5 ms·

PlentyOfFish Starts Charging Premium Membership Fees

18 points by jwesley 18y ago

jwesley 18y ago
"There will be no addtional features and functionality for users, this upgrade will be strictly to signal intent to the community." So basically, all you get for your $20 a month is a badge saying that you're cooler than people who didn't pay. And for your premium membership, you still get the same crap service that freeloaders get. Are people really that stupid? Asking people to pay something for nothing reeks of arrogance. I'm starting to think Frind got lucky with PoF.
- yan 18y ago
  Well luck definitely had a huge component of it. Speaking of his new subscription model, I wouldn't exactly call it "stupid," (nor would I call it especially smart) I just think he didn't explain it correctly. That's the psychology that the luxury goods market exploits. A $30,000 watch won't tell time any more accurately than a $30 watch, nor will it look much better than, say, a $500 watch, but some people who can spring for luxury items do simply as a token of wealth. Just look at the stereotypical nouveau riche spending habits.
  - asnyder 18y ago
    Indeed, usually the $30 watch is more accurate than the $30,000 watch. After all your cheap quartz watch is 99.999% accurate, while your $30K watch is only 99.997% accurate.
- rms 18y ago
  Paid users will probably get their profiles pushed out a lot more so they will get more matches. Paying for faster matching.
- bk 18y ago
  Paying for something makes (many) people value it more/be more serious about it. In that sense paying for "signaling intent" makes sense. Eharmony, for example, has always charged high rates and branded itself for more serious relationships. Of course it's dubitable whether this mechanism works in a larger community that is free. On the ludicrousness spectrum it's slightly less ludicrous than virtual gifts, I'd say. As for POF/Markus making more money that way, I guess it's like a game to him, figuring out what works and getting a kick out of beating (up) the big guys.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
  Actually I think he's pretty smart. It's Price As Signal. Having the free level of service may not say that you're not serious about meeting someone, but having the paid level definitely indicates that you are. In a world with a lot of people who sign up on a lark, this gives other users a tool to indicate who not to waste their time with.
- omouse 18y ago
  Are people really that stupid? Have you been living in a cave for all of humanity's history?
blhack 18y ago
Has anybody ever seen this website before? It feels like if you hired a "webmaster" from the mid 1990s to build you a domain parking page. It is AWFUL.
- h34t 18y ago
  This comment reminds me of people who complain about the design of Hacker News, and miss the point entirely. Plenty of fish has a large and growing user community. I know of more people (personally) who have met dates on POF than any other site (though I am in Canada, where his community is strongest).
  - mikeyur 18y ago
    From the Inc. article I read he really believes in the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." He doesn't know how a design change will effect the users or how changing the badly-cropped user images will effect click-throughs etc.
    - eru 18y ago
      A/B testing?
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  Yet it's incredibly successful...
- thamer 18y ago
  PoF is quite famous because it is essentially a one-man business, making millions a year: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rolling-in.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rol... It is also a scalability success-story: http://highscalability.com/plentyoffish-architecture http://highscalability.com/plentyoffish-architecture So yes, the CEO (Markus Frind) is quite famous around here.
- SteveC 18y ago
  The worst part of the design is that it squashes the photographs and makes people look awful. The photos are too small as well which makes them almost useless in some cases. The userbase is pretty bad, but that's my personal experience for my area.
finnw 18y ago
Thank you, Markus. If just a handful of users are stupid enough to pay the fee to put a badge on their profile that effectively says "I'm really desperate" it will have the opposite of the intended effect, and maybe improve my chances. And at the same time they'll be paying for my share of the bandwidth.
- HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
  Actually, back when I used to frequent dating sites (10 years ago or so), I met most people when I had a paid membership. OTOH, I met my wife on Yahoo Personals when it was free. In fact, if it was only for pay we'd never have met since she wouldn't have bothered with a paysite.
albertcardona 18y ago
Interesting typo in the text quoted from Markus: "funcationality". I'd like to speculate it reveals usage of a famous language, but PoF has been described as a Redmond-only shop in the past.
SteveC 18y ago
I contacted someone with a serious member badge and she says it was given to her for free and she never asked for it.

