+ Online Personals Watch +

Online personals, internet dating and social networking industry news and ...

Last Update: Thu Oct 5 03:14:13 2006

+ Social Networking Site Valuations + WHARTON -- Oct 4 -- In January Facebook turned down a $750 million offer from Viacom and is now mulling over a $900 million offer from [...] $50 million. At 55x earnings, it would need a $16 million profit to justify a $900 million price. FULL ARTICLE @ KNOWLEDGE WHARTON...

+ Wal-Mart Shuts Down MySpace Clone + MARKETING VOX -- Oct 4 -- After just 10 weeks, Wal-Mart has pulled the plug on The Hub, a social-networking site for teens that the ...

+ MySpace and Facebook Rivals are Growing + DAILY NEWS -- Oct 2 -- Piczo (teenage focus) is one of a raft of second-tier social-networking sites. XuQa is run by San Francisco [...] of avid core users. Bebo (BirthdayAlarm.com users) and MySpace (eUniverse) had more of a marketing push, and faster growth rates....

+ Online Video Sites Are Hot Targets + BUSINESS WEEK -- Oct 2 -- Mark Cuban, the tech entrepreneur and owner the Dallas Mavericks, said on Sept. 29 that anyone who buys [...] rights issues of video on the Web is a thorny issue; what Cuban had in mind when he made his comments. FULL ARTICLE @ BUSINESS WEEK...

+ Lavalife Launches Magazine + CNW -- Oct 2 -- Lavalife Magazine charts dating, relationships, sex, life and style among urban singles, featuring regular lifestyle [...] 2 in the form of a user contributed magazine where readers vote up the good articles, and in the case of PlentyofFish, user forums....

+ TRUE Settles User Prosecution + PR NEWSWIRE -- Oct 2 -- TRUE's lawsuit against a convicted felon who misrepresented himself on TRUE has been settled. He agreed to [...] safety. FULL ARTICLE @ YAHOO NEWS Mark Brooks: TRUE started this suit back in Oct/Nov last year. See link. Your comments please....

+ PlentyofFish Listed as Top Google Adsense Earner + Here are the top 5 Google Adsense Earners: 1) Markus Frind: PlentyOfFish.com - $300,000 per month 2) Kevin Rose: Digg.com - $250,000 [...] Online dating sites really can make money with advertising. Markus has proven it. TRUE is offering contextual advertising now....

+ People Search Sites + PR WEB -- Sep 27 -- The most common searches purchased by members of services like eHarmony.com, Cupid.com and Match.com include ...

+ Canada: Online Dating Convenience + TRICITY NEWS -- Oct 1 -- With work and kids and soccer practices and doctor appointments, how and when do people find the time to [...] like a candy store! a user exclaims, noting she could converse with - even date - several men at once. FULL ARTICLE @ TRICITY NEWS...

+ Calling All Lonely Bloggers + OPW -- Oct 1 -- Just when you thought there were no more open niches left for dating sites, along comes Lonelybloggers. See blog. [...] this site. (I think I just bit the lure). Their marketing could be viral (cheap) enough for them to make a few bucks. - Mark Brooks...

+ Legislating Love Online: Some Good Advice + FIND LAW -- Sep 28 -- The federal government hasn't gotten into the business of regulating online dating but it does regulate [...] Virginia and Texas introduced online dating legislation recently. Some states want to mandate warnings on internet dating sites...

+ Parship CEO, Dr Arndt Roller - OPW Interview + OPW INTERVIEW -- Sep 30 -- Parship is Western Europe’s ‘eHarmony.’ It’s the leading internet dating site focused on long term [...] We do things very different from the industry norm. For example, you won’t see “picture galleries”, not even pictures on...

+ CyWorld => Wallop + MARKET WATCH -- Sep 28 -- On CyWorld, the Korean social network, about $125 million is spent annually on stuff to decorate the CyWorld [...] on personalized ringtones around the world. So, Wallop is a neat idea, with a lot of potential. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKETWATCH.COM...

+ What Parents Need to Know About MySpace + US NEWS - Sep 18 - COVER STORY -- MySpace seems like Lake Wobegon gone horribly wrong: a place where all the women are fast, the men [...] a little too hard could still make their way permanently onto the web to embarrass them later in life with a potential employer....

+ Expanding OPW's Daily Reading List + OPW -- Sep 29 -- Besides monitoring mainstream news services we're also scanning the following blogs each day for news items [...] list? Does anyone know of a way to do a daily keyword search (i.e. 'dating') from a defined list of blogs? - Mark Brooks...

+ SexSearch Affiliate Promotion: Island Gathering + PRESS RELEASE -- Sep 28 -- SexSearch has the very LAST room (Oct 12th-16th) available for the Island Gathering (150 attendees, $1900 [...] is now the #2 player in the casual dating space. I'd call it a niche, but it's hardly a niche these days, it's so huge....

+ Dr Phil: Internet Love Scammers + OPW -- Sep 28 -- Victims shell out $100,000 every single day to scammers who put up nice pictures on dating sites, sweet talk singles [...] the man. He's a lottery scammer in Nigeria; people send money to get money back. She never noticed that he had a West African...

+ Socializr Revealed + VESTED VENTURES -- Sep 13 -- On September 7 Gamma users gained access to Socializr. Socializr.com is a free web service for sharing [...] for a while and we run a series of events called 'Friendster Exposed which pulled 300 attendees at a time. He always had an...