General News

Has anyone spotted the new and first TV commercial for the dating site Zoosk? Apparently it has started to air in a few US test markets. Instead of being a serious commercial about online dating like we see from Match.com and eHarmony, Zoosk has decided on humour to promote their dating service. I think the commercial will work well for their target market of twenty and thirty something singles.

Here is the new TV Ad from the Zoosk YouTube channel:



I also notice of late that Zoosk is promoting their website over their Facebook App. It looks like they want their website to be the main focus. This is a smart financial decision by them since relying on a third party (aka Facebook) as your main supplier of members is usually a recipe for disaster. Case in point, I know Facebook hurt a lot of businesses on their network (including Zoosk) when they removed application notifications from Facebook member news feeds.

For more on this dating site, read our review of Zoosk.

Earlier this month Spark Networks released their first quarter earnings for 2010. Revenue in this quarter overall dropped 12 percent to 10.5 million when compared to the same period last year. When compared to the last quarter in 2009, revenue dropped 5 percent. Net income for this quarter was $929,000. This is a 3 times increase over the same period last quarter of $311,000. Average paying subscribers for the whole company was 169,833. This is an increase of 1 percent when compared to quarter 1 of 2009.

Spark Networks dating sites that fall under the Jewish Networks banner (made up mostly of JDate) had revenue of $7.1 million. This is a decrease of 7 percent when compared to quarter 1, 2009. Some good news is found here because subscribers did increase 10 percent too 93,235. The last time JDate had this many subscribers was back at the end of 2007.

The other important division for Spark Networks is their Other Affinity Networks (the MingleMatch sites). For this quarter they earned $3 million which is a 10 percent decrease when compared to the same quarter last year. Subscribers were up though, by 6 percent to 68,124.

For the full 2010 Q1 release visit Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks Fourth Quarter 2009 Financials

eHarmony was featured on Nightline last night. In the first part of the video they show an eHarmony research team watching a couple though multiple cameras having dinner. The video then goes on and relates a few facts about the eHarmony dating service:

• The eHarmony profile has 320 questions.
• On average everyday eHarmony is responsible for 236 marriages in the US.
• Over 100,000 babies have been born as the result of these marriages.

An interview of eHarmony's CEO, Greg Waldorf, is then conducted which focused mostly on asking questions about eHarmony's mathematical formula they use for matching members together. The host also asked Mr. Waldrof about skeptics of online dating and how eHarmony convinces them that it does work. Mr. Waldorf points to all of their success stories and by the fact you can contact them directly. Singles interested in eHarmony, can visit their Facebook Fan page to talk to these couples and get any questions of theirs answered. In the last part of the interview, Nightline talks to eHarmony researchers about how they study relationships and what they look for in a successful one to help continue to improve the formula eHarmony uses for matching.

Here is ABCs Nightline Formula for Love video about eHarmony:

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

To find out more about this dating service, read our eHarmony review.

A couple of interesting statistics came out this week which deals with women.

The first one from CNN noted that a much larger number of women between the ages of 30 and 44 make more money than their husbands when compared to 1970 figures. In 1970 only 4 percent of women made more than their husbands. By 2007 this number had jumped more than 4 times to 22 percent. The main reason for this jump includes, many more women now hold advanced degrees. Women represent almost 60 percent of students holding degrees in areas like business, law, and medicine.

The second statistic from the Guardian found that women who marry a younger man will increase their mortality rate. On average a woman who marries a man who is 7 to 9 years younger will have a 20 percent higher mortality rate than if they married someone the same age. Women who marry older men (by 7 to 9 years) also suffer an increased mortality rate but only an 11 percent difference. This information was gathered from a Danish study of 2 million couples.

In a bit of a surprised move eHarmony Canada is having a 10 Day Free Communication Event. The event starts today, Friday May 21st and runs through Labour Day Weekend, all of next week and ends Sunday, May 30th, 2010. As with previous free communication promotions, members can review their matches and use the Guided Communication Process to communicate with members. There is no cost associated with this promotion and you will not be asked for a credit card. Fasttracking, Photos and eHarmony Mail are not included for members participating in this promotion.

The longest Free Communication promotion before by eHarmony was 5 days. With 10 free days new members will certainly be able to figure out if the dating site eHarmony is to their liking and in the meantime still be able to meet a lot of compatible singles. Plus, with the May 24 long weekend holiday and the spring season, eHarmony Canada will certainly be a popular place for online daters.

Read our review of eHarmony for more information on this popular online matchmaking service.

I vaguely remember the old Match.com Blog were previous CEO's posted information about a variety of topics. I did a search for it (I am sure I mentioned it on this site somewhere ...) but didn't come up with anything.

On Monday of this week (May 17) Match.com launched a new blog. The blog is about "all thing dating and romance" and feature posts from Greg Blatt (CEO), Mandy Ginsberg (GM), Dr. Helen Fisher, and Whitney Casey. Some of you will recognize Dr Helen Fisher's name since she is the Chief Scientific Advisor for Match.com sister site, Chemistry. Whitney Casey is Match.com's current Relationship Insider. She is a published author and an Emmy Award winning journalist.

The Match.com's Blog first post is about their latest independent survey from late last month. We have already taken a look at these dating statistics in a previous post so I will not go over them again (see Story).

Dating company Blogs have become an important marketing tool lately, eHarmony launched one recently (see Story), and OkCupid's OkTrends Blog has become popular as well with online daters and the media due to their informative posts.

Thanks to the Online Dating Post for this info. For more information on this dating site, read some Match.com reviews.