– Getting down to business on Valentine’s Day –
Windsor, UK, February 14th 2012: February 14th is touted as being the most romantic day of the year for those looking for love. However, this year Valentine’s Day will not only see many more take their chance at romance, but it will also mark the start of a business boom across the online dating world with more companies seeking to capitalise on the millions of people turning to online dating (a rise of 150%*).
Over February 13th & 14th in 2011 the largest privately owned dating provider, Global Personals Ltd (that owns platform WhiteLabelDating.com), saw a rise of over 30% in subscriptions across its network of sites as well as an additional 31% of ‘re-initials’ (members whose subscription has been restarted). The dating giant expects these figures to rise again in 2012 by 150%, causing a flurry of businesses to turn to dating as an additional source of revenue in these financially tough times.
Steve Pammenter, Co-Founder and Director of Partnerships, says: “In 2011 Valentine’s Day produced a huge rise in users looking for love and 2012 is set to be even bigger, with an increase of 150% going online for February 14th. This increase in subscribers has not gone unnoticed in the commercial world and more and more businesses are adding some sort of online dating aspect to their current models to take advantage of the rise.”
Steve continues, “Between 2011 and 2012 we estimate that businesses that have diversified into the online dating market have on average made an increased profit of 61% and this figure will continue to rise. Valentine’s Day this year is less about roses and romance and more about firing the dating ‘starting gun’ for many companies.”
Businesses are diversifying even more to survive the economic downturn with those adding a dating aspect to their offering doubling in the last 12 months. Global Personals Ltd saw a rise of 10% of new business customers in the last year and estimate that the figure will rise again in 2012 with many more businesses following the trend set by the likes of Bauer Media, NatMags and Jongleurs, who already have added a dating offering to their sites.
* Figure based on rise in basic online members from February 2011 – February 2012 across all Global Personals sites and WhiteLabelDating.com partner sites.
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About Global Personals:
Launched in 2003, Global Personals Ltd is the largest privately owned online dating company worldwide. With annualised revenues of over £30 million, the company currently employs over 100 full time staff and owns and operates its own online dating sites and B2B service, WhiteLabelDating.com, a platform for brands and individuals to power their own dating sites that currently includes The Independent, Bauer Media and Plenty More Fish 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.
Global Personals 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.
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