Dating Services

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog let us know with a post that eHarmony has updated their interface based on feedback from users. There are now 3 tabs which organize your eHarmony matches. The New tab shows all new matches. The Communicating tab shows all matches you currently communicating with or have requested communication and the Closed tab shows all matches you have closed or have been closed by the match. A search field also has been added to find your matches easily, with a built in auto complete. Communication also has been streamed lined to make things faster and simpler to use.

For more information on this popular matchmaking service, read our eHarmony review.

According to a few reports, the dating site OKCupid.com went down late last night (May 28, 2009) for a couple of hours as apparently a cup of coffee was accidentally spilled on a router. When we tried accessing the dating site ourselves earliy this morning we received the following message:

So...We thought it would be cool to get a cat for the office, but we needed a litter box, and there wasn't really room in the bathroom, so we put it next to these servers in the back, and everything would have been fine, but the A/C repair guy was allergic and the cat reacts badly to loud noises and there were all these wires hanging back there and a bunch of surprisingly flammable packing material...

Erik thought it would be JUST AWESOME to put a paperclip on the end of a rubber band and shoot it at Vinay's eye, and it would have just been Erik and Vinay's problem except Vinay had a cup of coffee and was standing over James, who was fixing our router at the time...

Anyway, we'll have things back up soon. Sorry for the inconvenience. - Worker

Here's hope it is backup soon.

Update - May 29, 2009, 9:15 am - I just tried OK Cupid again and everything seems to be back to normal. Happy Testing!

CNN did a post about virtual currencies and economies. It is estimated that at least $1 billion USD were transferred into virtual currencies last year. The biggest use of virtual currencies are online games, followed by social networks and virtual worlds. Some websites even earn more revenue through virtual currencies than online advertising. The massive online multiplayer game, World of Warcraft (or WoW for short) uses WoW Gold. Even though it is against the rules set by Blizzard, this currency is bought and sold on the black market. This currency is so sought after, workers in China have been known to play the game just to earn the virtual WoW currency to sell to players in Europe and the US.

Social networking sites like Hi5 and MyYearBook have created their own currency as well. Hi5 has the Hi5 Coin and MyYearBook calls their currency Lunch Money. Hi5 Coins are mainly used to buy virtual gifts while with Lunch Money you can buy virtual gifts, play games and even donate it to charities. Facebook is looking into a unified currency since all the games and application on their platform that use a virtual currency has been created by the application developer. The problem with this for members is, the currency is only good with that one application. Facebook also doesn't see any revenue from these virtual currencies. This could be a way out for Facebooks revenue problems. If they create one unified Facebook currency for the entire site, not only could members spend it through any Facebook applicationg they want, Facebook would get a cut from each transaction.

The virtual world Second Life also has a currency called Linden Dollars. You can trade real currency for Linden Dollars which you can then buy whatever is for sale on Second Life (virtual real estate, entertainment, stores, etc..). Just like with real currencies, the Linden Dollar fluctuates daily against the USD. The buy and sell prices are set by the residents of Second Life on the LindeX Currency Exchange.

Some dating sites have a form of virtual currency called points. While you can't trade or buy something from other members, you can purchase virtual gifts, features and extended memberships from the dating site itself. Usually the way you earn points is by using and / or participating in the dating site. Two dating sites that I know of who use points this way is, Plenty Of Fish and, the FriendFinder Network of dating sites. With POF, every time you log into the site you earn 60 points, with a maximum of 60 points total every 24 hours These points can be used to buy virtual gifts for other members. With FriendFinder you receive points for participating in the site by adding or voting on articles, replying to questions and voting on topics. When you have earned enough points you can then purchase membership upgrades with them. This can include adding extra months to your membership and having your profile highlighted.

Check out CNN.com Technology for the full story. Read our FriendFinder review for more information on this dating service.

From the Spark Networks quarter 1, 2009 financial results, it shows the dating networks revenue has declined 20 percent to $12 million, with $300 thousand in net profit. In Q1, 2008 revenue was $15 million, with a net profit of $1.6 million. Quarter 4 in 2008 saw $13.2 in revenue. Adam Berger, Chief Executive Officer of Spark Networks, Inc. stated that revenue is down due to the turn in the economy and the lower than expected total average paying subscriber.

Craigslist is fighting back from the bad press (see Story) they have received lately due to their Erotic Services classified ads category (which is now the Adult Services Category) and prostitution. They are suing Henry McMaster, the Attorney General of South Carolina for:

declaratory relief as well as a restraining order with respect to criminal charges he has threatened against the company and its executives.

The suit is in response to a threatening email they received from McMaster a couple of weeks ago telling them to either shut down Craigslist in the state of South Carolina or, face a criminal investigation and possible prosecution. Craigslist believes they are now in full compliance of the law because of the changes they recently made to the category (see Story).

For the full story, read Tech Crunch.

Match.com was the first online dating site to ever run a TV commercial back in 2004 (see Story). Now Match.com is the first to run pre-roll ads on YouTube (at least in the UK) against premium content. For online video there are 3 main types of advertising. Pre-roll runs before the video, in-roll runs during the video and post-roll, which is after the video. Ads will be sold on a CPM-basis by a sales staff and YouTube has stated that it will impose a limit of 30 seconds per ad. Both the video owner and YouTube will share in the revenue earned from displaying the advertising.

In 2008 the U.S. population was almost 304 million with roughly one third or 90 million people being single. YouTube has 80.7 unique monthly visitors and is the internet's 6th largest destination. The average user spends 54 minutes each month on the video site. This stats make it an ideal place for a dating site like Match.com to advertise since 62 percent of viewers fall in the key 34 to 55 plus age range demographic.

For more on the story, read Marketing Magazine from the UK and for more stats on YouTube, check out their sales pdf document. If you are interested in finding out more about Match.com UK, read our review of this dating site.