POF (Plenty of Fish)

An article at the Globe & Mail looks at the increased popularity of online dating since the downturn in the economy which started in the fall. They include a couple of reasons for this. The main point mentioned is, people rather use online dating first to filter out the duds (their word) before spending good money on an expensive dinner.

It's a pretty good deal at $25 a month to go out and meet people online, versus going out and spending 50 to 100 bucks per night and possibly not meeting anyone.

The other reason they suggest is bad times makes people re-prioritize what is important in life. I agree with both of these points, plus I think online dating is also a good distraction from bad times. Nothing legal gives you a better high than when you find someone that gives you that butterfly feeling in your stomach.

The article also gave us a few more statistics of some of our reviewed dating sites. Lavalife member registrations are up 11 percent from November with Toronto leading the charge with a 20 percent increase (Lavalife is based in Toronto). Messaging among members on Lavalife is also at a 6 month high. At the same time Plenty of Fish has had a banner year with a 77 percent increase from December 2007 until December 2008. Apparently about 900,000 people log in every day. A poll at Date.com also discovered that almost 50 percent of members are now spending more time on their dating site making sure they have found Mr or Miss Right before they go out on a date.

I am in the midst of setting up a new category for free dating sites and it will initially include reviews for the following 3 free dating services.

• DownToEarth.com
• OkCupid.com
• PlentyOfFish.com

These dating reviews will be setup the same way as our other reviews and users will have the ability to submit their own reviews of these dating services as well. I hope to get everything together by the end of February.

PlentyOfFish.com has had some features updated last weekend and has dropped the paid virtual gifts. The virtual gifts lasted a little more than a month and a half. The only reason given according to Markus on his blog for dropping them was, "not really core to what we are doing". Markus has been looking for more ways to make money on his site and this was his first foray into offering a paid feature on PlentyOfFish.com. Obviously people didn't use the paid virtual gifts to often. I'm thinking the prices where to high. It cost between $12 to $30 to send a virtual flower to a member. Maybe lowering the prices by at least half would have made a difference?

I'm thinking Markus still has some ideas up his sleeve for other paid features on his dating site. Maybe charging for better placement in search results or a profile highlighted option?

A while ago we asked the question Is PlentyOfFish.com going to offer Paid Memberships? Well, it looks like the owner, Markus, will be offering some products and additional features for sale on Plenty of Fish sometime soon. He didn't mention or hint at what the new products or features might be. The reason Marcus gave for his eventual switch from what POF's slogan, 100% Free. Put Away Your Credit Card is:

There is really no money in being free and we have to start experimenting with other models now or we won’t be able to compete in 3 or 4 years.

Now Markus does make a fair bit of money, especially for the low overhead he has but it is not even close to what other popular dating sites are reporting as income. Markus will have to be careful here and I am sure he will take a slow approach to what he plans to offer as not to scare off his members. Products for sale will be the easiest way to go at first. Having real flowers and candy on the site for sale (instead of the virtual kind) could be a big seller. Especially if it is implemented in a way that makes it quick and easy to choose the person and the flowers to send.

I really doubt Plenty of Fish will go completely paid. Instead I see them offering enhancements to existing free memberships. This could include things like improved customer service, profile listing highlighting, having your profile appear higher in search results and an improved matching system. Of course, this is all just speculation. We will have to just wait to see what POF has in store for it's members.

For more information on this service your can read our POF review.

A press release from PlentyOfFish.com takes a look at some of their membership numbers and how more women now seem to be looking for intimate encounters. Currently members on Plenty of Fish looking for long term relationships have a male to female ratio of 55:46. Women looking for a casual dating experience when compared to men is 5 to 1. While men still out number woman, the situation is much better than in 2004 were the male to female ratio was 10 to 1. The release also predicts within a decade the ratio of men to women looking for intimate encounters online will reach 1 to 1.

For more reviews on dating sites that offer casual dating, check our our Sexy Singles Dating Category.

Markus Frind, CEO of Plentoffish.com, blog has a post today called Lots of changes lately…. In his post Markus mentions 5 interesting points he has noticed in the dating industry. I think he may need to add another point to his list. The reason for this is he also asks the question:

Here is a question for everyone what are the best merchant accounts to use?

Merchant accounts are used by websites who offer paid services or goods to process credit cards, online cheques and debit cards. Markus has hired a few people lately and is obviously working on something. I wonder if he is planning to offer a paid membership that has some added benefits? Maybe he is adding some other type of dating related service? He hasn't given us any real hints. The merchant account could even be for a whole new project which isn't even related to PlentyOfFish.com.

Has anyone else heard any rumours?

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