London, UK, 10 May 2012 – Global Personals Ltd, the largest privately owned online dating company in Europe that owns award-winning platform WhiteLabelDating.com, announces the acquisition of leading ‘freemium’ dating brand Smooch.com, the seventh largest dating site in the UK (Experian Hitwise) alongside its parent company WooWise.
Launched in 2003, Global Personals Ltd is one of the largest privately owned online dating and social discovery companies worldwide. The Windsor-based company powers over 7,500 dating websites globally for 1,500 WhiteLabelDating.com partners and has experienced revenue growth of 1371% in the last five years with annualised revenues of £36million.
Global Personals Ltd will now be offering free and freemium white label products to its award-winning subscription platform, WhiteLabelDating.com. As well as Smooch.com and the WooWise white label system, the acquisition includes Mancentral.com, which will help Global Personals grow its gay dating division through own-brand and partner sites. Martin Bysh and Marcus Hamilton will remain as advisors to the business, retaining the award-winning team behind their white label business and Smooch.com. They will be working closely with Global Personals Ltd to grow the division internationally.
Ross Williams, CEO of Global Personals said:
“The two biggest disrupters of the last decade in the online dating industry have been white label platforms and free dating. With both of these in place, Global Personals Ltd is now positioned to dominate this exciting, profitable and ever-growing industry. The team is really impressed by the WooWise freemium white label system, which will allow our partners to grow into this popular dating space, currently dominated by Badoo and Plenty Of Fish. The deal will help our partners monetise members who may not wish to pay on a traditional subscription-based dating site. We’ve always had huge respect for Martin and the team behind Smooch – it’s been one of the top sites in the UK for years and has a growing international presence.”
Martin Bysh, CEO of WooWise, adds:
“Having previously worked with the company as a WhiteLabelDating.com partner, I have nothing but respect for the team and their business acumen. We had some very strong offers on the table from leading global players in the market, but chose Global Personals Ltd for their honesty and decency, which was confirmed during this process. The company seems to be soaking up the best talent from the dating, digital and media industries and will be able to grow Smooch and our white label services to a worldwide audience.”
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About WhiteLabelDating.com
Launched in 2003, WhiteLabelDating.com offers a platform for brands and individuals to power their own dating sites that currently includes The Independent, NatMags, Bauer Media and PlentyMoreFish as partners. WhiteLabelDating.com provides the dating software, membership database, payment processing, customer support, hosting infrastructure and much more. You provide your brand, website design and marketing and we do the rest.
WhiteLabelDating.com is part of Global Personals Ltd. With annualised revenues of £36 million, the company has received a collection of accolades including fastest growing company in the South East, UK, in the 2011 and 2010 Deloitte Fast 50 and the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA, won Digital Business Of The Year 2010, highly ranked in The Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 (2010, 2011) and the European Media Momentum Top 50, 2011. WhiteLabelDating.com has also won ‘Best Dating Software Provider’ for the last three years at the industry awards, iDate.