FriendFinder Networks Announces IPO Filing
Online relationship network FriendFinder Networks has registered for a $460 million initial public offering. FriendFinder Networks used to be called Various, Inc. until it was acquired by Penthouse Media Group in December 207. FriendFinder Networks owns many dating sites, including flagship adult site, AdultFriendFinder.
I briefly met Marc Bell, the CEO of FriendFindher Networks and Managing Director of Marc Bell Capital Partners at iDate last year. I also remember him from 2000, when I was tracking datacenters all over the world and his Globix company was front and center in the IT world. I’m sure Marc snatched up Various Inc with the idea of an IPO from day one.
The offering is “up to” $460 million. That is an absolute best-case scenario. AdultFriendFinder should be fairly recession-proof, given that people are naughty regardless of the economy. However, it’s an unfortunate time to plan for an IPO, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had to pull it in the spring if market conditions continue to worsen. I wonder if FriendFinder Networks could make it into the Vice Fund?
We don’t have much to go on until the prospectus is published. I’ve worked with several companies during the quiet period, and given the handcuffs the SEC puts you in, expect rampant speculation based on few facts.
Like so many relationship sites, AFF had a massive traffic spike over the summer. To put FriendFinder Networks in perspective, it made somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million last year with approximately 20 million unique visitors per month.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Speeddate.com Email Lacks Personality
I received this email from Speeddate today. I am not exactly enthusiastic about meeting 52369, I prefer even numbers.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Loopt Now on Every U.S Carrier
I’ve mentioned the leaders in location-based awareness, Loopt, Meetmoi and Brightkite, many times.
They are the leaders in the mobile social networking movement. Loopt has announced it is now available on every U.S. carrier, however, privacy concerns remain at the forefront. Do you really want everyone within 2000 meters to know you are at the laundromat, or home alone?
I predict that within a year we will read about someone’s house being robbed while they brag on Facebook about rocking out at Sandals resort in Jamaica or trekking in Asia. TMI (Too Much Information) is coming to a mobile phone near you soon, for better or worse.
Take it from me, you don’t fully appreciate how powerful location-based dating is going to be until you meet someone that way. It’s an absolute thrill, much more exciting than the usual browser-based email/chat required to meetup.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
DYI Dating
In this interview at Dating Ad Network blog, white label dating service DIY Dating talks about UK online dating market and how it is affected by the recession, as well as about his forecast for the upcoming 2009.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Thinking about Daily5, Dating Site Ambassadors
I’m reviewing several dating site member messaging systems right now and it’s amazing to hear dating site executives say things like, “We put together a few email templates, launched, and pretty much haven’t thought about our outbound emails since.” Polishing up the cadence, tone and content of outbound emails is incredibly important. Contact me if you want to learn how I can help you keep your members informed, entertained and most important, coming back again and again.
My consternation for Singlesnet continues, although their marketing is effective to say the least. Seven million monthly visitors and all I every receive are the most aggravating “introductions” of any dating site I’ve ever used, except for Mate1, who’s Online Ambassador emails clog my inbox. Why would I be interested in talking to a paid worker-bee all the way across the country? Then again, Singlesnet isn’t too concerned, after a precipitous drop this fall, traffic is trending upward.
I have 25 emails from in the last week at Singlesnet. All are “introductions” to women I wouldn’t even think of dating. This is where Match’s Daily5 clearly wins out as the better solution to getting people to visit the site more often and put some new faces in front of them. Daily5 has a long way to go to be truly useful, but its a decent launch, driving traffic up nicely. To get more out of Daily5, Match has to bite the bullet and redo their profile questions, which remain antiquated to say the least.
Messaging members is a tricky balance, you want to stay front-of-mind without seeming overbearing. Achieving this zen state of email marketing is an elusive artform that’s difficult to master.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Facebook Growing By 600k Users A Day
Social Networking site Facebook is entering a staggering growth period. Inside Facebook has the details.
While Facebook has been growing at around 300,000 to 400,000 active users per day for most of the fourth quarter (based on our estimations), its growth rate seems to have significantly increased in recent weeks to 600,000 or perhaps even 700,000 new users each day.
If Facebook continues at this rate, it could add up to 20 million new users in December and reach 200 million active users by March. Keep in mind however that about 70% of that growth is happening outside the United States.
