Who says geeks can't be sexy?

October 26, 5:15 PMSF Relationship Matchmaking ExaminerMelinda Maximova

Previous Next

1 comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the SF Relationship Matchmaking Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Who remembers internet dating in 1995?  I didn't even know what the internet was in 1995 but that is the year that Match.com started it's first on line dating site.  We have certainly come a long way since then.  Girls in Tech hosted the Virtual Dating 101 conference Monday, October 19th discussing the new frontier in internet dating and how Facebook Connect is helping these sites drive traffic and grow revenue on their websites. 

I remember back in 1995 when singles used the personal ads in the San Francisco Chronicle's Pink Section.  The back pages looked much like the Auto Trader Magazine, except it was humans peddling their love. Back then you could dial a code at the bottom of each ad if you wanted to contact someone.  The length of the message was billed to a credit card number so you could always tell how cheap someone was by the length of their message.  We have certainly come a long way since 1995.

From a business perspective, internet dating sites have proven to be quite successful.  Match.com boasts 15 million current users and has over 100 million users who have passed through the site since 2000.  They have experienced a 16% growth from January of 2008 to January 2009 and eHarmony experienced a 20% growth during the same time period.  Overall, the online dating industry has claimed over 100,000 marriages.

Online singles sites are either subscription based, such as Match.com, eHarmony, JDate or Yahoo personals, or free sites which depend on ad revenues, such as Plenty of Fish, Chemistry.com or OK Cupid.com, and now, the latest trend is socially networked sites who are using the Facebook platform, such as SpeedDate Thread, or Zoosk.com.

But enough about the statistics, I want to talk about all the sexy geeks in attendance at last week's Virtual Dating 101 conference.  The event was held in San Francisco at the E & O Trading Company.  We had a panel of sexy, CEOs from three socially networked sites: Brian Phillips, CEO of Thread, Simon Timinezky, CEO of SpeedDate and Alex Mehr, Co-CEO and co-founder of Zoosk.  Thread is built entirely on the Facebook Connect platform and allows users to browse friend's contacts and ask for connections or play matchmaker.  Zoosk boasts the world’s largest social dating community with 40 million users. According to TechCrunch, Zoosk has hit a $30 million annual run rate and expects to close this year with $18-20 million in revenue. SpeedDate is the first online speeddating site that allows users to send messages and try online video speed dating with webcams or chat.  Also included in the panel was Rachel Sarah, author and blogger for Single Mom Seeking and Match.com contributor, and moderating panelist, Melinda Maximova, founder and CEO of Perfect Search, a VIP matchmaking service.

The three CEOs of SpeedDate, Zoosk and Thread all confirmed that utilizing Facebook Connect is a great way to bring over 300 million Facebook users to the content of their dating sites. Facebook Connect lets users bring their identity and connections with them to any partnered site. Why build a dating website from scratch when you can utilize an existing social network? Users can immediately engage their friends, which leads to more activity and more page views.  By utilizing the Facebook platform site owners can increase traffic in addition to specific targeting capabilities. Users who are connected create 15-60% more content than users who are not connected with Facebook. With a simple "Connect" button users can register and login to a partnered dating site in just two clicks.  Facebook Connect is increasing registration by up to 300% for some Facebook Connect Partners. 

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, The new phenomonem of social dating is a combination of social networks and online dating.  Social networks have opened a window of opportunity for startups, since it's significantly more affordable to advertise through them. Every website wants registration to be easy. So these online dating CEOs have figured out that rather than re-inventing the wheel and starting an internet dating site from scratch, they can use Facebook Connect's 300 million users.  With simple registration and robust data already positioned, dating sites can grow their registrations and revenue. Thank you, Girls in Tech for hosting such an informative event and allowing us all to show the world that geeks can be sexy!

For more information, contact Melinda Maximova, matchmaker with Perfect Search

melinda@theperfectsearch.com