General News

Bad news for FriendFinder Networks, they cancelled their IPO after delaying it earlier this week (see Story). They cited market conditions as the reason for not proceeding with the initial public offering. Once market conditions do approve though, FriendFinder Networks plans on reconsidering their position.

I am not surprised at the IPO being cancelled. The comments I read on multiple blogs about the IPO over the last couple of months have not been favorable. Some deal with the fact that most of FriendFinders income comes from adult sources while the rest point out, who wants to invest money in a company that will just use it to pay down their debt. The funny thing is most of FriendFinder's debt is due to the original purchase of the company from the founder Dr Conru, by Penthouse, and the resulting interest being charged. It is not due to the network of dating sites being profitable (which they are).

According to KESQ.com, of the 8 IPOs that have debuted this year, over half are trading below their offering price, with only 3 that are above. With this type of market investors are not willing to take any chances. Most are waiting for the global market to improve.

For more on this story, read the press release.

We just talked about Avid Life Media's IPO (see Story) and it looks like the $60 million initial offering will be delayed on the advice of GMP Capital. The initial response to woo investors was met with a poor reception, even though Avid Life has solid financial records. Sources are also citing market conditions as another reason for the delay.

Avid Life Media is not alone in delaying their IPO. Another similar company, The FriendFinder Networks, did the same thing this week (see Story), and for similar reasons.

For more on the story, read Reuters.

The winner of our Editor's Top Pick - Christian Award for 2009, ChristianCafe.com, has recently updated their dating service. Due to members requests this dating site has added additional options to the 'Children at home?' question on their dating profile. In addition to 'Yes' and 'No', members can now select 'Sometimes' and 'Weekends'.

ChristanCafe.com also have added a new question to their profile which asks members if they are willing to relocate. Answers to this question includes 'Yes', 'No' and ' Possibly'. Existing member's answers will default to 'Possibly'. Of course, existing members can always update the answer by editing their profile. This new field is also searchable when you are looking for matches.

The last new update is the 'Who's Viewed Me' list is now editable. This means if you don't want others to know you've viewed their profile, you can now remove entries from their 'Who's Viewed Me' lists. This is done on the Profile Settings page which is accessible from the Profile menu.

To find out more about this dating site, read our [staticpage: review of ChristianCafe.com]

This coming weekend at Chemistry.com they will be offering all members the ability to communicate for free. This means starting Friday Feb. 5th, 2010 to Sunday, Feb. 7th, 2010 new and existing members will be able to email the matches Chemistry sends them for no cost.

Chemistry.com is a dating site which offers an in-depth matchmaking system. You don't search for matches on this dating site, Chemistry sends them to you based on what you entered in your profile and what combination of personality attributes their research shows creates a healthy and long relationship. Dr. Helen Fisher is a famous Biological Anthropologist who helped Chemistry.com create their unique matchmaking and communication process.

This is Chemistry's fifth time running this promotion with the last Chemistry.com Flirtathon happening in the beginning of December, in 2009 (see Story). For more information on this matchmaking service, read our Chemistry.com review.

It looks like the gay dating site ManCrunch.com took a page from AshleyMadison.com play book. Last year AshleyMadison.com created an ad for the Super Bowl which was rejected by the TV Networks (see Story). They received a lot of free press because of it. This year it must be ManCrunch.com's turn. Here is the TV commercial in question:

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.

While I was in no way offended by the commercial and I did find it comical, the problem is the production values are just not up to the standards for a show like the Super Bowl.

ManCrunch.com spokesman Dominic Friesen told the New York Post that CBS had said all the commercial spots for the Super Bowl were sold. Dominic Friesen felt this was not true and that there were being discriminated against.

Online dating is becoming more and more popular, especially among older adults. Iowa State University researchers found in a study of 175 newlywed couples that those who met through social networking or online dating sites tended to be older than those who met without the help of the internet. These couples also had more of chance to be on their second marriage. The courtship for couples who met through the internet also tended to be much shorter at 18.5 months, when compared to 42 months for a relationship created by more traditional means.

An associate professor of sociology at the university, Alicia Cast, found that the main difference between couples who met online, when compared to offline, was time constraints. Older singles tended to have less time for finding relationships due to kids or jobs with longer working hours.

For more on the story, read Reuters. To find our list of dating sites with seniors in mind, check out our Dating Over 50 category.