General News

On February 2nd IAC released their 2010 fourth quarter results. Revenue for the quarter was $451.4 million which is a 27 percent increase over the same quarter in 2009. For the entire year revenue was $1,646.8 million which translates into 22% growth over the year 2009.

The personals side of the business (Match.com, Chemistry, People Media, etc.) IAC saw revenue of $108.3 million for quarter 4. This is a 30% increase over quarter 4 in 2009. Operating Income for the personals segment came out to $38 million (which is a 68 percent increase). Revenue grew because of strong growth in the United States for Match.com and People Media. The purchase of SinglesNet and deals in Latin America also increased income which did not exist in 2009. Excluding these two items revenue grew by 19 percent,

For the complete public financial IAC Q4 2010 report read this page. For more information on the dating sites owned by IAC, read our Match.com review and our Chemistry.com review.

Related Story: Match.com Third Quarter 2010 Financials

The dating site Zoosk has applications available on the iPhone and Android based mobile phones. If you do not have one of these smart phones you can also access the service from any phone that has a browser through the Zoosk mobile website. Here is a video which explains more about what you can do with a Zoosk mobile dating application:



To find out more about this online dating site and how it works, you can read our review of Zoosk.com.

Our first review of a social networking site is up. Some of you may know of this site, as it goes by the name Facebook. 😉

In the review you will find out how Facebook fairs when used by someone who wishes to find a date. You will also find out about the tools Facebook offers which you can use to search out that ideal single guy or girl you are looking for. This review is not about Facebook as a social networking site but as a site used by someone interested in finding and meeting new people.

This is the first review in a series we plan to do on social networking sites. The next one we are working on is a review for Twitter.

If you are interested in meeting singles on Facebook, then I would suggest you check out the full Facebook.com Review now.

If you already use Facebook for meeting new people, why don't you post your own review about the site?

Facebook User Review

The man who, according to PlentyOfFish founder and CEO Marcus Frind, hacked the popular dating site has now released his side of the story in an interview with Grumo Media. The audio of the interview can be found here.

Frind claims that Russo hacked the site, downloaded users' email addresses and passwords, and harassed his wife. Russo, on the other hand, says that he was just trying to help PlentyOfFish close a gaping hole in their security.

"I'm a security researcher from Buenos Aires, Argentina," wrote Russo, in a document explaining the event from his point of view. "The Last Friday 21 of Januray, we discovered a vulnerability in www.plentyoffish.com exposing users details, including usernames, addresses, phone numbers, real names, email addresses, passwords in plain text, and in most of cases, paypal accounts, of more than 28,000,000 (twenty eight million users). [sic]" According to Russo, he notified both Frind and his wife, Annie Kanciar, of the vulnerability in order to prevent any damage from being done. He claims that all potential problems were rectified without exposing any confidential user information, and that the PlentyOfFish security team remained in contact with him because they were interested in hiring his team as additional security professionals.

Then things took a negative turn. "While we were creating the legal documents in order to proceed," Russo said, "Markus Frind got progressively more aggressive and unresponsive with us, and told us to speak with their employees, Kate and Jay, because there was a serial killer, murdering people from the website." On the evening of January 30th, Frind sent Russo an email accusing him of hacking the site and stealing members' personal information. The email reads as follows:

"If this data goes public I am going to email every single effected
 user on Plentyoffish your phone number, email address and picture. 
And tell them you hacked into their accounts.

Then i'm going to sue you In Canada, US and UK and argintina. I am
 going to completely destroy your life, no one is ever going to hire 
you for anything again, this isn't piratebay and we definately aren't
 fooling around.

Markus."

Russo also released the text of several emails sent back and forth between him and Kate Bilenki, a PlentyOfFish employee, that seemingly prove that he was working with the site (presumably to help close any gaps in their security).

Frind has yet to respond to Russo's accusations.

Stay tuned for further updates on the developing story.

For a fortnight eHarmony.co.uk is offering free guided communication. This means from February 1st to February 15th, 2011 singles who sign up for eHarmony in the United Kingdom will be able to receive their matches and communicate with them for free (no credit card required). eHarmony's guided communication allows members to get a feel for one another through 3 stages of communication. eHarmony mail is not included with this promotion.

On a related note, eHarmony in the United States is also having a free communication event. It is a month long and ends on February 28th, 2011.

To find out more about this online dating site for UK singles, you should check out our eHarmony.co.uk review.

I was surprised today to find out that Match.com announced that they have acquired the free dating site OKCupid. The purchase price is $50 million plus potential future payments which depends upon performance in the coming year of the dating site. OKCupid makes most of its revenue through displaying online advertising. Their secondary revenue generating tool is a paid upgrade membership option. The CEO and co-founder of OkCupid, Sam Yagan will continue to run the business and oversee all day-to-day operations.

OKCupid membership base has seen a large increased over the last 18 months. Their members tend to be younger adults which is a market Match.com is looking to develop.

This time last year Match.com purchased Singlesnet.com for an undisclosed amount. (see Story) and in the summer, the year before, they had acquired People Media for $80 million (see Story). I wonder who they will buy next year? 😊

For more on the story you can read the press release. To find out more about these two dating sites, please read our Match.com review and our OKCupid.com review.