Online Dating

There is a promising future for mobile dating as predicted by Juniper Research. They claim the value of the chatroom market and mobile dating will grow to almost $1.4 billion by 2013. For the most part revenue will be generated by subscriptions but event-based charging (like paying a fee to contact someone or virtual gifts) and advertising will continue to become a larger part of the revenue stream.

... many companies which have migrated to this approach are seeing conversion rates amongst customers buying premium rate goods and services which generate revenues significantly in excess of those achieved under flat rate subscriptions.

By 2011 it is predicted less than 30 percent of mobile dating customers will be on a flat rate subscription model. China and Japan currently have the largest number of mobile dating customers.

There is no mention what the 2008 revenue is for this market. Currently from our reviewed online dating services, Match.com (called matchMobile), Date.com, Lavalife, DatingDirect and Shaadi.com all offer a mobile phone service along with their dating website. Other sites like MeetMoi also offer location based mobile dating based on the GPS in your phone (with lots of privacy options of course). With the rise of 3G and the large bandwidth it provides I expect to see the rise of video mobile dating as well.

For reviews on dating services that offer a mobile/cell phone dating service check out our new Mobile Dating Category.

The Times Online (UK version) published an article called 10 things to know about internet dating. It is like most other dating safety lists with tips about talking on the phone first before meeting in person and, as point 7 suggests, your first date should always be in daylight and take place around other people. The Times first point is about reading between the lines to see if your potential match is married or even separated. They cite a statistic from MSNBC which says:

one third of people using online dating services are married

While I have no doubts that married people use dating sites, I don't believe a third of all online daters are married. Free dating sites do tend to have more married people and scammers on them since there is no cost to entry. Plus a married man or woman is much less likely to use a paid dating site since they don't want to have to explain to their partner about the dating site charge on their credit card.

I found more information about the new Match.com Platinum membership package that will soon be available to all members (from this Story). Match.com already has information available under the Help section when you log into the dating site. It is under the Searching and Dating section and the topic is called Platinum. The first thing I saw was this new membership package is available in some test markets. This means most members will not see the new package in the upgrade area but some of you will. Please comment on this story if you have any pricing information or where the test markets are. The help section also confirms that with this subscription 100 percent of Match.com members will be able to respond for free to your emails and Instant Messages. I'm glad they included IM in the package. Platinum members are identified by an icon on their profile (visible to only non paid members). The Help section also mentions that free members can contact you for free. This is a huge bonus for members. Most paid dating sites who allow free members to contact other members only allow this once the paid member has initiated communication. Match.com definitely has taken a bold step here and turned their dating service partially free.

The Platinum membership may also be purchased as an add-on to any existing membership. No cost information is available at this time. I believe also the Platinum subscription package is available to only online daters in North America.

While I was on Match, I noticed the new Smart Search feature has received an additional upgrade. The results page has been updated to include a Refine Your Search section. This allows you to easily refine your search scope for the following attributes, photos available, age ranges and location ranges. For each attribute range it also gives the total number of profiles which fit within the range.

For more information on this award winning online dating site, read our Match.com review.

PlentyOfFish.com has had some features updated last weekend and has dropped the paid virtual gifts. The virtual gifts lasted a little more than a month and a half. The only reason given according to Markus on his blog for dropping them was, "not really core to what we are doing". Markus has been looking for more ways to make money on his site and this was his first foray into offering a paid feature on PlentyOfFish.com. Obviously people didn't use the paid virtual gifts to often. I'm thinking the prices where to high. It cost between $12 to $30 to send a virtual flower to a member. Maybe lowering the prices by at least half would have made a difference?

I'm thinking Markus still has some ideas up his sleeve for other paid features on his dating site. Maybe charging for better placement in search results or a profile highlighted option?

David Evans of the Online Dating Insider, had an interview with Mandy Ginsberg who is the Match.com GM for North America. She let David know about a few things that will be coming to Match.com in 2009. The main thing we have to look forward too is the new Platinum membership package. Not much is know yet, but apparently Platinum members will be able to contact all member types, including free users. This means members now have the ability to communicate with anyone on Match.com and they will not have to worry if the user can reply back or not without paying first. Other dating sites have started to allow this and I am glad to see Match.com following suit.

I could of sworn I wrote about Match.com's Platinum package before but I couldn't find anything mentioned on my site. Through a Google search I did find what I was looking for. Match.com currently does have a Platinum package. You can find it here and I believe it was started a couple years ago. It currently is a premium matchmaking service offered by Match.com but is not directly tied to the dating site. The service is only available in Dallas, Texas where the Match.com head office is located. This is a personalized service where you and a matchmaker work one on one to find your ideal match. I wonder if Match.com will be either dropping this service or renaming it to avoid confusion?

Back in June 2007, a lawsuit was filed against True.com (TrueBeginnings) by Thomas Wong at the District Court of Dallas County, Texas. Mr. Wong at that time (and I believe he still is) was represented by the law firms Tycko & Zavareei LLP and Crews, Shepherd & McCarty LLP. The lawsuit is primarily about the billing and renewal practices of True.com and the difficulties members have in canceling their accounts.

The Online Dating Insider has posted new information regarding this lawsuit. True.com’s motion for summary judgment was denied on December 3rd, 2008 and Mr. Wong's class action lawsuit will now be able to move forward.

For information on the original filing in 2007 visit The Earth Times.