The coupon code is: GET50OFF

Once you create a free profile and fill out the personality questionnaire you will be prompted if you want to purchase a subscription or continue on as a free account. A free account allows you to try out most of eHarmony's features but it does not include profile pictures and sending email. If you choose to purchase a subscription you will then be asked to enter the coupon code.

This code is for the United States only and reduces the 6 month eHarmony subscription by 50% which means it will only cost you $29.95 a month. To find out more about this dating service and why it is so popular you can read our review of eHarmony.

Breakups are never easy, especially when it means losing your job. Spark Networks, the company behind dating sites like ChristianMingle.com and JDate.com, has announced that it's cut its workforce and has made substantial progress in expense reduction initiatives. The measures are expected to save the company $4.5 million to $5 million a year.

Although Spark did not disclose exactly how many jobs were cut, the company had previously reported that it had 201 full-time equivalent employees as of December 31. The company expects to incur pre-tax cash charges of approximately $1.3mm for severance benefits and other related expenses.

The cuts come at an interesting time for Spark Networks. Lately, its sites have seen an increasing number of their customers turn to competing services. The company has also undergone a number of recent changes in its corporate structure. David Hughes, formerly chief executive at a digital marketing firm in West Los Angeles, resigned as a director after joining Spark Networks’ board just six months prior. He will be replaced by Jonathan R. Mather, a former Netgear chief financial officer.

Hughes’ exit comes only two months after a very public ousting of four of Spark's six directors (including Chief Executive Greg Liberman). The hope is that a fresh crop of directors will be better able to help the company rise above the competition in difficult times.

Free dating sites like OkCupid and mobile apps like Tinder are dominating the market and have made life difficult for services like Christian Mingle and JDate. Spark Networks experienced a 10% drop in revenue during the second quarter, to $15.8 million. The company reported a total of $29 million in net losses over the last three years.

Looking to future, Spark Networks plans to head back to basics. It's putting its focus on three things in hopes of boosting subscriber count and revenue:

1. Upgrading its product offerings
2. Improving its processes for subscriber acquisition, retention, and renewal
3. Refining its marketing strategy

"Much has been accomplished over the last 30-days to refocus the business on its core properties and to drive operational efficiencies,” said Executive Chairman Michael McConnell in a statement.

“Moving forward, I believe the opportunity to profitably grow our business is significant and we are prepared to execute on strategic growth initiatives that meet our return on capital hurdles. Further, the team is operating with a sense of urgency and commitment to drive improvements in all areas of the business. Importantly, I am confident in the resilience and resonance of our brands within our targeted communities."

Wow this year is going fast. The year 2014 is quickly coming to a close which means it is time for us to start thinking about the Dating Sites Reviews Awards. Just last Monday we released the first step in the Awards which is the Single's Choice Award poll. This poll is our most prestigious award and it is decided by you, our readers. The poll is made up of 2 questions. The first question asks what you think is the best paid dating service and the second question asks what you think the top free dating service is for 2014. For each question we list the most popular dating services in North America for the year (that fit within the category). When determining your choice please consider not only the website itself but any dating apps the service may have.

With online dating this year, mobile phones have played a huge part in the success of any dating service. For singles under the age of 35 at least 80% choose to access a dating service through its app. This year also marks a first for the Single Choice Award. One of the options to choose from in the top free service category is a dating app. This service is not offered through a website, you can only access it via your phone or tablet.

Please go ahead and cast your vote in the Single Choice Award:

At this time we at Dating Sites Reviews also start considering which dating service deserves to be recognized in our Top Pick Award categories. The recipients of these awards are determined by the Editor’s. We take into account a number of different factors, these include everything from the features offered to customer service.

For 2014 the categories for the Editor's Top Picks Awards include:

• Top Pick - Overall
• Top Pick - Innovative
• Top Pick - Match System
• Top Pick - Christian
• Top Pick - Senior
• Top Pick - Wealthy
• Top Pick - Sexy
• Top Pick - Dating App
• Top Pick - Free

With mobile being so popular we have decided to add a new category this year. We will be looking at dating apps and picking which one we think offers the best user experience.

This is the eighth year for the DSR Awards. Starting in January, each week we will release our choices for the Top Pick Awards ending with the winner of the Single's Choice Award on Valentine's Day in February.

Related items: Poll - 2014 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award.

We live in a crazy world. And at the moment, nothing is greater proof of that and the fact that there is a Christian Mingle movie.

Yes, that Christian Mingle. The dating website that promises devout singles it will "find God's match for you." Someone in Hollywood apparently thought that sounded like a rip-roaring good time of a rom-com, and here we are, wondering what led us to this strange and confusing place.

Oh yeah, and did I mention that the lead role is played by Lacey Chabert, most notable for her turn as the ditzy Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls? It just gets better and better.

Allegedly there is also a plot. It follows Chabert’s character, a 30-something marketing executive named Gwyneth Hayden, whose life is perfect except for one thing: it's missing a man. In a moment of desperation, she joins the Christian Mingle dating site in hopes of changing her fortunes – even though she is not a Christian. Here’s a synopsis of the rest of the film:

If you’ve spent any time online dating, you’ve run into some bad profiles, and likely some bad dates, too. How many of us have said at some point “online dating sucks” or “I can’t meet any good guys online!”

According to dating coach Evan Marc Katz at a Tedx Talk he did in May, there’s a reason for this negative perception, but it’s not what we think. He points out that men and women think of online dating very differently, because they have different experiences. Namely, men are typically the ones reaching out to women to try and capture attention and women are the ones sifting through a ton of unwanted messages. So neither one is getting what they want, and both are blaming each other.

Men tend to be reactionary when it comes to online dating. Katz claims they feel like failures at it because they don’t seem to get responses right away (and they tend to look for instant gratification), so they feel the pressure to come up with a more winning formula. This formula is casting a wide net – if they reach out to as many women as possible as quickly as possible, they have a better shot at getting responses and hopefully getting to that date.

The women however, are getting either mass emails, emails that are sexually forward, or long essays about why a man would make a good match. None of these tactics work, because women can tell when it’s a mass email, and they typically don’t respond to sexually aggressive or forward emails because it makes them feel unsafe, and they don’t read the long essays because there isn’t enough time! So guys experience more failure, they cast an even wider net, and keep on repeating the same mistakes.

As Katz says, if both genders understood what was going on behind the scenes, they would have a much better time online dating, and they would have more success. He goes on to give some tips to help:

Use the 2/2/2 rule. Katz suggests the following formula (over the course of a week) can accommodate both men’s and women’s objectives: start with 2 emails back and forth on the dating site, then move to 2 emails off the dating site via your personal accounts, then 2 phone calls (not a text), then go on the date. The point is to find a good balance for both of you, which makes the men more successful and the women feel more comfortable interacting. When you step back and try to treat online dating more like meeting for the first time in real life, you’ll be much more successful.

Think of how real-life connections happen. The reason people get frustrated with online dating is because it doesn’t feel as good as meeting in person and having attraction grow organically. But Katz maintains this can happen online, too. It's all about trying to connect instead of moving quickly through a bunch of candidates or dismissing most of your emails. Most guys get impatient, and most women feel uncomfortable unless there is some kind of connection before a first date.

Both sides just have to put in a little effort.

To find out more on how to find someone online you can check our reviews on some of Evan Marc Katz dating guides.