Finances

Spark Networks reported their fourth quarter financial results this month. Revenue for the last quarter was down 9 percent to $10.1 million with a net income of $600 thousand. Net income is up substantially this quarter though since in quarter 4 of 2009 they reported a loss of $9.6 million. For the 12 months of 2010 revenue decreased 10 percent to $40.9 million with net income at $3.7 million when compared to 2009. In 2009 Spark Networks reported a net loss of $6.4 million.

For q4 2010 the number of average paying subscribers for the entire company was 160,744. This is a decrease of 5 percent when compared to the same quarter last year. For the entire year of 2010 the number of average paying subscribers was down 2 percent from 2009 to 162,311. Breaking average paying subscribers down by segment for quarter 4 2010 you can see all experienced a decrease when compared to the same quarter in 2009:

• Other Affinity Networks - 65,172 (-4%)
• Jewish Networks - 89,723 (-1%)
• General Market Networks - 5,174 (-46%)

For the full 2010 Q4 release visit Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks Third Quarter 2010 Financials

Cupid PLC head office is located in the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. They employ about 15 people at the head office and another 200 or so in the Ukraine.

Cupid made a few announcements earlier this month about their final results for the year 2010:

• Revenues increase by 202 percent to £25.7m. In 2009 revenue was £8.5m
• Pre-tax profits for Cupid rose to £4.16m from £983,000 in 2009
• 42 percent of Q4 revenues came from outside the UK
• Their goal is to have more than 50% of revenues coming from North America by the end of 2011
• When you combine all of Cupid's dating sites they have 13 million customer profiles registered worldwide

For more information on this story you can read the announcement on the London Stock Exchange. To find out more about Cupid PLC dating sites you can read our Cupid.com review.

It has been reported that China's leading dating site, Jiayuan.com, is getting ready to be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the first half of 2011. The dating site has hired Price Waterhouse Coopers to audit and prepare the listing. With the IPO they hope to raise about $100 million in US funds.

Jiayuan.com was launched in 2003 and has had about 25 million people register online so far. The company also claims that they are responsible for 4.5 million people getting married.

Data from iResearch.cn indicates that since 2008, Jiayuan.com market share in China has hovered just under the 50 percent mark. In 2009, revenue for Jiayuan.com was 80 million Yuan ($12 million USD). It is estimated that this year the company will have over 100 million Yuan ($15 million USD) in revenue.

For more on the story, read China Knowledge. To find information on other dating sites for Asian singles, check out our Ethnic Dating category.

Spark Networks 2010 3rd quarter financials are in so let's see how they did. Overall revenue is down $1.2 million this quarter to $9.9 million when compared to the same quarter last year. Net income for quarter 3 was $1.2 million. This is up 20% over quarter 3, 2009.

The Jewish Networks revenue was $6.8 million for the 3rd quarter this year. This was 4 percent less when compared to last year. The other Affinity Networks revenue was down 14 percent to $2.7 million and the General Market Networks earned $264,000, a 54 percent decrease over last year.

Average paying subscribers for Spark Networks, as a whole, in the 3rd quarter of 2010 were 158,422. This is a decrease of 4 percent compared to 165,206 for the 3rd quarter of 2009. Subscribers for the Jewish Networks were at 89,792 for the 3rd quarter. This is up 4 percent when compared to the 3rd quarter of last year. The Other Affinity Networks subscribers were down 7 percent to 62,026 and the General Market Networks decrease was 49 percent to 5,888 subscribers.

For the full 2010 Q3 release visit Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks Second Quarter 2010 Financials

According to FriendFinder Networks Inc in a press release on Thursday, they have raised $551 million in debt financing. Any further details of this transaction were not disclosed.

For more on the story read the press release and to find out more about one of their dating sites, read our [staticpage: 010000100-FriendFinder FriendFinder review].

The UK dating company Easydate shares rose roughly 13 percent to 102.5p in September on news that profit increased to almost £2m from revenues of £8.8m for the first half of 2010. For the whole of 2009 revenue for the company was £8.5m with profits of just under £1m. Easydate is now valued at £77m. This is £32m more than when it first listed on June 30th of this year.

Easydate currently runs Cupid.com in the United Kingdom and Europe. They now will be taking charge of the US and Canada operations for Cupid.com in a £4.4m deal. This increases Easydate's holding of dating sites in North America to three.

Easydate may also be in a bit of legal trouble. easyGroup has threatened action against Easydate over alleged trademark infringement. easyGroup currently licenses the name "easy" to a number of companies. This includes easyCar, easyHotel and easyJet. easyGroup claims Easydate was trying to use their brand recognition and pass off as one of their own.

To find out more about the dating site mentioned in this story, read our review of Cupid.com.