General News

It’s been a busy month for Spark Networks. The owner of ChristianMingle, JDate, BlackSingles. and more, has released its financial results for the second quarter of 2014, and will soon be getting a new CEO.

Revenue in Q2 2014 was $15.8 million, a decrease of 10% from the previous year’s $17.6 million. A 9% decrease in average paying subscribers – reflecting an 8% and 7% decline in average paying subscribers for the Christian and Jewish Networks segments, respectively – is the primary reason for the overall drop in revenue.

On the plus side, expenses were down. Direct marketing expenses in the second quarter of 2014 were $7.9 million, a decrease of 43% from Q2 2013. Total cost and expenses dropped 19% from the previous year, to $16.8 million this year. Net loss in the second quarter of 2014 was $1.1 million, or $0.05 per share, compared to a net loss of $3.3 million, or $0.15 per share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of 2014 was a loss of $363,000, an improvement of 84% compared to the year-ago period.

Much of the good news comes from Christian Networks, which accounted for most of the decreased expenses thanks to improved marketing efficiency and growth in the winback and renewal subscriber bases. Christian Networks was also responsible for bumping contribution up in the second quarter of 2014 to $7.8 million, an increase of 109% from the year before. This is the first time Christian Networks has generated positive contribution in 15 quarters.

All this comes at a time of major change for Spark Networks. President & CEO Greg Liberman has left the company, leaving Michael McConnell – the company’s Chairman of the Board – to serve as Executive Chairman until Liberman’s successor is in place.

“It has been an incredible ten years, and I am honored to have spent more than half of my professional career at such a special company,” said Liberman. “Spark is a relationship business in every sense of the word. Through iconic brands like JDate and ChristianMingle, we create countless relationships for our members every day. But, behind the scenes, it’s the relationships we have in the communities we serve and the relationships within our team that drive everything.

Suffice it to say, I am extremely proud and grateful to have played a role in building and leading such an amazing team, and to have had the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with them to transform this company and business. In their hands, Spark’s future is very bright.”

For more on these two dating sites you can read our reviews of ChristianMingle.com and JDate.com.

Oh boy. Just when you thought online dating couldn’t get any more stressful, you now have to worry about what feedback your date is sharing with the site that connected you.

Zoosk recently announced the launch of Date Feedback, a new feature that will allow members to provide commentary on their online dating experience. When Zoosk’s system recognizes that two users have exchanged a significant number of messages, Date Feedback will ask each to offer their opinions on how the conversation progressed and the likelihood of an off-line meetup. Zoosk hopes the new feature will provide valuable insight into the matchmaking process.

“At Zoosk, we are constantly improving our technology to help our members discover fulfilling relationships, and Date Feedback will be one of the first ways we’re able to add offline dates to the list of signals our algorithm can take into account for matchmaking,” said Shayan Zadeh, Co-Founder and CEO of Zoosk. “With the launch of Date Feedback and the important data points it adds, our platform will have the ability to become that much more adept at understanding how a member’s online dating experience transitions into an in-person meeting, and hopefully, a relationship.”

The goal is to offer each member a more personalized experience. By gathering data on what conditions are most likely to lead to in-person dates (and, afterwards, relationships), Zoosk is hoping to improve its Behavioral Matchmaking engine. The matching system will be better able to predict which introductions will lead to successful offline connections, making the website a more powerful tool than ever before.

It’s no surprise to see Zoosk taking a more technological approach to dating. The company has always espoused a tech-based methodology for matching, rather than a strategy based on self-reported questionnaires. The Behavioral Matchmaking engine works by tracking a user’s actions on the site – like where the user clicks and what messages s/he sends and responds to – in order to deliver better matches. Rather than using a one-size-fits all, static approach to dating (like a quiz or fixed profile), Zoosk constantly updates to accommodate your preferences and adapts its dating experience to your actions.

Now is a particularly good time for Zoosk to bring out the heavy artillery. Though it has yet to turn a profit, revenue continues to grow and the company filed documentation to become a public company in April. Zoosk plans to raise $100 million in its initial public offering later this year.

For more information on this dating site you can read our review of Zoosk.

In a recent interview with Business Insider, eHarmony CEO Neil Clark Warren lamented the growing popularity of dating apps like Tinder, where users can swipe left and right after judging someone based on a few photos and short description. Many people prefer the ease and accessibility of dating apps to filling out long questionnaires or writing detailed profiles.

As a psychologist, Warren has touted the benefits of matching based on compatibility - eHarmony's mission and the basis of its marketing – as opposed to the pitfalls of just leaving things to chance. He believes that the game-like dating experience apps like Tinder offer could lead to superficial relationships that don't last for the long-term. 

"I’m sad about it, to tell you the truth, because it doesn't work," he told Business Insider. "It won’t work over time. These new apps tend to be so superficial. They will allure a lot of people into thinking that they belong together when they perhaps don’t belong together at all. They’re depending on superficial almost accidental compatibility. Compatibility is a serious matter, and it’s very deep and very important to figure out."

Tinder has taken the dating world by storm, almost rendering traditional online dating sites with algorithms and matching technology passé. Instead, Tinder has managed to present dating as more like a game - something that engages people and is easy to use, if not very focused on the end result.

But one has to ask: why should any dating app or online dating company be invested in people coupling up? It takes away their business in an industry that relies on sheer numbers in order to sell their product or attract investment dollars.

