Dating Ad Network together with Date.com and Omnidate.com has hosted the first Toronto Internet Dating Industry Party for the owners and executives of the Internet Personals and Social Networking companies.

The event was held last Tuesday on November 25, 2008.

The party was a huge success and was attended by 27 representatives of 15 dating technology companies, including:

• Date.com
• OmniDate Inc.
• Dating Ad Network
• Lavalife Corp.
• Epic Advertising
• Canoe / Reseau Contact
• ChristianCafe.com
• Cupid.com
• Talkster
• Impact Mobile
• Randodate.com
• WorldFriends Networks
• Personality Pro
• Dating Essentials

You can see some photos from the event and sign up for notification about the next Toronto Internet Dating Industry Party here:
http://www.torontodatingsocial.com

A recent article in Media Life Magazine unveils some interesting facts & figures regarding current worldwide economic crisis and how does it affect online dating business.

In fact, it does affect it, but not as one would expect.

Executives from Avalanche LLC (Date.com & Matchmaker.com), Christian Connection and PerfectMatch.com are all stating that their business is going nowhere but up. Here are some of their quotes:

“It’s hard to know exactly why the numbers are going up, but yes, I feel that this surge is related to the recent worldwide economic crisis. […] We feel that our business model is tested, and online dating is one of the few industries that is recession proof,” – Meir Strahlberg, Avalanche CEO.

“We have found that in the last three months, in September, October, November, that we have had a real jump in the numbers of people subscribing for membership,” – Jackie Elton, founder and managing director of Christian Connection.

Read the full article here

Source: Media Life Magazine

A recent study by iPerceptions has found that consumers are still more likely to click on banner advertisements or traditional text, instead of on-line video ads.

The results are part of a study by the New York based firm which collected user-generated feedback from over 14,000 visitors to leading media sites during the month of August 2008 to determine on their likelihood to click on different types of online ads.

The study found that consumers are more likely to click on right banners (20% of respondents) and 12% likely to click on top banners. The only consumers who seem to be engaged by video ads are young people under the age of 25, a group that accounts for nearly one-third of the video-ad viewing audience.

The study also found that the likelihood that a person will click on an ad goes down as their income rises. On average, 40% of consumers making less than $50K a year are likely to click on any ad versus only 15% among those who make over $150K. The income gap is most pronounced with video ads, with 49% of consumers likely to click on video ads making less than $50K a year – and only 13% making over $150K.

Publishers should also note that clicks come from loyal audiences. Across the board, 65% of consumers likely to click on online ads are weekly or daily browsers, and only 15% are first-time visitors and 6% are sporadic visitors.

“Our research clearly shows that media sites that offer consumers compelling content and features - encouraging repeat visits - generate much better ad clickthrough rates than less engaging sites,” said iPerceptions Vice President Jonathan Levitt.

Source: iPerceptions News

Recently, Dating Ad Network staff had business lunch with DATE.com executives, and discussed opportunities for business cooperation. The meeting took place in a small downtown Italian restaurant in Toronto, on July 14th 2008.

From left to right: Dmitry Avdeev (Dating Ad Network), Kris Covino (Date.com), Meir Strahlberg (Date.com) and Andrey Malygin (Dating Ad Network)

Kris Covino is CTO of Avalanche LLC (the company, which operates DATE.com), while Meir Strahlberg is CEO and President of the company.

As you may know, Date.com was launched on Valentines Day in 1997 and still remains one of the most popular dating sites. Avalanche LLC also runs such landmark site like MatchMaker.com as well as niche Latin singles dating resource Amor.com.

Both Kris and Meir are pioneers in online dating business, and Dating Ad Network is very excited with the opportunity to cooperate with such strong players on online dating market.

During this meeting we discussed new developing trends and emerging business opportunities in the dating business, which will allow both companies to strengthen their position on ever changing online dating market. As a result of this cooperation Dating Ad Network will be able to produce even better service to you and the other members of this dating banner network.

Stay tuned for more news.