Dating Services

Spark Networks just released their third quarter financial results. Spark Networks owns AmericanSingles.com (there flagship dating service), Date.ca (for Canadians), JDate.com (Jewish Dating) and a fair number other specific niche oriented dating services. With most of their dating services membership numbers holding steady, JDate.com saw an increase in paid members by 3% for a total of 74,078. This shows well for the service in this increasingly more competitive niche market. Overall Spark Networks have a healthy bottom line and will continue to be one of the driving forces in internet dating.

For more information on the dating services which Spark Networks owns, see our reviews of AmericanSingles.com, JDate.com, and Date.ca.

According to this article and a few others on the internet, Charlie Sheen and girlfriend Brooke Mueller have gotten engaged this week. The couple met over a year ago on the popular Sugar Daddy dating site MillionaireMatch.com. This is an online dating service where wealthy singles can join who are looking for younger unattached people to enjoy there wealthy lifestyle with.

A new PerfectMatch.com CEO interview is available on Online Personals Watch, this is (I believe) Mark Brooks second interview with Duane Dahl. In it they discuss PerfectMatch's matching process, instant messaging and other features of the site. One interesting point which was made is PerfectMatch.com core member base is with singles in their 30s and 40s, but lately they have been making strides into the 50s demographic.

Mark also asks Duane about comparisons with their rival dating service, eHarmony. Among other things they brought up the fact that PerfectMatch allows members to still search for singles instead of completely relying on just the matching process, the way eHarmony does. This reason alone IMO, makes PerfectMatch dating service a much better choice than eHarmony.

Read the full interview with Duane Dahl - CEO PerfectMatch.com

It seems like a fair number of the major dating services have been updating there services recently. The latest dating site to do this is, Lavalife. Along with new features, Lavalife has also received a facelift. Though not a major interface overhaul, Lavalife did make their site cleaner looking and easier to navigate.

The major new features which Lavalife added include:

• While you are Instant Messaging with a single, it is now easier to view profile information on the person. This was complained about before and I am glad Lavalife listen to their members.
• The photo gallery now allows you to share up to 30 photos with the ability to assign the pictures to one or more of Lavalife's 3 communities (dating, relationship and intimate encounters).
• Members are now also allowed to upload high quality videos (up to 6).

According to Hitwise (Oct. 2007) Lavalife is the top Canadian dating site and is one of the top ten worldwide. You can read our Lavalife Review and user submitted reviews or go directly too Lavalife.com for more information on this dating service.

MillionaireMatch.com added a new feature recently which allows Gold Members to verify their display photo as authentic. The profile and summary in the search results would be marked with a photo verified logo once the proper verification documents had been submitted. This is an excellent feature which other large dating services should implement (only a few have so far) since it decreases the possibilities of fake profiles.

This feature combined with the Certified Millionaire Logo makes MillionaireMatch.com a trusted site among singles looking for a wealthy mate.

ChristianCafe.com now allows members to recommend a profile you find to either other ChristianCafe.com members or a non member friend through email. A great idea, especially for friends using the same dating site. There is great fun to be had in pointing out the really great (or really bad!) profiles to friends so you can talk about them later. The only thing I would have added to this feature is the ability to include a quick note with the profile explaining to the person you are sending it too, why you are doing it or what stuck out about this particular profile.