General News

Don't forget that today is Father's Day.

Did you know that single parents make up a large percentage of online daters? On Match.com, 39 percent of male subscribers are single Dads. These single dads are also 46 percent more likely to meet someone on Match.com when compared to the average male who does not have children. This advantage increases, the older the Dad is. Single Dad's who still have children living at home also have a slight higher success rate on Match.com

For you single Moms out there, single Dads are 56 percent more likely to email you than men without children. This is probably the main reason why single Dads have more success on dating sites. The best chance to meet a single Dad online at Match.com is early in the morning (from 6am to 9am). This is when they log into the dating site the most often to browse profiles and send messages.

44 percent of single Dads on Match.com are between the ages of 35 and 45 with 30 percent being 45 to 55 years old. 68 percent of Dads also wait at least 3 months before allowing their date to meet their children.

For more on the story, read "Up To Date" and for further details about this dating site, read our Match.com review.

If you are interested in a dating site just for single parents, check out our review of Single Parent Meet.

Great Expectations franchises continue to get into trouble (see Story) and this time it is in Bellevue in Washington. The Washington Attorney General's Office and a dating service in Bellevue, which is a licensee of Great Expectation, have reached a settlement which provides partial refunds to disgruntled customers and restricts how they can market their service. No admission of wrongdoing was included.

The settlement requires Great Expectations not to misrepresent the number, ages or locations of its membership. That settlement requires the company to display up-to-date photos of active members and to check on members' status at least once every two months.

The agreement requires the dating service to disclose the fees for services such as photos, events and Internet access that aren't included in the basic package. The dating service must also obtain written permission before accessing a prospective member's credit history.

Some of the contracts Great Expectations had with clients cost upwards of $8,000. Clients of this location may be eligible for pro-rated restitution if they have filed a recent complaint with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) or the Attorney General's Office. To become eligible for any restitution you must file a complaint by September 13, 2010.

For more on the story, read The News Tribune.

Back in February of 2009 Match.com sold its European Operations to Meetic. Well according to Informatica, a independent provider of data integration software, they completed the post-merger integration of Match.com in Europe with Meetic 40 percent faster than by using a home grown solution. It took only 4 months on the Informatica Platform.

The data, which required integration from Match.com in Texas (Orcale Databases) to Meetic in Paris, included millions of profiles from 15 countries. Photos from the profiles as well as all messages were migrated over as well. All this integration was done seamlessly and without interruption to any online services.

To find out about the dating site, you can read our Match.com UK review.

I've noticed a few comments lately on our site (see Comment) from visitors about chatting on PlentyofFish (and Dave's blog post as well). This was a bit of a surprise to me since back in April 2009 IM was dropped without notice, much to the dismay of many members (see Story). Well, I had time to confirm it tonight, and it does indeed look like the old instant messenger is back.

The reason given for the removal of the IM functionality initially was that it reduced the page impressions on POF by 10% or more. The reason for this was people were chatting and not surfing the site (and clicking on ads). I guess all POF needs to do now is update their Help FAQ since it still says "Plentyoffish doesn't have an IM.".

For more on this dating site, you can read our review of PlentyofFish.com.

The United Kingdom dating company EasyDate has plans to list on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) by month's end. EasyDate runs 4 of the top 15 dating sites in the United Kingdom. These include Cupid.com, DatetheUK.com and Canoodle. EasyDate has been targeting other English speaking companies since last year and has plans to launch services in the rest of Europe and Brazil later this year.

Shares of 2.5 pence would be admitted but it is unknown how much capital EasyDate plans to raise. Currently William Dobbie (CEO) holds 49% stake in the company while Maxym Polyakov (COO) holds 41%.

For more on the story read the Dow Jones Newswire. and to find out more information on a dating site owned by EasyDate, checkout our new Cupid.com review.

Match.com in Australia (Match.com.au) has been in operation for 15 years now. They launched back in April of 2002 after buying out Soulmates Technology. To celebrate this milestone they have released some Aussie statistics about Match.com:

• More than 80,000 profiles are viewed every day.
• Everyday 16,000 winks and messages are sent. This equals to 6.5 million communications a year.
• 67% of Australian singles have never been married.
• 59% of members are looking for a non-smoker.
• 90% of members are okay with a partner who drinks on occasion.
• Gold Coast members are 45% more likely to have children than those members from Sydney.
• 64% of men are looking for a partner who has some tertiary education. With women it is 71%.

To find out more information about this dating site, read our review of Match.com.