General News

On August 7, 2008 Spark Networks reported their Q2 financials. Revenue remained the same as last quarter at $15 million which is a decrease of 10 percent when compared to a year ago. Operating expenses also went down 15% to $8 million when compared to Q2 in 2007. Operating income for this quarter was $1.6 million, which is a drop of $300,000 when compared to Q2, 2007.

The average paying subscriber for all of Spark Networks dating sites in quarter 2 of 2008 was 190,455. This is 13 percent less when compared to the same quarter last year (219,196) and is 1% less from the last quarter (192,652).

Over half of Spark Networks revenue now comes from the Jewish Networks which major site includes JDate.com. Revenue for this quarter was $8.6 million which is a 5% increase over last year. These sites also saw a 2% decrease in average subscribers to 91,598. Increased revenue is a result from lower operating costs and an increase in prices when compared to last year.

The big loser this quarter for Spark Networks was their General Market Network of sites which continue to bleed subscribers. This network is made up of country specific dating sites including AmericanSingles.com, Date.ca and Date.co.uk. Revenue was down 49% to $2.2 million when compared to Q2, 2007. This is also a 16% drop from last quarter. Average subscribers for this quarter for this network was 33,573. Last year at the same time they had 61,529.

The Other Affinity Networks (which includes the rest of Spark Networks dating services) saw a 6% increase in revenue this quarter to $3.4 million when compared to 2007. Subscribers where up as well but by only 1% to 63,309.

Match.com parent company IAC released their second quarter Financial Report late last month. Overall Match.com saw slight growth in both revenue and subscribers. Total revenue was up 8 percent to $93.3 million over the same period last year. This increase was driven by a 4 percent increase in international subscribers. North America subscribers saw 3 percent revenue growth while actual subscription numbers grew by 1 percent for the same quarter in 2007.

For more information, read IACs Press Release.

It appears woman over the age of 50 want a younger man on two of the most popular dating services, as reported in the Washington Post. On average a 50 year old woman on Match.com wants a man who is 48. At the same time on eHarmony, a woman who is 50, is looking for a man 10 to 15 years younger. Thanks to in part of the women's movement and the fact that woman now are more independent equal opportunity has come to matching. Older woman matched with younger men also makes sense from a biology stand point.

Women, according to calculations based on mortality risk, are five years "younger" than men the same age. The 65-year-old woman is the biological equivalent of a 60-year-old man. So it's sensible, not just fanciful, for a woman to look for a younger guy.

By looking at the averages on eHarmony and Match.com though, most men are still looking for a younger woman. eHarmony has found men 50 years or older are seeking women 6 to 26 years younger and Match.com has a similar ratio. On average men who are 56 are seeking someone who is 54 but, when you look at men who are 70, they are looking for a 58 year old woman.

Of course this is what people want and the problem with it is, it creates an age gap. If both men and woman over the age of 50 are looking for a younger partner, matching them up becomes difficult. Of course what a person wants and what happens in real life is a different story. On eHarmony were reporting of successful matches is requested, it has found woman 40 years or older found a match with someone who is plus or minus 4 years their age. For men at age 40 it is the same age difference as woman but, by the time men reach 60, successful matches for them has reached the age range of plus or minus 6 years.

For the full story see the Washington Post. Read our Match.com Review or eHarmony Review for more information on these popular dating services.

Expect to see some Chemistry.com TV commercials in Canada and the United States during the broadcast of the Olympics. Starting Saturday they will have a number of prime time slots on the NBC network. I'm not sure if these Ads are new productions or from previous marketing campaigns (see story).

For more information on the dating service Chemistry, read our review.

The Online Dating Insider got the word out that Lavalife Prime has started to charge it's members. Geared towards singles 45 and older Lavalife Prime relies more on its social network than other dating services. It is more about participating in the forums and sharing your life experiences with photos and videos you can upload.

One interesting thing I noted was the title of Lavalife Primes home page. It reads "Adult dating site for women and men 45+". This title doesn't exactly lead me to believe it is a dating site for your typical older singles. If you do a search for "lavalifeprime" on Google, this is the title of the site and the search result and it doesn't exactly bring senior dating to mind! The term "Adult Dating" usually refers to the more sex driven side of the dating industry. Lavalife Prime is obviously trying to generate visitors from this popular search term even though it doesn't exactly relate to what they are offering. If you look at the home page of Prime it looks like a very conservative dating site. IMO, Lavalife Prime should put the name of the site back into the title and remove the word Adult. Do it at least for the misleading search engine results!

Well, the last few weeks have been pretty slow around here as I was away on vacation for over 2 weeks. I could only do so much with my laptop and dial-up internet access. I had forgotten how sssslllooowww dial-up really was. Expect to see a bunch of dating related news stories this week as I compile my bookmarks and notes from the last few weeks.

I guess, I better get writing!