Finances

Spark Networks second quarter financial report was released last week (the quarter ended June 30). Overall revenue for this quarter was $10.3 million with a net income of $0.9 million. When these values are compared to quarter 2 last year, revenue is down by 8 percent and net income is down by 47 percent. Total costs this quarter is $8.6 million which is a decrease of 8 percent when compared to the same time last year of $9.3 million. As a whole the company had 160,239 subscribers. This is a decrease of 2 percent from Q2, 2009.

The Jewish Networks (mostly JDate) revenue for quarter 2 was $6.7 million. This is a decrease of 6 percent when compared to last year. On the upside average paying subscribers was 89,055 which is an 8 percent increase for JDate when compared to the same time in 2009.

The Other Affinity Networks (MingleMatch dating sites) saw revenue reach $2.8 million this quarter. This is down by 16 percent when compared to last year. The average paying subscriber did not fall as hard and was only down 2 percent to 64,083.

Lastly, the General Market Networks revenue is $298,000. This is 57 percent less revenue that they earned, when compared to the same quarter last year. Subscribers fared no better and fell 54 percent to 6,434.

For the full 2010 Q2 release visit Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks First Quarter 2010 Financials

Early last month we learned that Easydate planned to list on AIM. Well, the company which launched in 2005 and brought us the UK dating site Cupid.com (see [story: Cupid.com-Reviews Cupid Review]), listed 3 days ago on London's junior stock market and raised about £9.8 million. It cost Easydate about £1 million to list and they expect yearly maintenance fees to be around £100,000.

William Dobbie (CEO) held a 49% stake in Easydate while Maxym Polyakov (COO) held 41% when it was privately owned. Now Mr Dobbie and Mr Polyakov will own 32.45% and 27.17% respectively. Shares opened at 60p which gave Easydate a market capitalisation of about £45 million. Currently the stock sits at 68.50p.

In 2009 Easydate earned just over £9.6 million giving them a before tax revenue of £2 million. Sales next year are expected to be double to £19 million. Each month Easydate is adding 200,000 new members. They employ a staff of 140 people with most working on the technical side of the business and online marketing in the Ukraine.

For more on this story, read the Telegraph.

Earlier this month Spark Networks released their first quarter earnings for 2010. Revenue in this quarter overall dropped 12 percent to 10.5 million when compared to the same period last year. When compared to the last quarter in 2009, revenue dropped 5 percent. Net income for this quarter was $929,000. This is a 3 times increase over the same period last quarter of $311,000. Average paying subscribers for the whole company was 169,833. This is an increase of 1 percent when compared to quarter 1 of 2009.

Spark Networks dating sites that fall under the Jewish Networks banner (made up mostly of JDate) had revenue of $7.1 million. This is a decrease of 7 percent when compared to quarter 1, 2009. Some good news is found here because subscribers did increase 10 percent too 93,235. The last time JDate had this many subscribers was back at the end of 2007.

The other important division for Spark Networks is their Other Affinity Networks (the MingleMatch sites). For this quarter they earned $3 million which is a 10 percent decrease when compared to the same quarter last year. Subscribers were up though, by 6 percent to 68,124.

For the full 2010 Q1 release visit Spark Networks News Room.

Related Story: Spark Networks Fourth Quarter 2009 Financials

It looks like the domain name Dating.com was sold yesterday at auction on DomainFest for $1.75 million US. The domain was sold by Oversee.net to an unknown buyer. Currently the Dating.com domain hosts a World Dating Partners while label dating site. I wonder what the new owner plans on doing with the domain? I am going to assume they have plans to launch a dating service since that type of website potentially could generate the most profits. With the money the buyers spent on the domain it looks like the new owner plans to invest a fair bit of money in the new service. It should be interesting to see what they come up with.

For more on the story read TechCrunch.

Classified Intelligence Report disclosed today that they have estimated for 2010 that Craigslist will generate $122 million in gross revenue with profits ranging from $88 to $99 million. This works out to about $4 million per employee. Last year (2009) revenue was estimated to be $100 million and back in 2003 revenue was estimated at $7 million for Craigslist. According to the report, half of their revenue in 2010 will come from recruitment advertising while 30 percent comes from the Adult Services listings and a further 17 percent coming from apartment ads in New York City.

In 2009 Craigslist was accused of being a large source for prostitution. In a bid to appease lawmakers Craigslist renamed their "Erotic Services" category to "Adult Services" and upped the fee per listing to $10 (it was $5). Craigslist also agreed to manual approve each listing. When the Erotic Services category was around Craigslist donated the proceeds from these listings to undisclosed charities. Since the name change, Craigslist has stopped this practice.

Find out more at AimGroup.com and for further details about this classifieds website, read our review of Craigslist.

Early in March Great Hill Partners offered to take Spark Networks private by buying all of the shares they did not own for $3.10 per share (see Story). Great Hill currently owns about 25 percent of the stock so the deal would have cost them about $64 million. Spark Networks said they would consider the offer, much to the dismay of a number of share holders.

Yesterday, a Spark Networks special committee on the offer unanimously rejected the proposal from Great Hill Equity Partners. No reason was given about why they rejected the offer but they did say that they will continue to consider other alternatives.

For more on the story, read the Spark Networks press release.