Dating website Match.com hopes to net new customers by becoming the first major match-maker to partner with social networking site Facebook.
The move comes as analysts argue free social networking sites pose a major threat to subscription services like Match. Some dating services have already exited the market as sites like Facebook and MySpace rapidly grow their non-paying audiences keen to make new cyberfriends. Others matchmakers have sought to become more like networking sites by introducing chat functions and video clips.
But dating sites argue the social networking phenomenon has actually helped them grow their overall audience by breaking down people's inhibitions about meeting online.
Match.com is now partnering with Facebook in its bid to gain more networking-crazy surfers. The dating site is offering a "Little Black Book" application to Facebook users from next week, which helps them find potential partners.
"As the market leader, our biggest strategic challenge is to grow the category and our experience tells us that social networkers have a high propensity to try online dating, which makes this a natural move for us," says Jason Stockwood head of the UK Match business.
"Match.com shares many of the same characteristics as a social network, both are about bringing people together. Sites like Facebook are great at helping people manage their existing relationship networks, but Match.com helps people expand these, by meeting new people with an interest in forming romantic relationships."
The Little Black Book service marks a departure from Match.com's subscription model and will give customers the chance to meet its members on a 'pay-per-contact' basis.
The application also seeks to build on evidence showing friends's opinions play a key role in dating, something at the core of TV presenter Sarah Beeny's Mysinglefriend.com. That site allows users to sign up single friends.
Using the Little Black Book application, friends can share potential matches with any of their other friends on Facebook and can purchase keys to "unlock" a potential match for a friend.
Match's announcement follows new research last week showing the UK leads Europe in using social networking sites. UK adults go on social networking sites an average 23 times a month and spend longer on them than their European neighbours - an average 5.3 hours a month, according to media regulator Ofcom.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Dating site hopes to attract younger viewers with videos
PALO ALTO, Calif. -- Many online dating sites seek to connect soulmates, to bring together those looking for eternal and everlasting love.
The latest Internet dating site, recently launched in Palo Alto, is not one of them.
"It's not about marriage," said Alex Gurevich, cofounder of SayHeyHey.com, the first free all-video online dating site.
The new site eschews the typical format of online dating sites where users carefully word profiles and post photos "from 10 years and 20 pounds ago," Gurevich said.
Instead, users of SayHeyHey post videos of themselves talking, wakeboarding or -- in one person's case -- using a beer bong.
If a visitor is interested in someone else's clip, he or she can send a video introduction. The goal of the site is to connect with the 18- to 28-year-old audience that's more comfortable with YouTube than with Match.com, Gurevich said.
"If I'm a twentysomething, I don't want to be on a site with old fogeys," said Gurevich, 24, before apologizing to cofounder Soudy Khan, who described himself as "thirtysomething."
The two admitted the idea for the site stemmed in part from their collective dating woes.
Gurevich recalled a date he went on with a woman whose profile described her as laid-back and relaxed. After their first date, though, she hit him with a wave of frenzied calls and text messages.
"I was on JDate, and I went on two or three dates, and every single girl turned out to be super-psychotic," Gurevich said.
Video clips provide much greater insight into a person's personality, Khan said.
On the site, users can post as many videos as they want, with each one up to 10 minutes in length and most averaging around two minutes, said Gurevich.
And those hoping to find a date can click on the "matching" function, which locates a compatible personality, using a top-secret but "very deliberate" algorithm.
Gurevich said the matching formula works so well that it keeps trying to set him up with a woman he dated before the site's launch.
The latest Internet dating site, recently launched in Palo Alto, is not one of them.
"It's not about marriage," said Alex Gurevich, cofounder of SayHeyHey.com, the first free all-video online dating site.
The new site eschews the typical format of online dating sites where users carefully word profiles and post photos "from 10 years and 20 pounds ago," Gurevich said.
Instead, users of SayHeyHey post videos of themselves talking, wakeboarding or -- in one person's case -- using a beer bong.
If a visitor is interested in someone else's clip, he or she can send a video introduction. The goal of the site is to connect with the 18- to 28-year-old audience that's more comfortable with YouTube than with Match.com, Gurevich said.
