General News

We recently looked at the advertising market for this year and last (see Story) and in 2009 we are expected to see a decline in revenue earned when in previous years, online advertising was experiencing large double digit growth. I don't expect to see the free business model disappearing but it is going to get a lot tougher as companies spend their advertising dollars wiser. The funny thing with free dating sites is, they rely largely on paid dating sites for their income by displaying ads for them. If paid dating sites ever disappeared (which I do not see happening) then the free dating sites will as well.

Barry Diller, CEO of IAC (which owns Match.com and Chemistry), at a keynote address for the Advertising 2.0 conference said

I absolutely believe that the Internet is passing from its free phase into a paid system.

Diller is positive that relying on just advertising as a business model for most websites will not be sustainable in the near future. For his proof of success, Diller points to the iPhone and its popular App Store.

The problem with Barry Diller's iPhone example is, while the App Store has done extremely well, it never had any real competition. Once Google's Android mobile phone operating system matures and more companies bundle it with their phones similar to the iPhones functionality, it should be interesting to see if the iPhone continues to grab as much market share. The App Store is a very structured environment and Apple controls everything, this is both good and bad for developers. Android is open source software and free, this will spark more innovation but could create confusion for less tech savvy consumers.

For more on Diller's keynote address, read CNET News. Read our Match.com review and our Chemistry review for more information on these dating sites owned by IAC.

TechCrunch has an article about how online advertising faired in Europe in 2008 and has a few predictions for 2009. With the recession hitting last year, it significantly slowed the growth of digital advertising. With the downturn of the economy still present, 2009 will be worse and a decline is expected. In 2008 the European online advertising market was worth €12.9 billion or $18 billion in US dollars (in 19 markets) . This is a 20 percent increase over 2007 and while most businesses would love to see an increase in sales like this, the projection at the start of 2008 (before the world recession) was much higher. Search advertising is the leading advertising format that accounts for 43 percent of spending or €5.6 billion. After search is classifieds at 26 percent or €3.8 billion.

For comparison, in the United States for 2008, online advertising was worth $23.4 billion or €16.6 billion. This is an increase of 10.6 percent over the previous year. The Interactive Advertising Bureau, who are responsible for all these number, just reported a 5 percent decline in the United States for the first quarter of 2009, to $5.5 billion.

Read TechCrunch for the full post.

Some surprising finds in the UK for men and women who start dating in their sixties, seventies, and eighties. As divorce rates rise, singles older than 60 is a growing trend. A lot of baby boomers have found that once their children have left home, they were the only thing holding their broken marriage together. When you combine this with our longer life spans when compared to previous generations, there are a lot more seniors who are single, than there use to be.

Match.com has said on numerous occasions that the older generation is their fastest growing market. Also, according to eHarmony's UK dating site, 30 percent of men over the age of 65 live alone and the figure doubles to 60 percent for woman. Why is there such a huge percentage difference between men and woman? I think it comes down to two factors. First women on average live 5 to 10 years longer than men and with the about equal gender split in the world you are going to have many more women single due to them being widowed. The second factor is, men tend to go out with younger women. Therefore a man who is 65 and living with someone (and included in eHarmony's statistic), is more likely than not, living with a woman under the age of 65 (and not included in the statistic).

For the rest of the story, read The Guardian. If you are a senior and interested in online dating, read our Match.com or eHarmony review. You could also check out our Dating Over 50 category for a list of dating sites specifically for older singles.

We have had a run of press releases over the last week or so dealing with dating services. I found one for eHarmony in which they have chosen to use the fraud-fighting technology called the Interceptas platform, from Accertify. eHarmony reviewed several fraud detection systems and found the platform from Accertify would enhance their fraud-fighting capabilities the best. Interceptas is a tool for e-commerce websites and it:

provides comprehensive fraud-fighting tools and components in a single, integrated system that allows merchants to integrate more data into the fraud-fighting process for improved screening success. The platform can be used to manage a variety of data management challenges across the enterprise. In addition, its automated workflow features strengthen fraud defenses and reduce the manual effort involved in fraud protection.

Incereptas is just one of the many systems eHarmony uses for a multi-pronged fraud protection strategy.

For more information on the dating site mention in this article, check out our eHarmony Review.

The Microsoft Network in Europe signed a new partnership deal with Meetic last Monday. MSN, the leading web portal in Europe use to have a partnership with Match.com to provide dating and matchmaking services, but with the recent sale of Match.com's European operations to Meetic (see Story) the partnership had to be renewed. This affects 12 European countries on MSN and it is unknown if the Match.com European brand or the Meetic brand of dating services will be used.

You will find the full press release here.

On June 5th, 2009, IAC completed the deal previously announced in early May with Meetic (see Story). IAC sold Match.com European operations for 27 percent equity stake in Meetic along with a 5 million Euro promissory note.