   * 13 million users update their statuses at least once each day
   * 2.5 million users become fans of Pages each day
   * 700 million photos are uploaded to the site each month
   * 4 million videos are uploaded each month
   * 15 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each month
   * 2 million events created each month
   * 19 million active groups exist on the site
It will be interesting to see how FacebookConnect affects traffic. I’m running it here, you can log in and leave a comment with your Facebook account.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Tracking Dating Apps on iPhone
Hot on the heels of the Google Analytics upgrade, Tech Crunch says Omniture Brings Real-Time Analytics To iPhone Applications. Tracking users is absolutely essential for dating sites and it’s great to see tracking extend to the “third screen” (after TV and PC). Speaking of iPhones, a new iPhone dating application is currently being reviewed by Apple for inclusion in the App store. I’ll have a preview soon, as long as non-disclosure agreements don’t get in the way.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Tracking Dating Apps on iPhone
Hot on the heels of the Google Analytics upgrade, Tech Crunch says Omniture Brings Real-Time Analytics To iPhone Applications. Tracking users is absolutely essential for dating sites and it’s great to see tracking extend to the “third screen” (after TV and PC). Speaking of iPhones, a new iPhone dating application is currently being reviewed by Apple for inclusion in the App store. I’ll have a preview soon, as long as non-disclosure agreements don’t get in the way.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Google Analytics Now Tracks Web 2.0 Content
If your dating site or social network uses Google Analytics, you should upgrade your site with their latest code to take advantage of the new tracking features. It’s being slowly rolled out, you might want to log into GA and make sure you’re signed up for the feature.
We are happy to let you know that the Event Tracking feature is now available in all profiles for the following Google Analytics Account ID: NNNNN. Please note that you are receiving this email update because you are an ‘Admin’ or designated contact for the account listed above.
When you log in to these profiles, you will see a new set of reports called “Event Tracking” under the Content section. As posted on ourblog, this is a limited release currently available only to select profiles.
Event Tracking allows you to track interactions with Web 2.0 style content such as Flash, AJAX, Silverlight, social networking apps, etc. We recently made tracking Adobe Flash even easier with the release of a new Flash Tracking client library. It allows for much simpler tracking of Flash content with drag and drop functionality and an open source framework.
To use Event Tracking, you will need to upgrade your site to use the new ga.js javascript. Detailed instructions on how to set up Event Tracking on your site are available on our CodeSite.
To find your ga.js code snippet, edit the settings for your profile and click the “Check Status” link on the upper right corner of the page. You can now track interactions beyond just pageviews.
I’m off to upgrade all of my blogs with the new code. My January project is to consolidate all of my blogs into one Wordpress install. Ongoing blog and plugin upgrades, while getting easier, are still a duplication of effort as I I have standardized my templates and plugins, which are the same for every blog I run.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.
Google Analytics Now Tracks Web 2.0 Content
If your dating site or social network uses Google Analytics, you should upgrade your site with their latest code to take advantage of the new tracking features. It’s being slowly rolled out, you might want to log into GA and make sure you’re signed up for the feature.
We are happy to let you know that the Event Tracking feature is now available in all profiles for the following Google Analytics Account ID: NNNNN. Please note that you are receiving this email update because you are an ‘Admin’ or designated contact for the account listed above.
When you log in to these profiles, you will see a new set of reports called “Event Tracking” under the Content section. As posted on ourblog, this is a limited release currently available only to select profiles.
Event Tracking allows you to track interactions with Web 2.0 style content such as Flash, AJAX, Silverlight, social networking apps, etc. We recently made tracking Adobe Flash even easier with the release of a new Flash Tracking client library. It allows for much simpler tracking of Flash content with drag and drop functionality and an open source framework.
To use Event Tracking, you will need to upgrade your site to use the new ga.js javascript. Detailed instructions on how to set up Event Tracking on your site are available on our CodeSite.
To find your ga.js code snippet, edit the settings for your profile and click the “Check Status” link on the upper right corner of the page. You can now track interactions beyond just pageviews.
I’m off to upgrade all of my blogs with the new code. My January project is to consolidate all of my blogs into one Wordpress install. Ongoing blog and plugin upgrades, while getting easier, are still a duplication of effort as I I have standardized my templates and plugins, which are the same for every blog I run.
© 2008 - visit OnlineDatingPost.com to view original post.