"If I'm a twentysomething, I don't want to be on a site with old fogeys," said Gurevich, 24, before apologizing to cofounder Soudy Khan, who described himself as "thirtysomething."
The two admitted the idea for the site stemmed in part from their collective dating woes.
Gurevich recalled a date he went on with a woman whose profile described her as laid-back and relaxed. After their first date, though, she hit him with a wave of frenzied calls and text messages.
"I was on JDate, and I went on two or three dates, and every single girl turned out to be super-psychotic," Gurevich said.
Video clips provide much greater insight into a person's personality, Khan said.
On the site, users can post as many videos as they want, with each one up to 10 minutes in length and most averaging around two minutes, said Gurevich.
And those hoping to find a date can click on the "matching" function, which locates a compatible personality, using a top-secret but "very deliberate" algorithm.
Gurevich said the matching formula works so well that it keeps trying to set him up with a woman he dated before the site's launch.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Truth About Dating: Readers 'tell Steve'
By Steve Penner
December 14, 2007 6:00 AM
Here we are, in the midst of the holiday season, surrounded by a seemingly never-ending barrage of Rachael Ray commercials, tree lighting ceremonies, shopping trips, crafts fairs and, one hopes, get-togethers with friends and family.
Each of us celebrates the season in our own way. As I wrote last week ("Remember single friends at the holidays") —¦the holiday season is a very intense time of year that tends to magnify one's personal level of happiness or unhappiness."
Two responses to that column show how people perceive the written word from their own perspective. One woman e-mailed:
"I just wanted to thank you for your recent article ...; It very much hit home for me — a year and a half ago my husband deserted me after 15 years together and left me penniless, am just coming off of very tumultuous divorce, this will be second Xmas/holiday season since it happened, and it is still so incredibly hard. What you wrote is so true — the holidays do tend to 'magnify' the loneliness/emptiness that one (at least me) feels in these situations. Mine was made worse by the fact that my ex-husband's family and our mutual friends all stopped speaking to me as soon as he left — not contacting me, and not responding when I tried to contact them — they basically acted as if I fell off the earth. At Xmas he and I always used to get at least 20 or 30 Xmas cards — last year (aside from my immediate family) I got a total of one Xmas card. That hit me very deep...;"
But another woman wrote:
"Your article last week is contributing to the myth that all single people are lonely, pitiful things. PLEASE. So not true. My single friends and I look at the overweight miserable marrieds and pity them for having to put up with crappy relatives and staged family events that no one really wants to go to. Single women and men have the freedom to do whatever the heck they want to during the holidays. I read and talk to friends all over the country. I have friends over or they have me over for laughs and wine. I have a few businesses that I work on during my free time because I enjoy it. I take the time to visit my elderly friends and catch up on movies — whether staying in or going out. Sometimes I take a trip to Barnes and Noble and stay there for hours reading and buying new books and listening to new music — never worrying that I have to be home by my curfew. If you're comfortable in your own skin, being single is very freeing and fun."
Well, to each her own. But as I originally wrote, single men do not get together for "laughs and wine" (unless the Patriots are playing).
In response to another recent column, "Don't ignore your bio clock," one woman e-mailed:
"Wanted to say that your article was appreciated. All too often, women do not realize their 'waiting until their schooling is complete,' then starting their career before they have children can really put a damper on childbearing. Ask me I know! Due to waiting too long, I had to have a radical hysterectomy at age 36, never to be a mother. Then come to find out, there are MANY in the world saddened as I am. Myself and a friend...; created www.childlessnotbychoice.com.
"Many of our members fit the descriptions in your article. Other scenarios included spouses not wanting (more) children since they had them w/a previous wife; some spouses just do not want any; do IVF after IVF (in vitro fertilization) to still come up empty-armed; failed adoptions, etc. Nonetheless, I wanted to commend you for writing what you did. If those women who 'wait,' wait any longer, they'll end up NEEDING our Web site. WE are an 'ilk' unto ourselves. WE are a misunderstood segment of society."
I hope everyone, whether single or married, childless or not, can make the best of the next couple of weeks. For so many people, the term "Merry Christmas" rolls off the tongue with the same reflex-like response of a well-trained store clerk saying "Have a nice day."
