Online Dating

We will soon be seeing some new ads from Match.com 2008 ad campaign called Rewind. Rewind will feature couples who have met online using the Match.com dating service. Expect to see both internet and TV spots. The TV commercials will mainly be airing on the NBC and ABC TV networks during shows like Grey's Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. These ads will also include information on new features at Match including Match My Friends (see this story).

Match owes a large part of their success to smart and tasteful ad campaigns. Last year (2006) Match spent $92 million in several different advertising mediums.

Read more regarding this new ad campaign an about Match.com's previous campaigns at Brandweek. Go here for our review on Match.com.

I finally got more information on Match.com's new "Match My Friends" feature. Here is how it works, straight from the press release:

Match My Friends(TM) engages friends in two ways. First, anyone can get their friends in the game -- regardless of whether or not they're already a Match.com member. When someone wishes to sign up a single friend, they can create a suggested profile for their friend, upload a photo and even sponsor their friend's subscription. The resulting profile is then sent to the single friend for editing and approval before being posted on Match.com. From here, the "recommender" and single friend can search for and share recommendations on potential dates for the single friend.

Match My Friends(TM) also allows for personal testimonials to be added to Match.com profiles. Any existing Match.com member can email friends and/or family and ask them to create a short testimonial, which can then be approved by the Match.com member and posted on their profile. The testimonials will offer potential mates a glimpse into the person's life, personality and off-line friendships.

This is an interesting idea and it would be fun playing cupid on a dating site and finding matches for your friends. Match.com implemented this feature the correct way, by having the friend have to approve the profile first (through email) before it can go online at Match. This way the friend can correct any information or decline if they really don't want to have a dating profile.

Personal testimonials are a great tool as well. It helps legitimatize a profile since you have other people vouching for this profile and single. Friends and Family who may post a testimonial also may offer a personal insight of the person which may help you decide if he or she is a potential match for you. Of course if you don't like the testimonials you receive for your profile you can always decline them.

Match.com's have had several updates and new features lately for there service. This speaks to their commitment on being the number one dating service by reinvesting constantly into your business and letting your competition play catch-up.

My only small problem so far, a pet peeve really, with Match My Friends is the name. You have the name on the site with spaces and then in other places they call it "matchmyfriends". Match has done this before with Match Mobile. I never know what to use! I plan on playing around with this feature a lot more to see how it turns out.

For more information on Match.com please check our review.

All matchmaking services in Shanghai must register with the Shanghai Association of Matchmaking Management by next year. Among other things, the association will keep track of any misdemeanors of the matchmaker service.

Each employee who works at a matchmaking service must obtain two certificates from the Shanghai Association of Matchmaking Management. One is a qualified matchmaking certificate and the second one is a matchmaking company employee certificate.

More information on the new regulations can be found at Shanghai Daily.

Apparently about half the adults online have looked either themselves up or someone else on the internet according to the findings of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. I find this a little surprising. I expected the percentage to be a lot higher, especially if we are just talking about people who use the internet on a regular basis. I don't know of anyone who hasn't typed their name into Google to see what comes up.

It's also a good idea to do before you meet someone for the first time on a date. It could give you a little bit of insight on their life. Just remember there is a lot of people out in the world with the same name!

More information about this survey can be found at SFGate.com.

CBS 5 is reporting that one of the largest dating sites, Match.com is about too debut an application with everyone's favorite social networking site, Facebook. The application is called "Little Black Book" and it allows Facebook users to see other Facebook users and Match.com members who wish to date. With this application you can also share your matches with any of your Facebook friends. The other key feature is, users of Facebook with the Little Black Book don't necessary have to be members of Match.com. The reason for this is the application is a new paying service for Match.com. Once you have your matches, It will allow Facebook users to contact other users on a "pay per contact" basis instead of the regular monthly subscription which Match.com itself offers. At this point I would assume, if you are a member of the Match.com dating site you would not have to pay this fee. The Little Black Book also allows you to purchase keys to unlock a potential match for a friend. This feature ties in nicely with Match.com other new feature this week, matchmyFriends. Match My Friends allows people to create a dating profile for their friends (with the friends permission of course). We will have more information on matchmyFriends in another story. (UPDATE - Story now available here)

As everyone knows, social networking on the internet is huge. Sites like Facebook and MySpace have made it very popular. Facebook itself has an estimated 58 million users, while Match.com themselves have over 15 million. With the rise of social networking sites internet gurus expected dating sites to decline. In fact the opposite is true. Internet Dating has never been more popular. Singles like the dedicated service and features which dating sites offers. Plus, you know people on a dating site are actively looking for a relationship, on Social Networking sites a large percentage are not.

Allowing Facebook users to access Match.com's features is a very smart move on the part of Match.com and opens the door to more potential customers. IMO it should work out well just as long as Match.com doesn't charge too much to Facebook users to contact a match through the Little Black Book application.

The Facebook Little Black Book application is expected to launch next week, for more information on Match.com read our review.

Last month we reported this story, Rumor - FriendFinder purchased for $1 Billion?. Well it turns out that most of the rumor is true according to the New York Times. The FriendFinder Network was sold but for $500 million. There are over 25 sites in the FriendFinder Network with about a total of 1.2 million paying subscribers out of 260 million members. The projected profits of the network is estimated to be $340 million this year.

Some more of the popular sites in the FriendFinder Network includes their first site created, FriendFinder.com and Passion.com geared towards adults.