Online Dating Industry Journal

Spark Networks JDate Sees Continued Growth

(Online Dating Industry Journal) Jewish online dating service JDate saw a third straight quarter of revenue growth, according to First Quarter 2008 financial results released by Spark Networks. Spark Networks owns jDate and several other online dating services, including American Singles.

"JDate.com grew for the third straight quarter following last year's price increase and we continued JDate's international expansion with the launch of JDate.co.uk for the United Kingdom," said Adam Berger, Chairman and CEO of Spark Networks.  "In addition, we accelerated our ad sales initiative, increasing advertising revenue 30% over the prior quarter.

"Our strategic and operating priorities for the next few quarters are to fuel JDate's growth through new product enhancements and further global expansion, examine additional marketing strategies to grow Other Affinity Networks, manage the General Market segment to attractive margins and cash flow, and leverage the increasing traction of our advertising offering to increase the contribution of ad sales to our total revenue."

It wasn't all good news for Spark Networks, however, as they saw an overall reduction in revenue, by 11%, for the entire company from First Quarter 2007. Revenue for First Quarter 2008 was $15 million.

NuWire - Invest in an Online Dating Service

(Online Dating Industry Journal) NuWire Investor, an education resource for investors, thinks that it is a good time to start an online dating service (read our Inside the Industry Article about Starting an Online Dating Service).

The company runs a blog for investors titled CommonCensus and in a February 29, 2009 post titled "Online Dating Can Lead to Marriage" they point out the benefits of getting into the marketplace.

From the post:

"While there are big dating websites already, such as Match.com, individual investors could start their own niche dating websites. Starting an online dating service was on NuWire's list of the top 5 romantic investments.

And why not? Surely there are left-handed people or baseball fans or Toyota Prius drivers out there looking to find a date. Why not give them a platform to do so--and maybe make a buck while you're at it?"

Click here to read the entire article.

Joe's Comments
The online dating service marketplace is too saturated. It would take tens of millions of dollars to break into the bubble of the "top 5" online dating services and that's only if the concept is right. While it looks like an "easy" marketplace to break into, it's not. Heck, more than one company has inquired about buying Online Dating Magazine to help them in their quest. But they didn't offer enough. :-)

Spark Networks First Quarter 2006 Financial Results

(Online Dating Industry Journal) Spark Networks plc recently announced its 2006 first quarter results, reporting an EBITDAS profit of $3.4 million and a debt payoff of $5 million for the acquisition of MingleMatch last year.

Spark Networks admittedly reduced its AmericanSingles marketing by 34% toward the end of 2005 and annual revenue decreased as a result. First quarter 2006 revenue for Spark's AmericanSingles segment was reported at $6.3 million, a decrease of 22% compared to $8.1 million in the same period in 2005.

Spark's "Other Businesses" segment 2006 revenue showed an increase of 75% with $3.5 million, compared to $2.0 million in the same period in 2005. According to Spark Networks, the increase in revenue was primarily driven by the acquisition of MingleMatch in the second quarter of 2005, and strong growth from the websites associated with the acquisition.

The results list average paying subscribers for:

- the JDate segment at 79,500 during the first quarter of 2006, an increase of 13%
- the AmericanSingles segment at 98,800, a decrease of 19%
- the Other Businesses segment at 66,000, an increase of 116%

For full details read the release here.

DatingVentures.com Selling Online Dating Division

(Online Dating Industry Journal) DatingVentures.com is selling its online dating division. The owners of DatingVentures.com started auctioning off their 400+ niche dating domain names on March 22. CEO Dillon Dao hopes "these domains will either sell to entrepreneurs wanting a piece of the online dating boom or a big online dating conglomerate, like a Match, Sparks Networks, or Friend Finder will buy them." If interested, you can view the high-priced domain names for sale here.

Think Partnership to Sell its Online Dating and Education Subsidiaries

(Online Dating Industry Journal) Think Partnership Inc., formerly known as CGI Holding Corporation today announced that it has signed a letter of intent to sell its online dating and online education businesses to Mountains West Exploration Inc.

If the transaction is completed, Think Partnership would sell its wholly-owned online dating subsidiary Cherish, Inc., including Cherish's direct and indirect subsidiaries Personals Plus, Inc., and Vintacom Media Group, Inc., and the Company's wholly-owned online education subsidiary Real Estate School Online Inc., to Mountains West Exploration Inc. for an aggregate of $21,000,000 in cash and unregistered common stock of Mountains West valued at $9,000,000.

The sites being sold were acquired by Think Partnership during the past two years, for an aggregate of $10,712,500 in cash, $11,212,500 in common stock of Think Partnership, and $1,200,000 in notes, or a total of $23,125,000.

