General News

Match.com UK has launched an interactive channel on the BT Vision IPTV service (Digital Cable). This means almost half a million BT Vision subscribers can now tune into Channel 955 and use the Match.com service to search for singles, update profiles, send winks and for viewing messages. Most of Match.com primary features are available to use through the channel. You also use the same Match.com account as you login with through the website. Not everything can be done through BT Vision though, such as uploading a photo. This can only be done by using a computer or a cell phone.

The article at New Media Age makes it look like this is a free service to cable subscribers. It is unclear at the moment if you can log in as a Match.com paid member on the interactive channel to actually send email messages to other members.

Jason Stockwood of Match.com stated:

He hoped offering the service via TV would make browsing for a potential partner a more social experience compared with the online service, which tends to be done alone.

This is an interesting idea, to make online dating a more social activity. Would you want your friends and/or family to help you favorite and send winks to other singles on a dating site? I think searching for prospects would be fun but, personally I would still want to communicate without someone looking over my shoulder.

To find out more information about this United Kingdom dating site, read our review of Match.com.

This weekend it is Chemistry's fourth free communication promotion. All Chemistry members will be able to use the site for free starting Friday July 17th, 2009 until the end of Sunday July 19, 2009.

For those of you who haven't heard of Chemistry before. They are a dating site which performs the matchmaking for you. You fill out the detailed profile (about 30 minutes) and based on your answers Chemistry will send you your best matches that are not only compatible with your personality and lifestyle, but also fit within your own preferences as well.

The last Chemistry.com Flirtathon happened in the middle of May, two months ago (see Story). For more information on this matchmaking service, read our review of Chemistry.

White Label Dating announced that they have partnered with the Cosmopolitan magazine website in the UK to offer a dating service for their readers. The link to the new service is found under the "Love & Sex" menu, titled Cosmo Dating on their website. Cosmopolitan magazine target demographic is females aged 24 to 34. This is good news for the White Label Dating Network since it means more female profiles in this age group for their network of dating sites (WLD share profiles between most partner sites). This demographic is usually the one sought after in the dating industry since, where the women are, the men will surely follow.

If the UK Cosmopolitan partnership goes well, I am sure White Label Dating is hoping to partner with the US Cosmopolitan website. White Label Dating is the most popular branded dating service for companies in the UK and I bet they are hoping to repeat this success in North America.

Match.com and Premier Match helped assemble 8 single women for Good Morning America. They were asked for their opinions on dating in a recession and what they do, and do not look for in a man.

These woman consider one or more of the following factors important about a man:

• The type of job he has and if he is employed.
• If he has ambition and is a leader. He also must be supportive (not necessarily financially).
• If the man pays for the first date, especially if he initiated the date.
• Chivalry.
• Enjoys life and work.

Match.com actually found in a recent survey they did that 71% of members would still date a person if they had lost their job. Over 2,700 male and female members participated in this survey. The Match.com survey did not consider gender so it is not clear if more men than woman would do this. With the Good Morning America panel of single woman, it seemed with almost all of them, being on a date with a unemployed man was not an option.

In terms of first dates, most of the woman were looking for something not formal. Going out for drinks was mentioned several times, with dinner as an option if the early part of the evening had gone well. Being creative on a first date was also a good thing. Out of the 8 woman, 7 expected the man to pay for the first date.

For the full Good Morning America video clip and to find out more on what these thirty and forty something woman are looking for in a man, visit ABC News. For more information on Match.com, read our review of the dating site.

People Media was recently purchased by Match.com's parent company IAC (see Story) which prompted me to look for further information about this company. They were founded in 2002 and now have almost 4 million unique visitors with 550 million page views per month, when you combine all of their dating sites traffic together. As a comparison, Match.com had roughly 5.5 million unique visitors last month. ComScore lists 6 of People Media's dating sites in their top 50 dating site list. BlackPeopleMeet is People Media's largest online service which averages over 167 thousand visitors a day and just shy of 1 million unique visitors in a month. 44 percent of BlackPeopleMeet members are male and 56% are female. This is pretty close to the average of People Media's top 10 dating sites gender ratio of 47 percent Male and 53 percent female.

People Media also currently has existing partnerships with the Steve Harvey Morning Show and AOL Personals, to power a number of their dating communities.

To find out more information, including traffic stats broken down by individual dating site, read the People Media 2009 Advertising Kit.

I found a press release that announces the partnership of DatingHeadshots and Honesty Online to be a little over the top. In the first sentence they compare Justin Timberlake being sexy to the two dating companies new partnership. 😲

What the two companies are now offering is a complete Verification Package. On the photo side you get a professional photographer and a photo shoot. Government ID is checked to ensure the person who ordered the photos is the one at the photo shoot. Afterwards the person can then complete the Honesty Online verification process. This process uses information from your past to verify the person's identity by asking you multiple choice questions. A more thorough background, job and education check can also be completed at an additional cost.

This is an ideal merger of these two services, having your photos and background information being verified together. Plus, with the photos you get recent professional shots that helps give a strong first impression. Unfortunately I went to both sites and could not find any additional information on this partnership or service. I have a feeling it may be more money than people are willing to spend. It is also unclear on the Honesty Online website which dating sites use their services. I know they have a Facebook application but, it does me no good to get a verification package if I can't show myself as being verified on my favorite dating site.