Christian Mingle

Christian Mingle has recently added keyword searching to their dating site. They have also enabled automatic keyword searching when you are viewing a members profile. How it works is, In essay questions like My Introduction, certain keywords used in their answers, when clicked return other profiles that have used the word as well. This makes it a few steps easier to find matches that relate to each other.

For more information on this religious dating service, read our Christian Mingle review.

Spark Networks had a disappointing quarter 4 in 2008. From the press release:

2008 was a mixed year for us. We achieved moderate annual revenue increases in Jewish Networks and Other Affinity Networks, improved Contribution margins to 74%, cut Operating Expenses by 19%, drove annual Adjusted EBITDA to record levels at a 28% margin and returned capital to stockholders by using cash flow to repurchase 21% of the shares outstanding at the start of 2008 ... we are disappointed with second half trends and in particular the fourth quarter, as revenue and subscribers decreased sequentially in each online segment. 2008 revenue, excluding General Markets, was flat while fourth quarter revenue, excluding General Markets, declined 3% sequentially. Jewish Networks was flat in 2008 but saw its third consecutive quarter of declines.

General Markets was Spark Networks flag ship dating site once, Americansingles.com. For over the last year American Singles has lost a large number of members. Spark Networks current flag ship site is JDate, the online Jewish Network.

Spark Networks released their 3rd quarter financial results this past week. It wasn't a very good quarter for the company when compared to 2007 Q3 and last quarter.

Revenue for the third quarter of 2008 was $14.0 million, an 11% decrease compared to $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2007, and a 6% decrease compared to $15.0 million in the prior quarter. Revenue for the nine months was $44.1 million, a 10% decrease compared to $49.2 million for the same period last year.

Subscribers are also down.

With all the news about internet dating safety bills lately, I noticed that the Spark Networks dating sites have a new warning at the bottom of their home pages. Here is the text I am referring to as quoted from AmericanSingles.com:

Spark Networks Limited does not conduct background checks on the members or subscribers of this website.

I wonder if this background checks warning is response to the New Jersey's Internet Dating Safety Act. If so, and since I don't live in the state of New Jersey, it appears they are displaying the message to everyone and not just New Jersey residents.

I've been meaning to post this information for a while.

Spark Networks released their First Quarter 2008 Financial Results on May 1, 2008. Spark Networks revenue for this period is $15 million. This is $1.8 million less from the first quarter 2007 and a decrease of 6% over quarter 4, 2007. It is not all bad news though as operating expenses where cut 27% over quarter 1, 2007 which resulted in a $1.6 million net income. Spark Networks reported a net loss of $1.4 million last year in the first quarter.

As far as subscribers are concerned, Spark Networks in the first quarter of 2008 had 195,325 subscribers. This is a decrease of 16% from 231,313 from the first quarter in 2007 and a decrease of 3% from the fourth quarter of 2007.

I received an email from Relationship.com. They are changing their name to ChristianMingle.com to make it easier for people to realize what type of single Relationship.com is trying to attract.

For the last year or so Relationships.com has been the most visited Christian dating site according to Hitwise. Hitwise is a company that keeps track of how many people visit web sites and then ranks them accordingly.

I guess this means I'll have to update my review of Relationship.com to reflect the new name change. I should have another look at this dating site anyways since it's been a while and I like to review each site at least once every 6 months.