It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating… • Hacker News Board

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#21

Post by jonknee » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 4:52 AM UTC

brandnewlow wrote: post #17

brandnewlow wrote: post #11

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. The…

Update: I started running searches. Search #1: Women, 24-28 within 30 miles of Chicago's main zip code. EPIC FAIL. Results: 18 profiles. 9 without photos. 9 with photos. None that I wanted to click on. Search #2: Women ages 20-30 within 30 miles of Chicago's main zipcode. SMALLER FAIL Results: 45 profiles. 15 without photos. Five that I've clicked on to learn more about. Of those five, one has no info and only a stoc…

It's official, a brand new dating site doesn't have many profiles.

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#22

Post by jhancock » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 5:11 AM UTC

shabda wrote: post #20

breck wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

porn sites for people who can't get dates? viagra advertisers for those that can?

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#23

Post by breck » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 5:27 AM UTC

shabda wrote: post #20

breck wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Venture Capital backed startups.

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#24

Post by pg » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 5:34 AM UTC

breck wrote: post #23

shabda wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Venture Capital backed startups.

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

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#25

Post by brandnewlow » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 5:37 AM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #21

brandnewlow wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Update: I started running searches. Search #1: Women, 24-28 within 30 miles of Chicago's main zip code. EPIC FAIL. Results: 18 profiles. 9 without photos. 9 with photos. None that I wanted to click on. Search #2: Women ages 20-30 within 30 miles of Chicago's main zipcode. SMALLER FAIL Results: 45 profiles. 15 without photos. Five that I've clicked on to learn more about. Of those five, one has no info and only a stoc…

It's official, a brand new dating site doesn't have many profiles.

I don't see why we should let them off the hook for that. Match.com has an enormous userbase. Surely they could have spread the word somehow through various means to provide me with more than 18 search results throughout the entire city of Chicago.

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#26

Post by jonknee » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 5:43 AM UTC

brandnewlow wrote: post #25

jonknee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's official, a brand new dating site doesn't have many profiles.

I don't see why we should let them off the hook for that. Match.com has an enormous userbase. Surely they could have spread the word somehow through various means to provide me with more than 18 search results throughout the entire city of Chicago.

Maybe that's what they did? This wasn't an official announcement. The POF guy obviously watches this space really closely, it's not too hard to believe he found out about it while they were still in seeding mode.

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#27

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 6:22 AM UTC

brandnewlow wrote: post #25

jonknee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's official, a brand new dating site doesn't have many profiles.

I don't see why we should let them off the hook for that. Match.com has an enormous userbase. Surely they could have spread the word somehow through various means to provide me with more than 18 search results throughout the entire city of Chicago.

[deleted]

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#28

Post by wesley » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 11:27 AM UTC

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.

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#29

Post by Jimega36 » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 12:22 PM UTC

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?

Re: It's official: Match.com Abandons Paid Dating…

#30

Post by sharpshoot » Sun, Jan 04, 2009, 2:56 PM UTC

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...