American Singles
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American Singles is one of several large sites that dominate the online dating scene. American Singles is owned by Spark Networks (formerly Matchnet), headquarted in Beverly Hills, CA.
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[edit] History
American Singles [1] was incorporated in 1979, before the digital revolution, by Rich Gosse, as a California educational non-profit organization (American Singles Education, Inc). American Singles sponsored non-profit singles events throughout the San Francisco Bay Area and also published a free singles newsletter listing the activities of other singles organizations. Mr. Gosse observed that there were numerous dating services in America, some of which were charging thousands of dollars, and decided to create the world's first 100% free dating service. The service published free profiles of its members and mailed them, non-profit bulk rate, to singles all over America.
By 1993 the free dating service had grown to over 20,000 members and mailing costs were heavy. At this point Daniel Bender suggested eliminating these mailing costs by posting the profiles on the World Wide Web. The revised free dating service became the world's first free dating website, launching on Valentine's Day, 1995, operating from the as.org domain, but later acquired the americansingles.com domain. On May 20, 1999, Matchnet (now Spark Networks) purchased the online version of American Singles, and now operates it as a profit-making business (one of the largest dating websites in the world).
Around 1996, American Singles created one of the first affiliate programs, later copied by One and Only, another propular singles site of the time, which helped that site grow and eventually sell for $40M.
American Singles was featured in the 1997 documentary, Unmade Beds, directed and written by Nicholas Barker. A black comedy about vanity and lust in contemporary America. In the middle of the sexual jungle of New York's singles' world, two men and two women try to achieve their dreams. American Singles is shown several times being used as a tool for finding prospective dates.
American Singles also educates singles through hundreds of interviews with the news media worldwide, including ABC, BBC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, Oprah, Donahue, Newsweek, Cosmopolitan, Business Week, Entrepreneur, Playboy, Playgirl, London Times, India Times, The Australian, The New Zealand Herald, etc.
[edit] Records and notable facts
- April 1979: American Singles was incorporated in California as a non-profit educational organization.
- February 1995: American Singles launched the world's first free dating website, which became [AmericanSingles.com].
- May 1999: Cupid's Network (parent company of American Singles) sold American Singles to Matchnet (now Spark Networks) for $3.6 million. American Singles membership had grown to 1/4 million.
[edit] Media Attention
- People Magazine: Featured Article
- USA Today
- NY Times
- CNN
- CNBC
- MSNBC
