General News

The big game has come and gone (and my home team took the trophy!), but that doesn't mean it's too late to take a look at what single women think of Super Bowl XLVI. Zoosk asked more than 1,000 ladies about what they think of football, the players, and how the biggest match of the year might be affecting their dating lives. This is what they had to say:

• Think that women aren't into sports? Think again! 91% of single women said that being taken to Indianapolis to see the game would be a dream date. You may have missed your opportunity to woo her with tickets this year, but at least now you know a great gift to get your girl for 2013.

• Is the famous "women's intuition" good enough to predict the winner of this year's game? 51% of women said the Patriots would be victorious and 49% put their bets on the Giants. I guess women's intuition will have to prove itself elsewhere.

• Women really only watch the game for the commercials and the halftime show, right? Wrong. 66% said they're in it for the actual football, compared to 20% who said they're only interested in the commercials and just 14% who tuned in for Madonna and the rest of the halftime crew.

• Quarterbacks are the undisputed sexiest players on the field. 68% of female Patriots fans voted Tom Brady into the top position, and 61% of Giants fans gave the title to Eli Manning. Patriots supporters put Rob Gronkowski and Chad Ochocinco the second and third places, respectively, while Justin Trattou took second and Ahmad Bradshaw took third for the Giants.

• Women may be more into the game than they are into the halftime show or the commercials, but they're not into betting on it. Less than half of single Zooskers (34%) said they had plans to participate in a Super Bowl pool.

• A narrow majority of women (55%) thought that the man they voted the sexiest in the game, Tom Brady, had what it takes to get a 4th ring in spite of his injuries and lack of defense support, but it looks like they'll have to rethink who they'll be supporting for next year.

• Lady Gaga who? Madonna is still the queen of pop, and the song single ladies were most hoping to hear her perform during the halftime show was "Express Yourself."

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to celebrating with my fellow New Yorkers. See ya next year, football fans...

For more information on the dating site who compiled these statistics you can read our Zoosk.com review.

Market Research released a new report this month on the current US dating service market. In it they state that dating services are a $2.1 billion business with online dating representing 53 percent of the market (other types include print personals, matchmakers, etc.). Year over year since 2001 online dating has become more popular. This year though, revenue is only expected to grow 7.5 percent in the United States. The reason for this is that competition has exploded with an estimated 1,500 dating sites serving the US. Dating sites also have found that they are competing more with social networking sites. That is why dating companies in the US are starting to expand into Europe where the next online dating boom is predicted to happen.

In 2007 it was reported that by 2012 revenue projected for the entire dating industry would be $1.9 Billion. It looks like the projection was only about 10 percent off. JupiterResearch (who also offer industry reports) also estimated revenue for the year 2007 to be $900 million.

For more information on this report you can read the abstract at Market Research.

According to Dan Slater, an expert in the business of online dating, the answer may be "yes."

The recent online dating industry conference in Miami, Florida saw a range of participants - from the major corporote players like IAC, the owner of Match and OkCupid, to the indie industry-disrupters like Plenty of Fish and Grindr. Every company thinks they know exactly what the future will hold for the industry - what's going to die out, what's going to be the next big thing - but who really has a handle on where online dating is going?

Day One of the conference began with a keynote address from Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com, the Internet's first mass-market dating site. Match was, and still is, a hugely successful venture, but the climate is changing and online dating sites must adapt with it.

In 2007, Alex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh did exactly that, by creating a dating site that was modeled on social networking sites. Mehr and Zadeh launched Zoosk as a third-party dating app for Facebook, and by 2012 it had reached nearly 5 million unique visitors and had climbed to the top of the U.S. Rankings of online dating sites. Zoosk's success begs the question: Is the Match model dying?

"One of its former employees," writes Slater, "who spoke to a packed conference room in the afternoon, believes that Match and its kind--i.e. traditional dating sites, which, by the way, currently account for most of the industry--have seen their day." Brian Bowman, the former VP of product development at Match, has created a new dating application called TheComplete.me in hopes of giving the online dating industry the upgrade it needs.

Rather than giving users a static profile, TheComplete.me will tap into the sites that members use every day, like Netflix, Picasa, or Amazon, to create a dynamic picture of who each user is. The idea is to create a profile that evolves with you, and is a more complete and personalized representation of who you are than the anonymous profiles used by traditional dating sites.

Taking dating in this direction means major changes for the ideas of privacy and transparency. "If online-dating culture advances to the point where the person you're hoping to date has an expectation of transparency," says Slater, "or, in Bowman's words, 'authenticity,' openness will become the new norm."

The idea is still in its infancy, but it's big news for the online dating industry and may be, in the near future, big news for you.

I missed the news release a few months ago but FriendFinder Networks did report their third quarter results for 2011. Revenue for this period was $82.7 million which is down by about $4 million when compared to the same quarter in 2010. A net loss of $5.4 million was reported. This is due in large part to paying interest expense of over $21 million on their outstanding principal debt of $491.8 million.

New subscribers and renewals were reported to be down in Europe but no exact numbers were given.

For more information on the 2011 Q3 financial report please read the news release. For more information on some of FFN dating sites you can read our FriendFinder.com review and our Asia FriendFinder review.

Related Story: FriendFinder Networks Second Quarter 2011 Financials

SeekingArrangement.com announced last Friday the launch of their anonymous phone calling feature. The service is called ICALLU which allows members to talk over the phone to each other without revealing their phone number to the member they are calling. Registering for this calling feature is free to members. A member's profile is marked as "phone verified" when they have gone through the registration and verification process (using SMS). Pricing for this service is currently 99 cents a minute ($1.99 for international calls) for the member who initiates the phone call.

SeekingArrangement.com decided to go ahead and offer this anonymous phone service after their research showed that 55 percent of their members have indicated that they are concerned about privacy. 32 percent of members also have already had a negative experience from giving out their phone number to a stranger.

For more information on this story you can read the press release. For similar dating sites to SeekingArrangement.com you can take a look at our Sugar Daddy dating category.

I noticed you now can access MillionaireMatch through a mobile device. They have a new app available on both the iPhone and Android phones.

With the app you can do most things found on the website including updating your profile, searching for matches and communicating with other members by sending winks and emails. You can also view lists of your favorites, who has liked you and members who have viewed your profile.

For more information about this dating service to find wealthy men please read our MillionaireMatch.com review.