Q: How do you position Meet Market Adventures on the market?

A: We have positioned ourselves as a one stop shop where singles can connect online or off at local events and adventures or on exotic vacations.

Q: Do you consider traditional dating sites as your competitors?

A: The other dating services that are out there do not offer the same services that we provide. Meet Market Adventures offers a wide range of events, adventures and fun for singles in the city. We also have an online community that allows singles to create profiles, talk about events or experiences with Meet Market Adventures. Our no pressure community gives individuals the opportunity to meet other singles in a social setting that other dating services do not offer.

Q: What’s included in Free Membership and what is your business model?

A: Our Free Membership includes unlimited use of our social networking platform, access to fun events and adventures, local discounts and cheap single vacations. Our model is 3 tiered. Our revenue comes from up selling on the group discounts we get from local vendors and operators, Travel Commissions and advertising.

Q: Do you target some specific social groups or anyone can join?

A: We do not reach out to a specific social group and anyone is free and able to join Meet Market Adventures. Our target market is singles between 30 and 50. This group seems to represent the majority of our members because of trends in lifestyle, changes is personal circumstances or personal choice.

Q: What areas and cities do you already cover?

A: Our goal is to be in every major city across North America in 5 years. We are currently represented in the following cities:

• New York
• Philadelphia
• Chicago
• Toronto
• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Winnipeg
• Calgary
• Edmonton
• Vancouver

Q: How important is your own website for your business?

A: Our website is crucial. Without it we would not have been able to grow as fast as we have. Our website acts as our store front for our events, adventures and social community.

Q: I am sure you also have groups and fans in Facebook and MySpace. Do you feel the emerging impact of social networks on your business?

A: Yes, we are covered on all Social Networks. It allows us to access millions of potential clients and has become our major marketing initiative. It is a great way to virally grow your business. It is has been beneficial to see what features and applications these companies are using and how you can incorporate them into your own model.

Q: What’s the story behind your company?

A: Our roots in payment processing extend back to the early 1980s when our founder, Tim Litle, created the first payment processing platform designed to meet the needs of the Direct Marketing industry.

In the 1970s, Litle & Co. founders ran a catalog business and created the first full-service, third-party fulfillment service bureau dedicated to serving catalogs. The 1980s found Litle & Co. innovating the automation of paper-based work flows, again for the benefit of direct merchants. And, in 1982 - a time when catalogs were losing 2% of sales because of inefficiencies in conventional payment processing systems, Litle & Co. built the first payment management system to address the unique needs of catalogs and the card-not-present world, including installment and recurring billers. This system helped Litle & Co. keep chargebacks to less than 0.1% versus the typical 2.0%. Founded in 2001, and based in Lowell, Massachusetts, Litle & Co. is in high-growth mode- acknowledged by No. 1 rankings on both the Deloitte New England Technology Fast 50 and the Inc. 500 in 2006.

Q: What services do you provide for online dating sites & companies?

A: Our payment management engine is designed to help online dating businesses:

Grow revenue: reduce declined authorizations; improve re-authorization success rates; lower refund percentages; increase adoption of alternative payments, where appropriate, and accept international payments.

Streamline operations: simplify connectivity; reduce error rates; get clear, concise and flexible online reports, and automate chargeback management.

Minimize processing and payment management costs: manage interchange; reduce chargebacks; eliminate gateway charges and line charges.

We help our clients accomplish this through a full suite of Merchant, Processing, and Recurring Billing Services. See our Payment Management Engine illustrated here: http://www.litle.com/what-we-do .

A good payment management strategy can help achieve the following:

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Q: It’s been just over a year since you launched SpeedDate - and your site is already very popular. Most dating sites don’t grow that fast. Is there a “Speed Growth secret” you could share with our readers?

A: SpeedDate.com’s philosophy and the way we work is simple – we believe in instant chemistry, and that people know very quickly if they feel a connection to each other. The major dating sites require lengthy profiles and have a lot of steps before you can actually talk to someone you are interested in! We felt this was a pretty backwards approach to dating and wanted to create a site that was completely different and really catered to what singles wanted and enjoy. Because we allow people to meet each other in a faster and more fun way than many other sites, SpeedDate has mostly grown through members inviting their friends. Since we launched in 2007, we continue to grow quickly and currently host 160,000 dates per day! The growth that we have experienced shows that people are really looking for a new type of online dating experience focused on live interaction.

Q: You started as a free site; do you plan on adding premium/paid features and how it may affect site popularity and traffic?

A: While it is completely free to meet new people for live chats, SpeedDate also introduced a premium service, which is relatively new to the site. We are still in the process of introducing our users to the added features and functionality available with this membership level. The difference between a free membership and premium is that premium offers users the ability to be first in the dating line, choose specific individuals to date, see who has viewed them and much more. So far, the premium membership has been very popular and we have seen rapid growth since it was launched.

Q: Could you tell us more about your patented technology behind SpeedDate: what’s the major novelty of your invention?

