Match.com is an online dating service. The company reportedly has more than 20 million members, made up of a 49/51 male/female ratio,[1] and Web sites serving 37 countries in more than 12 different languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas and the company also has offices in London, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, Munich, Stockholm, Madrid. Match.com is owned by IAC/InterActiveCorp and employs more than 340 people worldwide. Match.com's nearly $350 million in revenue and 1.35 million paying subscribers place it atop the industry.[2]
History
Match.com was started by Gary Kremen in 1993. It was started as a proof-of-concept for Electric Classifieds which aimed to provide classified advertising systems for newspapers. Early on, Kremen was assisted by Peng T. Ong, who helped architect the initial system, and Simon Glinsky, who helped develop one of the first Internet business plans for Match.com and provided management and marketing expertise. The initial business scope developed by this team included a possible subscription model, now common among personals services, and inclusion of diverse communities with high first trial and market leaders status, including women, technology professionals and the GLBT community. Fran Maier joined in late 1994 to lead the Match.com business unit where she significantly bolstered the strategy to make Match.com friendly and accessible to women (the men would then follow).[3]
Match.com went live in early 1995 as a free beta. It was first profiled in Wired Magazine in 1995.[4]
In 1998, Match.com was purchased by Cendant. A year later Match.com was purchased by IAC/InterActiveCorp (then still operating under the name TicketMaster). In late 1999, Match.com was moved to Dallas, Texas, to merge with another matching site, One & Only networks, that IAC/InterActiveCorp had purchased the same year.
Between September 9, 2004, and April 24, 2007, Jim Safka was the Chief Executive Officer of Match.com. Thomas Enraght-Moony was the CEO from April, 2007 to February 19, 2009. [5]
On February 19, 2009, Match.com divested its European operations to Meetic. Following the divestment, Greg Blatt, an Executive Vice President and General Counsel of IAC/InterActiveCorp, was named CEO of Match.com. [6] Mr. Blatt retains the title of EVP of IAC/InterActiveCorp but has stepped down as its General Counsel.
Features
Match.com offers the following features:
- mobile phone access
- relationship advisors - offering profile creation assistance
- online dating tips
- magazines and quizzes
- secure network for user privacy - allowing users to use services without releasing personal information
- two –way matching option
- Keyword-targeted searching[7]
Records and facts
Actress Kara Brock and technology author Joseph Bustos met on Match.com in 2001. In 2004, the couple married at Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara, California.
In November 2004, Guinness World Records recognized Match.com as the largest online dating site in the world. At the time, more than 42 million singles globally had registered with Match.com since its launch in 1995, and worldwide there were over 15 million members using the service.
In late 2005, Match.com in the United States entered into a strategic partnership with Dr. Phil on a new US marketing campaign called "MindFindBind", a monthly subscription program that Match.com members can pay an extra fee to access.[8]
On November 10, 2005, a class action lawsuit was filed by Matthew Evans against Match.com in federal court in Los Angeles alleging that Match.com "secretly employs people as 'date bait' to send bogus enticing E-mails and to go on as many as 100 dates a month - or three a day - to keep customers ponying up." The suit has been repudiated by IAC as baseless. The suit was dismissed by the United States District Court for the Central District of California on April 25, 2007.[9][10]
In December 2006, the layout of the United States Match.com site was redesigned, to go in line with the newly launched series of black and white TV advertisements in the US featuring Match.com members.
It was announced in February of 2009 that Match.com's European operations was sold to Meetic for 5 million Euros and a reported twenty-seven percent interest in the company.[11] At the same time that this sale was announced, the current CEO Thomas Enraght-Mooney stepped down, while IAC's (Match.com's parent company) Executive VP and General Counsel, Greg Blatt, took his place.[12]
MatchLive and MatchTravel
In 2002 and early 2003, Match.com's then CEO, Tim Sullivan, tried to expand Match.com reach by expanding into the local dating scene with a service called MatchLive. Daters would meet in a public location sponsored by Match.com. People would be involved in social activities and a form of speed dating together. The idea was scrapped by the parent company. Shortly afterword, IAC fired Tim Sullivan as acting CEO, and laid off 30 people in the Dallas office involved with the MatchLive brand. [13] The company stated that it planned to refocus its operation moving forward on on-line dating instead of hosting singles and speed-dating events.
MatchTravel was an attempt about the same time as the MatchLive brand to offer discounts via the then sister company Expedia, Inc. to daters meeting on Match.com. The service was rescinded shortly afterward.
Controversy
In a 2005 lawsuit, Match.com was accused of paying people to send romantic emails and go on sham dates with customers who had made contact with the company to cancel their accounts. Match.com denied the practices [14] and the lawsuit was dropped.[15]
A class-action lawsuit filed in June 2009 accuses Match.com of matching customers with people who are non-paying customers or who are not customers at all. Match.com has said that the suit is without merit.[16] According to the complaint, filed in the United States District Court, Southern District of New York, by Sean McGinn, "Match misleads paying subscribers by charging them for the ability to write e-mails to members who can’t reply to their e-mails or even read them."[17]
Current criticisms focus on their policy of automatic membership renewal via automatic credit card billing, unless the customer has specifically canceled the service. In addition, arbitrary account suspensions (without refund of monies paid) due to suspicion of Terms of Service violation have been reported.[18]
IAC Personals
Match.com is the leading brand in the division of the IAC/InterActiveCorp known as IAC Personals. Other brands in the IAC Personals sphere include:
- Match.com International
- Udate
- Chemistry.com
- One and Only (brand retired in Dec. 2005)
- AltMatch (brand retired in Dec. 2005)
- MatchLive - localized singles meeting event coordination division of Match.com (brand retired in May 2003)
- MatchTravel - a collaboration between then IAC child company Expedia (brand retired May 2003)
See also
References
- ^ "Compare Online Dating". http://www.consumer-rankings.com/Dating/comparison.aspx. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
- ^ Matchmaking sites work harder to attract clients in slump | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Business News
- ^ LOVE'S LABOR LOST / Online matchmaker still seeks love, money
- ^ Krieger, Todd (September 1995). "Love and Money". Wired. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.09/scans.html?pg=7.
- ^ [1]
- ^ http://iac.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=1645
- ^ "Match.com Review". http://www.Consumer-Rankings.com/Dating. http://www.consumer-rankings.com/Dating/matchreview.aspx?rid=69&rindex=0&vid=29. Retrieved 4 January 2010.
- ^ Albo, Bonny. "Match.com Review". About.com. http://dating.about.com/od/sitereviews/fr/match.htm.
- ^ Welcome to Match.com Corporate Site[broken citation]
- ^ New York Daily News - Home - Call 'em Match.con
- ^ Brooks, Mark (April 2009). "Love is In the Air". Online Personals Watch. http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/news/2009/04/love-is-in-the-air.html.
- ^ Brooks, Mark (February 2009). "IAC Appoints Greg Blatt CEO of Match.com". Online Personals Watch. http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/news/2009/02/iac-appoints-greg-blatt-ceo-of-matchcom.html.
- ^ http://dallas.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2004/09/13/daily3.html
- ^ Online daters sue Match.com for fraud, USA Today (Reuters), November 18, 2005
- ^ Eric Tordenson, Matchmaking sites work harder to attract clients in slump, Dallas Morning News, May 29, 2008
- ^ Eric Tordenson, Dallas-based Match.com accused of misleading customers, Dallas Morning News, June 10, 2009
- ^ Sean McGinn, et al vs. Match.com LLP, Case 1:09-cv-05328-SWK Document 1 Filed 06/09/2009
- ^ User complaints about Match.com business practices
External links
