

eHarmony? IPO? Oh god... - myoung8
http://money.cnn.com/2007/09/14/magazines/fortune/fastforward_eharmony.fortune/?postversion=2007091413
Say it ain't so.
======
jsjenkins168
$59 a month? Are you kidding me? If people want a product like this that
badly, its no wonder free competitors like PlentyOfFish have done so well. I
am simply shocked the monthly fees are so ridiculous. People actually pay
that?

In light of this, date matching with mobile devices (bluetooth or GPS enabled)
could be a tremendous opportunity.

~~~
Goladus
You can actually get a much cheaper monthly rate if you commit to several
months. I don't remember exactly but it's something like $35/mo for 3 months
and $25/mo for 6 months (the article quotes a $21/mo figure for a whole year),
and when that time is up they continue billing at the reduced rate. They also
offer ex-members lots of deals (which seems like blatant price discrimination
to me)

Also, the membership fee and the sign-up process is designed to weed people
out as much as it is designed to attract people.

------
huherto
My startup is similar to eharmony and chemistry. We have more than 800 users
in Mexico. But we still don't know how to make money. The trick is that
advertisement is expensive and people are secretive about their use of the
service and they don't tell their friends.

~~~
gscott
> The trick is that advertisement is expensive

Dating keywords are bid up, way, way up.

I am in a similar boat with a small advertising budget, for the past 2 years I
have been using www.adbrite.com. At first it takes spending some time getting
ads on sites to determine if they could drive the right traffic but now I am
saving a huge sum over what I was spending on Google ads. My marketing budget
is really low, about $2 a day so I am really serious about getting the right
traffic instead of junk traffic.