Dr. Warren however, maintains that he is focused on the end goal: matching people for the long-term, and doing it scientifically. He tells Business Insider that while "it isn't horrible to date people who aren't perfect for you," he thinks that these relationships will accidentally extend into something long-term, like marriage, where the partners eventually split. 

"These companies that are bringing out these apps, they haven't done any careful research about what works," Warren said. "They're just trying to throw something out there that makes money for the company."

He added: "As a psychologist, I've presided over the funerals of an awful lot of marriages, and I've seen people suffer a tremendous amount of pain who went through horrible divorces."

While this might be a little misleading - after all, to some extent, love happens by chance - be it through a dating app or an online dating site, or even while standing in line for your morning coffee. Connection happens, and sometimes it just has to be pursued, regardless of how compatible you are. But for those looking for more serious relationships, would you place your heart in the hands of Tinder or eHarmony?

 

Even the most open-minded singles come to online dating with preconceived notions about who’s on the other side of the screen, but AYI.com is here to put those speculations to rest.

AYI collected data from some of its 50,000 active UK members to find out exactly who the average user is. Though technology might seem like a young person’s game, you may be surprised to learn that the average age of a male online dater is 44 and the average age of a female online dater is 42. Perhaps the younger generations have all migrated to Tinder and other mobile dating apps, preferring to search for love on-the-go on their smartphones.

Where appearance is concerned, there’s no shortage of online dating horror stories. But is it really as bad as it seems? Sure, not everyone is Ryan Gosling, but they’re not Gollum either. According to AYI’s research, the average height of a male online dater is 5’10”, while the average height of a female dater is 5’4”. Both men and women claim to be “about average” where body type is concerned. Admittedly, an “average body” is a completely subjective concept, but it’s also exactly what you’d expect if you’re trying to construct a profile of the “average online dater.”

There are also other ways in which average male daters and average female daters sync up. Both say they drink “socially,” exercise “once or twice per week,” never smoke, and have an average diet. See? The sexes aren’t so different after all.

Where some things are concerned, anyway. The average man and woman start to diverge when their personal history and family plans come into play. The average male online dater has never been married before, but the average female dater is searching for a new romance after going through a divorce. And because the average woman has already been married, she also typically has multiple children and says she isn’t interested in having any more. The average man, on the other hand, is not a parent and says he may consider having kids someday.

Career-wise, AYI members have plenty of options to choose from - from teacher, to civil servant, to retiree. But despite the wealth of options, most people select “other profession.” Which pretty much means one of three things: 1) They have an embarrassing profession, 2) They’re wealthy and don’t want to be judged by their money, or 3) They’re a super spy.

Personally, I’m going to be hoping for #3.

A recent article in The New York Times shed light on a particular problem that’s been rearing its ugly head lately: companies are conducting secret experiments with users of social media and online dating sites. Facebook recently revealed that it manipulated the emotional content of news feeds of 700,000 people to see if emotions were contagious. In addition, OkCupid recently shared the results of its own three secret studies of users.

In one test, OkCupid obscured profile pictures so that people could communicate, but they couldn’t see who they were communicating with. The dating site found that members had more meaningful conversations, exchanged more contact details, and responded to first messages more often. When pictures were revealed, many conversations stopped.

In another test, OkCupid hid profile text to see how it affected personality ratings. In general, more attractive users were regarded as more personable – in other words, users were equating looks with personality – even though there wasn’t much information to go on.

The third experiment was the cause of the most controversy, where the site lied to a portion of users, telling them that matches who were (according to OkCupid algorithms) 90% compatible were actually only 30%, and matches with very little compatibility were told they had high compatibility. The end result? Communication went up when people thought they were being matched with someone very compatible, because OkCupid gave them that impression of compatibility, even if it wasn’t the truth.

While it’s interesting to note that people can be swayed by looks and influenced by what a dating site tells them might work, is it really going to improve the overall experience of online dating? In other words, we might track people’s behavior to understand it a little better, but deceiving people to see how they behave is a slippery slope, and doesn’t really improve the current dating experience on OkCupid (or any site). As the study noted, as soon as the pictures were revealed, people went back to their old patterns of behavior.

Facebook and OkCupid aren’t the only sites studying user behavior, and probably aren’t the only sites conducting experiments on users. But before we continue down this path, it’s important to ask: who are these studies really benefitting? Are they helping us to become more open-minded daters? So far, not really.

The study succeeded in making online daters even more cynical about online dating. How do they know if what OkCupid is telling them about compatibility or ratings is true? It makes the already confusing world of dating a little less friendly and upfront. Dating needs more honesty, not less.

eHarmony has started today a 4 day Free Communication Weekend which runs from 12:01AM Friday, August 15th to 11:59PM Monday, August 18th (Pacific Standard Time).

This will most likely be the last free communication weekend (FCW) of the summer. So if you are interested in trying out this dating service, now is the chance to do it for no cost and with no credit card required.

All new and existing free members participate in FCW so once you have created your membership account and taken the personality questionnaire all you need to do is review your new matches. Once you have selected one or more members you would like to converse with you then start the guided communication process. This is a series of 3 or 4 questions that you ask your match. He or she will then answer the questions along with asking their own. This process is a great way to break the ice and helps get the conversation going. Once it is complete you can then start mailing the person directly. This FCW does not include eHarmony's secure call, profile photos or skip straight to email. To enable these features you will would have to purchase a subscription.

To find out more about this dating site / dating app you can read our eHarmony review.