18 points by jwesley 18y ago

"There will be no addtional features and functionality for users, this upgrade will be strictly to signal intent to the community." So basically, all you get for your $20 a month is a badge saying that you're cooler than people who didn't pay. And for your premium membership, you still get the same crap service that freeloaders get. Are people really that stupid? Asking people to pay something for nothing reeks of arrogance. I'm starting to think Frind got lucky with PoF.

yan 18y ago
Well luck definitely had a huge component of it. Speaking of his new subscription model, I wouldn't exactly call it "stupid," (nor would I call it especially smart) I just think he didn't explain it correctly. That's the psychology that the luxury goods market exploits. A $30,000 watch won't tell time any more accurately than a $30 watch, nor will it look much better than, say, a $500 watch, but some people who can spring for luxury items do simply as a token of wealth. Just look at the stereotypical nouveau riche spending habits.
- asnyder 18y ago
  Indeed, usually the $30 watch is more accurate than the $30,000 watch. After all your cheap quartz watch is 99.999% accurate, while your $30K watch is only 99.997% accurate.
rms 18y ago
Paid users will probably get their profiles pushed out a lot more so they will get more matches. Paying for faster matching.
bk 18y ago
Paying for something makes (many) people value it more/be more serious about it. In that sense paying for "signaling intent" makes sense. Eharmony, for example, has always charged high rates and branded itself for more serious relationships. Of course it's dubitable whether this mechanism works in a larger community that is free. On the ludicrousness spectrum it's slightly less ludicrous than virtual gifts, I'd say. As for POF/Markus making more money that way, I guess it's like a game to him, figuring out what works and getting a kick out of beating (up) the big guys.
HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
Actually I think he's pretty smart. It's Price As Signal. Having the free level of service may not say that you're not serious about meeting someone, but having the paid level definitely indicates that you are. In a world with a lot of people who sign up on a lark, this gives other users a tool to indicate who not to waste their time with.
omouse 18y ago
Are people really that stupid? Have you been living in a cave for all of humanity's history?

blhack 18y ago

Has anybody ever seen this website before? It feels like if you hired a "webmaster" from the mid 1990s to build you a domain parking page. It is AWFUL.

h34t 18y ago
This comment reminds me of people who complain about the design of Hacker News, and miss the point entirely. Plenty of fish has a large and growing user community. I know of more people (personally) who have met dates on POF than any other site (though I am in Canada, where his community is strongest).
- mikeyur 18y ago
  From the Inc. article I read he really believes in the saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." He doesn't know how a design change will effect the users or how changing the badly-cropped user images will effect click-throughs etc.
  - eru 18y ago
    A/B testing?
tlrobinson 18y ago
Yet it's incredibly successful...
thamer 18y ago
PoF is quite famous because it is essentially a one-man business, making millions a year: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rolling-in.html http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rol... It is also a scalability success-story: http://highscalability.com/plentyoffish-architecture http://highscalability.com/plentyoffish-architecture So yes, the CEO (Markus Frind) is quite famous around here.
SteveC 18y ago
The worst part of the design is that it squashes the photographs and makes people look awful. The photos are too small as well which makes them almost useless in some cases. The userbase is pretty bad, but that's my personal experience for my area.

finnw 18y ago

Thank you, Markus. If just a handful of users are stupid enough to pay the fee to put a badge on their profile that effectively says "I'm really desperate" it will have the opposite of the intended effect, and maybe improve my chances. And at the same time they'll be paying for my share of the bandwidth.

HeyLaughingBoy 18y ago
Actually, back when I used to frequent dating sites (10 years ago or so), I met most people when I had a paid membership. OTOH, I met my wife on Yahoo Personals when it was free. In fact, if it was only for pay we'd never have met since she wouldn't have bothered with a paysite.

albertcardona 18y ago

Interesting typo in the text quoted from Markus: "funcationality". I'd like to speculate it reveals usage of a famous language, but PoF has been described as a Redmond-only shop in the past.

SteveC 18y ago

I contacted someone with a serious member badge and she says it was given to her for free and she never asked for it.