

It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…  - peter123
http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/its-official-matchcom-abandons-paid-dating/

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russell
I have a soft spot for match.com. I met my GF there 6 years ago. She was
certainly worth the $25.

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PStamatiou
i 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.

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brandnewlow
Signing 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.

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brandnewlow
Update: Is that a photo of Jason Fried on their upload directions page?

<http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/bflora/fried.gif>

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bd
Jason Fried: welcome

Frank Zappa: not welcome

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ckinnan
No 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.

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AndrewWarner
This 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?

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breck
Nope. Selling your data & lead gen is a pretty solid source of revenue,
although some people won't like that.

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shabda
If the largest site is free, who are the leads being sold to?

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breck
Venture Capital backed startups.

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pg
Believe it or not, that was a big part of Yahoo's business model in the 90s.

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wesley
Will 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.

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citris
without paid dating sites what ads will plentyoffish show?

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visdo
It will never happen. If there is no paid dating site, plentyoffish will
become one.

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sharpshoot
I 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...

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vaksel
it seems like a lot of paid services are developing free alternatives.

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breck
It'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.

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Jimega36
The 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?

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gnaritas
> pay in order to go on a 2nd date?

You haven't really thought this through have you?

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gaius
That pretty much is the business model of "speed dating", no? If the speed
dating event itself counts as a first date.

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gnaritas
It 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.

