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It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…
- AndrewWarner 18y agoThis is a pretty tough new reality for online companies. Dating was one of the few services that consumers were willing to pay for. Does this mean that ads are the only revenue source for consumer-based sites?
- breck 18y agoNope. Selling your data & lead gen is a pretty solid source of revenue, although some people won't like that.
- shabda 18y agoIf the largest site is free, who are the leads being sold to?
- brandnewlow 18y agoThey're running adsense next to the profile I just made. That doesn't bode very well for them.
- russell 18y agoI have a soft spot for match.com. I met my GF there 6 years ago. She was certainly worth the $25.
- PStamatiou 18y agoi have paid for match (and had a few dates via it) in the past. i have also used POF and one huge difference between them - people on match care to put up a bunch of pictures and actually fill out the damn profile. POF users rarely fill out profiles in my exp. What I'm trying to say is that if users are paying for the service they are very motivated to go ahead and actually use the service.
- kapitti 18y agoMy wife and I met on match as well - I'd gladly do a commercial for it.
- vaksel 18y agoit seems like a lot of paid services are developing free alternatives.
- breck 18y agoIt's the same thing with most established businesses. Look at Proctor & Gamble, they have like 10 different brands of laundry detergents all targeted to different markets.
- citris 18y agowithout paid dating sites what ads will plentyoffish show?
- visdo 18y agoIt will never happen. If there is no paid dating site, plentyoffish will become one.
- ckinnan 18y agoNo doubt this is a market segmentation play (or maybe a lead generation strategy), not really a new business model. Match.com also created chemistry.com to compete with eharmony.
- brandnewlow 18y agoSigning up now. So far the interface is clean and easy to use. I have no clue if there are any hot girls on here yet though. Will report back with my initial findings. I'm curious to see how this will stack up against OK Cupid, where I met little but cautious hipster emo girls whose photos came from webcams and off bathroom mirrors. Match.com, on the other hand, is all blonde young professionals dressed in black. Their photos all have meat head guys cropped out of them, with just enough arm left in there to show you that they can get a guy like that.
- omouse 18y ago"I'm curious to see how this will stack up against OK Cupid, where I met little but cautious hipster emo girls whose photos came from webcams and off bathroom mirrors." OKCupid is the new MySpace? :-o
- brandnewlow 18y agoA little bit, sure.
- brandnewlow 18y agoUpdate: Is that a photo of Jason Fried on their upload directions page? http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/bflora/fried.gif http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/bflora/fried.gif
- bd 18y agoJason Fried: welcome Frank Zappa: not welcome
- rglovejoy 18y agoYou were able to sign in? I tried signing up for an account, did not receive any ACK of its creation in my email, and it will not let me sign in. Maybe they're still putting it all together, but the design sucks. No login, no browsing, no fun.
- brandnewlow 18y ago
- wesley 18y agoWill this be the downfall of plenty of fish? Most of his adsense income comes simply from other (paid) dating sites. So it's kind of ironic that he helped create the very situation which may one day lead to the site's downfall.
- Jimega36 18y agoThe way to monetize users should somehow be PERFORMANCE BASED rather than purely subscription based. Yes, subscription allows for great filtering of people..and yet, maybe it feels too costly at first (because the whole value/match is delayed to much later?). There must be a way to get money out of the HUGE satisfaction of finding the girl/guy when this happens - and this could complement (if not remove) the need for an entry cost to accessing the pool. For example, dance clubs make most money out of drinks (fun related) not from entrance fees (access to the pool of people). Maybe pay in order to go on a 2nd date? Pay every time you click on a profile (point system)? Pay a bonus when you find a match (how to prove...)? Do you know if this kind of stuff was ever tried or what do you think?
- gnaritas 18y ago> pay in order to go on a 2nd date? You haven't really thought this through have you?
- gaius 18y agoThat pretty much is the business model of "speed dating", no? If the speed dating event itself counts as a first date.
- gnaritas 18y agoIt doesn't, meeting someone anonymous for a few minutes isn't a real date. Once you've been on a real first date, you've already exchanged info if you plan on a second; no one in their right mind would pay someone after that point.
- sharpshoot 18y agoI think markus may be wrong. If you look at the partners page it just seems like downtoearth.com is just a lead gen site for all other dating sites...