2007 State Of The Date Report Card

I thought it would be interesting to go back and give myself a report card on my predictions for the online dating market in 2007. Though the year isn’t over, we are winding down as we get towards Halloween and Thanks Giving. See my comments in bold below.

2007 will bring many challenges for the paid online dating industry. Just under a year ago, after launching Collaboradate, people were saying that there was no room for another free online dating site. We haven’t exploded in popularity, but we have made a splash, and when we launch the new site, expect a wave, and not just a splash.

The strengths and weaknesses of the main players, and my opinion on how they can up their game in 2007.

Collaboradate

Strength: A totally new approach to online dating and social interaction. Supply your user-names from all the sites you are a member of, and then no matter what site someone else is on, they can contact you for free. A no limit approach, allowing users to post what they want, where they want. User-names, IM handles, Skype, email address, location, etc. The user has total control on what to share, with whom. The new site will bring even more customization, and leap frog everything on the market.

Weakness: Current site has buggy code. It’s founder (yes me) works a day job so all his energy cannot be focused on the business at hand. Late into the game.

Golden Ticket: The golden ticket for Collaboradate will be smart partnering, and using it’s users to virally spread the word. Staying small in practice by innovating at the speed of user input (Ruby on Rails will help to make this idea a reality). Concentrate on the core idea of allowing all singles to communicate anywhere on the web.

I’ve listened to my own advice, and went with Ruby on Rails. This was a smart move, but it didn’t help the bug issues as I tried to add too many features early on. The site is moving ahead, though a lot more slowly then I would have hoped. Looked for a much improved site by the end of this year. The coding is slow going, but the end result will be well worth the wait.

eHarmony

Strength: Huge name recognition, perceived safety, promotes stable relationships, many of which turn into marriage.

Weakness: Giant customer acquisition costs, long tedious sign up process, physical attraction is not addressed. Straying from it’s core business.

Golden Ticket: Their match process is ass backwards. Let users browse the photos of users in their area, choose ones they are attracted to, and then take a compatibility test. The outcome would be to have someone your are compatible with both physically and mentally.

I’ve never been a fan of eHarmony, and their recent fall from fame plays right into a lot of the things I said about the site. People are tired of paying for crappy service, that is restricted in any way (Gay people for one). People finally woke up to the fact that spending hours on their stupid personality profile wasn’t worth the bit’s on the computer screen it occupied.

Rating for 2007: D+

Match

Strength: Tons of members, most of which are active. Decent brand awareness, fairly easy sign up process.

Weakness: Auto renewal of memberships (customers hate being unaware of this), confusion over it’s identity (like it’s recent change of profile name to portrait), lack of innovation, constraints on it’s users creativity. We have seen time and again the the sites that allow users the most freedom to be creative win out in the end.

Golden Ticket: Make match into a screening room for potential dates. Users seek out potential dates online, then save ones they may be interested in. Other members do the same. Sponsor events weekly at local bars, restaurants, etc. Invite users who have already stated some interest. You end up with a room full of people who are interested in at least one other person in the room. Charge a premium price and market it as safe and high class.

I’ve always said that out of all the paid dating sites, Match is king. With Match’s continued success I would say that my observation was pretty accurate. Match will continue to be a strong player in the paid dating market. I think Match took some of my advice while moving forward with Chemistry.

Rating for 2007: B+

OkCupid

Strength: A new infusion of money (though this could end up being a detriment), it’s free, some unique features.

Weakness: This is a quiz site first, dating site second (pick one and stick with it). Horrible load times. Stupid Friend, Enemy, Match categorizing.

Golden Ticket: Get rid (or scale back) the quizzes. Start a national ad campaign that markets the site as a “Premiere Free Dating Site”. Show how much match and yahoo charge, and then play off of the fact that they are completely free.

I’ve said all along that OkCupid needed to pick a market and stick with it. The whole quiz thing is still stupid, and their traffic numbers prove that it’s a stale idea. Still yet to see any major advertising efforts.

Plentyoffish

Strength: Huge user base, free to use, simple, very few barriers for visitors to partake. Large forum community.

Weakness: Site design (it’s looks like someone threw up on the page), Forums (this is both a strength and a weakness. It’s a strength in that it brings in a lot, if not majority of the page views and traffic of plentyoffish. It’s a weakness because it dilutes the core function of dating). You can search for a date in your area, and chat in the forums…. then what!?!? Lack of innovative functions and features. Overconfidence in size (the Internet is a very fluid body, as soon as someone comes up with something better it could change in a hurry).

Golden Ticket: Keep the mantra of the site, but scrap the entire thing. Hire the best designer money can buy. Start from the ground up, you already have the user-base, you just need to act quick to keep them.

I’ve said all along that free would be king, and plentyoffish is the first one to the big show. The site did get a face lift so I guess Markus took at least a little bit of my advice. Plentyoffish will be the myspace of free online dating, the biggest and the first. But quality and innovation will win in the end (think facebook). I wouldn’t be upset if Collaboradate falls into that role for the free online dating market.

True

Strength: An add on every page of every social network. Relatively large user base (notice how I didn’t say active user base), the perception of the public that it’s the safest site to date on.

Weakness: Deceptive business practices, run of the mill features, selling sex and safety in the same breath (people aren’t stupid), tons of inactive users. All their eggs are in one basket (the safety one), and as soon as someone gets sexually assaulted, raped, or some type of crime committed by one member to another, they will take some serious punishment.

Golden Ticket: Pick a side, heaven or hell, good or bad, sexy or safe. People on myspace want to hook up, not date. If majority of your users have that mind frame why not capitalize on it. Keep it safe, but admit that you want to be sexy… don’t try to feed us both.

True is dieing a quick death, just like I said it would… nuff said.

Rating for 2007: D

Yahoo Personals

Strength: The yahoo empire to hold it’s hand and throw cash at it. Lots of active users. Some new innovation finally made it’s way to the site.

Weakness: The bigger you are the harder you fall (if free dating takes off yahoo will take yet another big blow). A closed system (imagine if you could IM any member on the site). Lack of innovation (as I mentioned above they have introduced some great new features, but it may be to little too late.)

Golden Ticket: Make the site free, morph it into a social network, call it Yahoo Connections. Myspace is a great site, but people really want something better. Market it as a singles social network, and only allow single people to join.

Yahoo has taken some of my advice, with more photos and user interaction, photo headlines, and better search. It’s a shame that a company like yahoo, with so many resources, can’t pull off a home run with their personals division. Can you say flickr?!!? C’mon guys and gal’s… get with it!

Rating for 2007: C+

Look for 2008 to be the the year of the mobile user, and also the year where free sites overtake paid. With innovations like the iPhone, meeting people online while on the move will be the next “big” thing. Look for 2008 to bring a lot of innovation in the form of audio and video as well. Audio and Video have been tried in the past, but like many things it may have just been too soon for the mainstream. With YouTube and the likes having enormous success, video will try a comeback as a way to meet people online, not to mention many laptop’s coming pre-equipped with the required hardware. Calling a stranger is still creepy, whether it’s anonymous or not, so I still think it will be a while before hooking up over voice makes any reasonable splash.

Am I way off?!?! Please sound off in the comments…