A: SpeedDate.com leverages technology to create a fast and fun way to meet new people. One of the major innovations of SpeedDate.com is its method for introducing singles to each other via live interaction from the comfort of home or wherever they have an internet connection. Instead of filling out long profiles and questionnaires, SpeedDate users meet each other in three minute speed dates using instant messaging, and in-browser audio and video. SpeedDate has also developed a proprietary real-time matching algorithm that finds relevant dates within our online membership base in a near instantaneous fashion. SpeedDate.com leverages the rapidly expanding infrastructure for instant messaging and peer-to-peer video and audio chatting, which includes increasing penetration of broadband, webcams, as well as browser-based real-time video functionality.

Q: There are a lot of talks about scammers activity on dating sites. Do scammers bother you and how do you manage to keep them away?

A: It is extremely important for us to create an online speed dating environment where our users feel completely comfortable. We do not tolerate scammers or any other forms of misbehavior on SpeedDate. We have developed a combination of technological innovation and intelligent processes to make it as likely as possible that users can interact with each other in real time without worrying about scammers. The vast majority of our users use SpeedDate for its intended purpose – finding other singles in a fast and fun way.

Q: You recently released SpeedDate for iPhone: is it a tribute to the iPhone crowd, or a bare necessity?

A: We decided to create an application for the iPhone because it just made sense for our users and our brand. We were the first site to simplify the online dating process and allow singles to find instant chemistry – not lengthy, complicated profiles – to help our members connect with each another. Developing an iPhone application, which is immediate and portable, was the ideal next step. The SpeedDate.com iPhone application simplifies one of the biggest hassles of dating, finding the time to connect with new singles. We expect that the number of dates on our web site will increase as we provide new and existing SpeedDate.com users with the opportunity to make mobile love connections.

Q: What trends in online dating do you see emerging during the next 2 years?

A: Online dating is here to stay and will continue to grow over the next several years. The instant messaging and live video capabilities that we have on SpeedDate.com will definitely be an emerging trend. SpeedDate is at the forefront of the industry in terms of using live interactive technology to making it easier for people to meet each other. People nowadays don’t have time to email back and forth numerous times to see if there is a connection. Live interaction is the best and most immediate way to determine if you are a match with someone. Another area that will continue to grow will be development of dating applications on social and mobile platforms. Many dating companies spend millions on advertising to bring people to their sites. SpeedDate does the reverse. In addition to offering our destination site, www.speeddate.com, we bring our product directly to where people are already spending time: on social networks like Facebook and mobile devices like the iPhone. I believe these trends are good for singles because they’ll be more likely to find each other quickly and have fun while they’re at it.

PartnerMaps.com’s motto says ‘Professional Personality Testing for Relationships’. This UK-based project looks quite promising, especially if take into account all their science and experience behind this simple name. We asked Julie Gibbons, Vice President of Marketing in PeopleMaps Ltd. about the details of the project and its relationship with online dating world.

Q: Personality profiling by PartnerMaps – is it about matching people by personality?

A: Ah well, the simple answer to that question is no! PartnerMaps is a psychometric application designed by PeopleMaps and it produces a range of personality reports for singles and individuals in relationships. The principle is that the understanding of human behavior is the bedrock of successful relationships; the relationship you have with others and the relationship you have with yourself. PartnerMaps profiling is a method by which you can gain an understanding of your self – and it’s easy, instant and online.

For a relationship to work people need to share similar goals and values and without this, no matter what personality mix the relationship is likely to flounder. You cannot change another person’s behavior but you have complete control over how you respond to any situation. As Carl Jung (on whose psychology PartnerMaps is based) said, “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people”.

Simply put, any personality type can work with any other personality type, when it comes to personal relationships. You will have seen this from your own experience. You will know couples that are poles apart in terms of personality – and you will know couples that are two peas in the pod. People’s life experience is full of examples of this and you would be hard pushed to convince them otherwise.

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Along with other interesting persons and companies which Dating Ad Network staff met back in January, during iDate Miami 2009, there is Kendal Liddle, President of gimmeo.com . The idea of providing services for making real-world gifts available for the members of social networks and dating sites seems quite promising. Moreover, it’s also a great way to monetize traffic, even on free sites. Below is an extensive interview with Kendal, covering all the aspects of gimmeo project.

Q: Gimmeo - how did you come up with this name and the whole idea of the project?

A: We had a good idea and a great partnership model; we just needed a good name. Originally name for gimmeo was GiftFish but we wanted something more unique. The name came from my wife. She pointed out that the main reason gimmeo would be adopted by the end user was not because people wanted to give, but because they wanted to get gifts and we should make a play on that. She suggested the word “gimme” be used somehow. The “o” was added the following day by Hugh. It’s catchy and blatantly honest (plus the URL was available).

As a company, gimmeo started with a typical one-up conversation between friends. I was telling Hugh Plautz (CEO and Founder of gimmeo) about how iTunes went wrong and my great idea for distributing online media. Hugh one-upped me with his idea for real-world gifting through social media by means of an e-commerce privacy proxy. Needless to say his idea was better and he won the one-up contest as I began groveling for a chance to be a part of Hugh’s idea – this technically was our first board meeting.

The true origins of gimmeo as an idea goes clear back to 1999 when digital music first was becoming available online. Hugh thought it would be a great idea to be able to gift a song to a friend via the Internet. The idea evolved over time from digital music to real-world gifts and eventually into gimmeo as we know it now.

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