"We are under no pressure to divest ourselves of these businesses as they are profitable,” stated Think Partnership CEO Gerard M. Jacobs. “However, after due consideration, we believe that this transaction, if completed, would clarify our business model, and better focus our management time and capital on integration and growth opportunities for our online marketing and advertising business segment while allowing a significant pure play opportunity for these important but now, non-core assets."

Kim's Comments:
If this sale goes through, it looks like Think will be narrowing its focus as it has been pretty unfocused up to now.  It seems they are trying to avoid spreading themselves too thin and instead plan to look toward building their online marketing and advertising business.

More on the Matchmaker Acquisition

(Online Dating Industry Journal) As revealed in ODIJ last week, Avalanche LLC, owners of Date.com, has now officially announced their acquisition of online dating service Matchmaker. 

"As we entered the millennium, Matchmaker was a force to be reckoned with in the online dating industry," said Meir Strahlberg, President of Avalanche LLC and CEO of Date.com. "Through this acquisition, we are looking forward to breathing new life into the site and reinvigorating the brand. By wedding Date.com and Matchmaker.com with one shared technical platform, and a dual marketing strategy, we are excited about ushering Matchmaker back to the pinnacle of the online dating industry."

Matchmaker will continue to operate as a separate entity, with a focus on the marriage-minded single but will share a technical platform with Date.com. Date.com, will be Avalanche’s site for the more casual dater. Avalanche LLC acquired Matchmaker for an undisclosed amount.

Kim's Comments:
It looks like the founders of Date.com have acquired Matchmaker in hopes of competing against marriage and long-term relationship focused sites like eHarmony and Match.com's new Chemistry.com.  I wonder if they will completely change their format and unveil a compatibility test themed service on Matchmaker.  That seems to be the trend in this competitive niche market.  As of now, this hasn't happened and it still seems like a standard online dating service open to anyone, but, I would expect a few changes soon to better compete with the relationship focused giants. 

Online Dating Service Matchmaker Acquired

(Online Dating Industry Journal)  Online dating service Matchmaker has been acquired by Avalanche, LLC, owners of Date.com.  According to an article in Online Dating Magazine:

"Date.com has been working on its business infrastructure, also creating a parent company, Avalanche, LLC that now becomes the official "owner" of both Date.com and Matchmaker."

For the full article visit the Online Dating Magazine industry section.

Think Partnership, Owner of Cherish.com, Receives Warning Letter from American Stock Exchange

(Online Dating Industry Journal) CGI Holding Corporation, d/b/a Think Partnership Inc. today announced that on January 27, 2006, the Company received a letter from the American Stock Exchange (AMEX)advising the Company that, because the Company did not distribute an annual report to its shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2004, and did not hold an annual meeting of its shareholders for that year, the Company failed to comply with: (1) Section 610 of the AMEX Company Guide which requires a listed company to submit to its shareholders a copy of its annual report no later than four months after the close of the last preceding fiscal year; and (2) Section 704 of the Company Guide which requires a listed company to hold meetings of its stockholders annually to elect directors and to take action on other corporate matters.

In the letter, the AMEX advised the Company that it must comply with these requirements no later than March 31, 2006. The AMEX has also required the Company to notify its shareholders in writing that it has delayed its annual meeting of shareholders explaining the reasons for the delay.

According to Think Partnership, in May of 2005, the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission notified the Company that its audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2004 were being reviewed. Because these financial statements must be included in the 2004 annual report accompanying the Company's proxy statement for its 2005 annual meeting, the Company delayed holding its meeting until the review was complete. On December 30, 2005, as a result of this review, the Company restated the financial statements that are to be included in the 2004 annual report, and, based on oral comments received from the staff, restated the financial statements again on January 31, 2006.

Think Partnership currently has 12 operating companies including online dating service Cherish.com.

German Dating Site Parship Comes to UK

(Online Dating Industry Journal) Parship, a European online dating agency aimed at affluent consumers, is preparing for a multimillion dollar launch in the United Kingdom.  Since Parship's launch in Germany in 2001, the dating site, owned by German media group Holtzbrinck, has over a million members in several European countries.  Read more about Parship's UK launch in the DM Bulletin. 

Lemontonic Announces a No Fee Based Business Model

(Online Dating Industry Journal) Lemontonic Inc. an online dating and social networking service provider, today announced the re-focusing of its online dating website into a free to user based service.

Lemontonic says this means members will not be restricted from searching or contacting other members. Rather than the typical “free to try” teasers that several other online dating services use to gain members, Lemontonic is becoming 100% free to use without restriction.

Lemontonic has eliminated all fees, allowing members to open new or update existing profiles as well as conduct unrestricted full searches without asking for payment.

"We wanted to stay innovative and continue to lead this industry in enhancing the online dating experience for our members" stated Julian Brown, Project Leader of Lemontonic. Lemontonic's revamped product is now fully deployed and existing members have been converted to non-paying subscribers allowing all to utilize the full features of Lemontonic.com