FriendFinder Networks

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.

TechCrunch have posted a rumor from what they call a reliable source that the FriendFinder Network of sites has been acquired for $1 Billion. In an update to this rumor the buyer is reported to be Penthouse Media Group. The FriendFinder Network of dating sites includes AdultFriendFInder, Passion, Senior FriendFinder and over 15 other different types of dating services. The article further reports that rumored revenues for the Network is over $300 million a year which makes this acquisition worth about 3 years of revenue.

Is this a good deal for Penthouse? Could be, the FriendFinder dating sites have always done well financially and they don't seem to be slowing down. At a cost of 3 years worth of revenue seems a little on the low end to me but most likely there is more too this deal than we know about (if it actually is true!).

Recipient
Passion.com

The Editor's choice for the Top Pick - Sexy award for the best dating service which offers you a chance to meet other people for intimate encounters goes to Passion.com. This is an extremely popular dating service with over 20 million members who have joined to date. There market is very competitive with many dating services vying for members for which Passion.com has come out on top (no pun intended). How did they do this? By being one of the first sites to offer an adult oriented dating service in the industry with a very feature complete site. Passion.com is constantly evolving to make the online dating experience easier and more enjoyable for there members. This is easy to see by just the sheer number of things to do and explore on the site.

• Passion.com embraced video early on. Members can not only upload there own videos but can view a large number of high quality live member webcams. You also can participate yourself or try out the video instant messenger (text is available as well) for a more private conversation. There are always thousands of members chatting and instant messaging at any one time.
• Members are always posting in their Blogs and Interest Groups with almost 6 and a half million messages available to be read.
• It's easy to create or find a local event in your city which members are participating in. Plus it is simple to find new places to visit with member's recommendations, comments and ratings on local businesses. These include places like bars, restaurants and clubs.

There is a lot of information to digest at Passion.com but they make it easy to do with a well designed web interface. Everything from updating your profile, adding pictures and videos, to browsing profiles, articles and forums is simple to do. Plus if you every have a question, Passion.com's customer support staff is just a phone call away and are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Read our review of Passion.com for more information about this dating service or visit Passion.com directly.

This Years Runner Ups for this award include: Lavalife.

Here is an interesting article on CNNMoney.com about the founder (Andrew Conru) of the FriendFinder Network of dating sites. It talks about his failures and successes including AdultFriendFinder, his biggest success which generates more than 60% of his total revenue (over $200 million). This site rivals the likes of Match.com and Yahoo! Personals in total number of members. Last year AFF had more than 35 million visitors and on average 75,000 new user registering each day (not paid members).

FriendFinder has recently updated ther Instant Messenger tool to 3.0. This free tool has been enhanced to be more simple, fun and responsive. New features include sound effects and improved language support. As always you have the main features of Video Chat, Text Chat, Viewable Members Photo Gallery and the ability to trade photos. This new instant messenger is available on all online dating sites of the FriendFinder Network.

Read our:

• FriendFinder Review (FriendFinder.com)
• Senior FriendFinder Review
• Big Church Review (BigChurch.com)
• Jewish FriendFinder Review