Online Dating

Early in March Great Hill Partners offered to take Spark Networks private by buying all of the shares they did not own for $3.10 per share (see Story). Great Hill currently owns about 25 percent of the stock so the deal would have cost them about $64 million. Spark Networks said they would consider the offer, much to the dismay of a number of share holders.

Yesterday, a Spark Networks special committee on the offer unanimously rejected the proposal from Great Hill Equity Partners. No reason was given about why they rejected the offer but they did say that they will continue to consider other alternatives.

For more on the story, read the Spark Networks press release.

Yesterday the United Kingdom dating company EasyDate announced that it has acquired Allegran's online dating services from Associated Northcliffe Digital. This will add another 5 dating sites to EasyDate's network to a total of 12 and give them over 3 million additional members (most from the UK) to a total of 9 million. The Allegran dating website portfolio includes GirlsdateForFree.com, Loopylove.com, Quickflirt.com, DatingForParents.com and MatureDating.co.uk.

EasyDate started their international expansion in 2009 and plan to continue this year by exploring other English speaking markets like India, mainland Europe and Brazil.

According to the Android Community Match.com has released an Android App on the Google Android Market. This App is not listed under Match.com's Mobile link yet on their main website but we did get word it was coming when the Blackberry Match.com Dating App was released in February (see Story). This free download allows Match.com members to update their profile, search for singles and to communicate with other members. It offers a compact slick interface which is much easier to use than surfing Match.com with your mobile phones internet browser.

I haven't tested the App yet so I am not sure if it offers any location based dating but I don't see why it can't since Android phones do have a built in GPS. When we get our hands on an Android phone you can expect a review soon, check back often.

Match.com currently offers Mobile Dating Applications for top 5 smart phones (iPhone, Plam Pixi, Palm Pre, Blackberry, and Android). To find out more information about this dating service, read our Match.com review.

Starting this Friday March 26th 2010, Chemistry.com will be offering a free communication weekend. This event will last 3 days and end on Sunday March 28th. During this exciting promotion all members of Chemistry will be able to flirt, communicate with email, and connect with other members at no cost.

If you are curious about Chemistry and would like to try a matchmaking service which matches you based on the answers in your personality profile questionnaire, then this weekend would be the perfect time to try it out. No credit card is required.

The last Chemistry.com Flirtathon happening a month ago in February (see Story) making this one the 6th free communication weekend we have kept track of. For more information on this popular online dating site, please read our review of Chemistry.com.

The internet traffic audience measuring service, comScore, issued a press release which covered the top growing websites and site categories for February 2010. Since February is usually considered the top month for dating sites (thanks to Valentine's Day) I thought we should take a look.

Traffic to online dating sites in February grew 5 percent to 24.2 million visitors when compared to January. The top 4 dating sites in America for February were:

1. eHarmony with 5 million visitors (up 82 percent) - Read Review
2. Match.com with 3.4 million visitors. - Read Review
3. PlentyofFish.com with 2.8 million visitors. - Read Review
4. SinglesNet.com with 2.6 million visitors. - Read Review

For comparison, other Valentine's Day categories like Flowers/Gifts/Greetings websites saw traffic increase by 7 percent to 32.3 visitors. In this category AmericanGreetings took the number 1 spot at 10.6 million visitors. The e-Cards category grew by 7 percent as well to 23.1 million visitors with MyFunCards.com leading the category with 6.3 million visitors. MyFunCards was up 75 percent when compared to January.

In mid March, Match.com announced a partnership with Yahoo!7 in Australia. Match.com will be the exclusive dating partner to Yahoo's Australian news and search portal as well as Yahoo!Xtra for New Zealand. You can now reach the new partnered dating service by visiting Yahoo!7 Dating or by clicking on the "Dating" menu item available on the Yahoo!7 home page.

Currently on the Yahoo!7 Dating page visitors have access to both the old dating service and the new Match.com partnered service. The original Yahoo!7 Dating will close it' doors in June, 2010.