General News

Good news for eHarmony. They have entered into an agreement to settle a class action lawsuit about not matching singles that were looking for a same-sex partner. This class action was filed in Los Angeles in 2007 (see Story). The proposed settlement would require eHarmony to create a $2 million fund to pay gay, lesbian and bisexual people who can show that they were harmed by eHarmony's policies. They would also have to include a gay dating link on the bottom of the eHarmony homepage by the other links for different dating niches (Seniors, Hispanics, etc...). eHarmony would also need to allow singles to partner with same sex members on their dating site. This would allow bisexual people to be matched with both male and female partners on one dating site.

There will be a few changes with Compatible Partners as well, if the agreement goes through. The gay dating site would still need to continue operation and the “Powered by eHarmony” tagline would need to be changed to “Brought to you by eHarmony”. eHarmony's trademark logo would also need to be displayed on the Compatible Partners homepage.

A Judge will be looking at the agreement on February 3rd, 2010.

For more information on the subject, read the eHarmony press release. To find out more about the dating sites, read our eHarmony review and are Compatible Partners review.

There is more bad news for FriendFinder Networks regarding their IPO (see Story). FriendFinder was suppose to start trading on the New York Stock Exchange this Thursday under the symbol FNN. They now plan to launch sometime the following week. The dip in the market last week is said to take partial blame as well as some last-minute questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission. These questions are not uncommon and can delay the process of launching a deal.

For more information, read the Wall Street Journal.

Golden Bachelor is an online dating service based in China. This dating site caters to the super-wealthy of China with a top tier "Diamond Love" membership going for $44,000 USD or 300,000 Yuan. The Golden Bachelor has 5 million registered members. Every male member must have a personal or family wealth of at least 2 million Yuan or $292,000 USD.

This Chinese dating service employs psychologists and matchmaking consultants to help their clients get matched with the perfect partner. They also employ "Love Hunters" who travel the country looking for single women who meet the high standards of the Golden Bachelor's clients. These employees are also the ones who throw matchmaking parties to help bring their clients and the bachelorettes together. One such party held in December of 2009 in Beijing, had a ticket price of 100,000 Yuan. 22 men and 21 women attended. The women took part in a wedding fashion show, cooked, and danced in a talent contest. From this event 18 of the men had setup dates, giving the party an 80 percent success rate.

For more information on this story, read CNN.

eHarmony has been in business for over 10 years now and to help celebrate, Dan, eHarmony's first Customer Care agent released a few fun facts. The most interesting fact I found was that on average, eHarmony members submit 24,000 photos per day to the dating site.

The other facts deal more with just Customer Care. Did you know, every day eHarmony's Customer Care team handle thousands of requests for help and information via emails and phone calls. This large and dedicated staff performs their job well and has been recognized by the industry. In 2009 eHarmony received 3 awards of excellence for customer service. You can see one example here.

For the full story, read The Official eHarmony Blog and to find out more about this dating site, check out our eHarmony review.

Another Spark Networks dating service has changed its domain and name. PrimeSingles.net has become SingleSeniorsMeet.com sometime in late November 2009. It looks like they wanted a more descriptive name to help promote the dating site for older singles.

For more information on this dating site, read our Single Seniors Meet review.

Avid Life Media Inc. is the parent company of several online dating sites. This includes the popular affairs site AsheleyMadison.com, as well as EstablishedMen.com and CougarLife.com. Avid Life Media is looking to raise $60 million with its possible debut on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) in the coming months. In 2009 Avid Life Media earned $30 million in revenue and $8 million in EBITDA. The dating site Ashley Madison, currently accounts for only 15 percent of the total revenue earned by Avid Life Media.

Avid Life Media plans to use some of the money raised to buy an online advertising sales company called Moxy Media.