So the next time you say "Merry Christmas" to a friend, relative or acquaintance whom you know is going through a rough patch, think about what you can do to add real meaning to those words.
Steve Penner was the owner of the Boston-based dating service LunchDates for nearly 23 years and interviewed and listened to feedback from thousands of single men and women from all over New England. "The Truth about Dating" reflects insights and observations based upon his experience. Steve welcomes feedback at pennerst@hotmail.com or through his Web site at http://thetruthaboutdating.com.
December 14, 2007 6:00 AM
Here we are, in the midst of the holiday season, surrounded by a seemingly never-ending barrage of Rachael Ray commercials, tree lighting ceremonies, shopping trips, crafts fairs and, one hopes, get-togethers with friends and family.
Each of us celebrates the season in our own way. As I wrote last week ("Remember single friends at the holidays") —¦the holiday season is a very intense time of year that tends to magnify one's personal level of happiness or unhappiness."
Two responses to that column show how people perceive the written word from their own perspective. One woman e-mailed:
"I just wanted to thank you for your recent article ...; It very much hit home for me — a year and a half ago my husband deserted me after 15 years together and left me penniless, am just coming off of very tumultuous divorce, this will be second Xmas/holiday season since it happened, and it is still so incredibly hard. What you wrote is so true — the holidays do tend to 'magnify' the loneliness/emptiness that one (at least me) feels in these situations. Mine was made worse by the fact that my ex-husband's family and our mutual friends all stopped speaking to me as soon as he left — not contacting me, and not responding when I tried to contact them — they basically acted as if I fell off the earth. At Xmas he and I always used to get at least 20 or 30 Xmas cards — last year (aside from my immediate family) I got a total of one Xmas card. That hit me very deep...;"
But another woman wrote:
"Your article last week is contributing to the myth that all single people are lonely, pitiful things. PLEASE. So not true. My single friends and I look at the overweight miserable marrieds and pity them for having to put up with crappy relatives and staged family events that no one really wants to go to. Single women and men have the freedom to do whatever the heck they want to during the holidays. I read and talk to friends all over the country. I have friends over or they have me over for laughs and wine. I have a few businesses that I work on during my free time because I enjoy it. I take the time to visit my elderly friends and catch up on movies — whether staying in or going out. Sometimes I take a trip to Barnes and Noble and stay there for hours reading and buying new books and listening to new music — never worrying that I have to be home by my curfew. If you're comfortable in your own skin, being single is very freeing and fun."
Well, to each her own. But as I originally wrote, single men do not get together for "laughs and wine" (unless the Patriots are playing).
In response to another recent column, "Don't ignore your bio clock," one woman e-mailed:
"Wanted to say that your article was appreciated. All too often, women do not realize their 'waiting until their schooling is complete,' then starting their career before they have children can really put a damper on childbearing. Ask me I know! Due to waiting too long, I had to have a radical hysterectomy at age 36, never to be a mother. Then come to find out, there are MANY in the world saddened as I am. Myself and a friend...; created www.childlessnotbychoice.com.
"Many of our members fit the descriptions in your article. Other scenarios included spouses not wanting (more) children since they had them w/a previous wife; some spouses just do not want any; do IVF after IVF (in vitro fertilization) to still come up empty-armed; failed adoptions, etc. Nonetheless, I wanted to commend you for writing what you did. If those women who 'wait,' wait any longer, they'll end up NEEDING our Web site. WE are an 'ilk' unto ourselves. WE are a misunderstood segment of society."
I hope everyone, whether single or married, childless or not, can make the best of the next couple of weeks. For so many people, the term "Merry Christmas" rolls off the tongue with the same reflex-like response of a well-trained store clerk saying "Have a nice day."
So the next time you say "Merry Christmas" to a friend, relative or acquaintance whom you know is going through a rough patch, think about what you can do to add real meaning to those words.
Steve Penner was the owner of the Boston-based dating service LunchDates for nearly 23 years and interviewed and listened to feedback from thousands of single men and women from all over New England. "The Truth about Dating" reflects insights and observations based upon his experience. Steve welcomes feedback at pennerst@hotmail.com or through his Web site at http://thetruthaboutdating.com.
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