3. You were one of the pioneers in developing niche community sites with AsiaFriendFinder and BigChurch. What do you see as the future in affinity dating and what made you think that these niche groups would be so successful?
I think when people visualize the perfect online dating experience, they think of a site that only have perfect candidates for THEM. In the early days of online dating, we had to come up with ways to make people feel comfortable that they would find good matches and one way was to show them that all the members of a site matched their primary filter (e.g., Chinese language or Christians). While it is true that a general purpose site could advertise “hey we have Chinese speakers or Christians”, some people feel more comfortable with a niche site. Niche dating sites will continue so long as they have critical mass (number of active members) and larger general-purpose dating sites continue to give broad marketing messages.
4. Do you think that there is room for an emerging dating company to compete with the likes of Friendfinder Network, Match or eHarmony?
While there are a few fast-growing sites that provide free services, they must find non-financial ways to throttle usage, provide user-intention validation and make enough revenue via advertising to buy traffic. There is also always the potential for a first-mover company to take advantage of new traffic markets.
I was doing a couple different online companies about the same time as online dating – one being the first company to centralize banner ads, one of the first to do online shopping, and some early social networking sites
5. What do you think of eHarmony’s approach to personality test matchmaking vs. searching profiles? Do you think they have done a good job on the brand trust side of things with their offline commercials?
The mainstream online dating industry has a few challenges that could be exploited by a disruptive player – namely that they charge for access and have to pay for traffic
There are two general categories of online daters – those who like to take things in their own hands (e.g., search) and those who prefer to take the advice of others (e.g., matchmakers). For many, there is a strong historical and emotional bias that a 3rd party or an expert can do a better job picking a spouse than an individual… just like people hire a stock broker to pick stocks… they believe that a dating expert or matchmaker can screen candidates better.
I believe that self-assessment tests, specific suggestions on how to better search, and many profile with personality data give online daters a better chance at success. The challenge is to get enough members willing to spend the time to complete the tests.
eHarmony has capitalized on the fear that people make bad dating decisions. Their advertising seems effective by targeting older women who may have had bad dating experiences as well as by using anecdotal evidence on the effectiveness of their matchmaking algorithm. Just as financial firms will still advertise turning control to a broker, online matchmaking sites will continue to advertise the same. eHarmony’s message to single people is that dating is very difficult, that an expert (system) can do better than they could at picking a spouse.
Search company? It is often difficult to know what your opportunity costs are when you are focusing on your primary company. My educational background is in system controls and optimization which fits well to many aspects of Internet businesses.