PlentyofFish

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)
Plenty of Fish
Type Private
Founded 2003
Headquarters Vancouver, Canada
Key people Markus Frind, Founder and CEO
Industry Internet
Revenue $5-10 million USD[1] (2007 estimated)
Employees 1
Website www.plentyoffish.com

PlentyofFish is a free online dating service. The founder and sole operator, 29-year-old Markus Frind[2], runs the site from his 83-square-metre Vancouver apartment.[3] The site pulls in more than $5 million a year from Google advertising.[4]

Contents

[edit] History

Markus Frind, CEO and Founder of Plentyoffish Media Inc., graduated in 1999 from British Columbia Institute of Technology with a diploma in Computer Systems Technology.[5] Over the next few years, he worked for several dot.com companies as the number of them in Vancouver began to wane. Markus ended up working at a company as a website and database administrator where he found and fixed errors.[6]

In 2003, Frind had to learn ASP.NET and to better learn the language, he built a dating website. The free dating website quickly grew in Canada and then spread, via word of mouth, to the U.K., Australia, and the United States.[7] His first Adsense check arrive in July 2003 and was for $1,100 USD.[3]

In 2004, PlentyofFish became a full-time business for Markus.[8]

[edit] Features

Members can add photographs, if they choose to do so. Members can flag another person's photographs if they are not clear photographs of that person. There is a rating system in place similar to the site HOTorNOT.

The site also has a chat feature which allows members to chat with other members, regardless of age, sexual orientation and location.

An extensive forum discussion group allows members to discuss dating experiences and organize local events.[9]

[edit] Revenues

PlentyofFish generates money three ways: banner ads, affiliate marketing, and Google’s AdSense. According to Markus, the site brings in $5-10 million a year.[1] Also, the AdSense revenue is roughly $10 000 per day.[10]

[edit] Technical Details

The website uses the following technology:[11]

The chat (aka instant messaging) feature is Flash-based and is provided by Userplane.

[edit] Statistics

  • Active users: 500,000 logins per day[citation needed]
  • Registered users: 600,000[12]
  • Dating site ranking in the U.K.: 2 (Hitwise, June 2007)[citation needed]
  • Dating site ranking in Canada: 1 (Comscore, July 2007)[citation needed]
  • U.S. overall site ranking: 82 (Hitwise, June 2007)[13]
  • Number of page views a day: 30+ million (August 2007)[7]
  • Google AdSense earner ranking: 1 (May 2007)[14]

[edit] Awards

PEER 1's PlentyofFish.com video customer story won three bronze awards in the Video categories of Infomercial, How-To/Instructional and Comedy at the Telly Awards.[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Gomes, Lee (2007). PlentyofFish Owner Has the Perfect Bait for a Huge Success. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved on 2007-05-23.
  2. ^ ‘‘OPW Interview - PlentyofFish-CEO Markus Frind’’ at Online Personals Watch. Retrieved on February 21, 2006.
  3. ^ a b The new Internet millionaires. Retrieved on 2008-03-09.
  4. ^ Surridge, Grant (2007). Kingdom of the Online Cupids. The National Post. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.
  5. ^ School of Computing and Academic Studies: Computer Systems Technology. B.C. Institute of Technology. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
  6. ^ About the Team. PlentyOfFish. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
  7. ^ a b ARCast.TV - PlentyOfFish.com How one man beat the big guys. Channel 9 (2007). Retrieved on 2007-08-03.
  8. ^ Lehman, Michael (2007). IIS Show #10 - PlentyofFish.com and IIS 6 = Plenty of performance. Channel 9. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
  9. ^ PlentyofFish Forums. Plenty of Fish. Retrieved on 2007-08-28.
  10. ^ MacManus, Richard (2007). Plentyoffish: 1-Man Company May Be Worth $1Billion. Read/Write Web. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
  11. ^ Frind, Markus (2007). Looking for 3 Senior Software Developers.. PlentyOfFish Blog. Retrieved on 2007-12-09.
  12. ^ From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year. The New York Times (2008). Retrieved on 2008-01-18.
  13. ^ Surridge, Grant (2007). Making money making dates. The National Post. Retrieved on 2007-07-20.
  14. ^ Largest Google AdSense Checks plentyoffish earns 901k per month, and digg earns 250k per month. Dewitts Media (2007). Retrieved on 2007-05-10.
  15. ^ PEER 1 Wins Telly Awards For PlentyofFish Testimonial Video. Online Personals Watch (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-20.


[edit] External links