MARIE CLAIRE – After spending a decade at Match.com and Yahoo Personals writing compatibility formulas, psychologist Mark Thompson had fallen out of love with his work. “Early on, there was real enthusiasm that we were going to figure out how to bring people together,” he says. “But now the industry is so competitive that it’s more about what sites claim they can do than what us eggheads could actually do for people.”
Q: What made you leave e-dating?
A: I hated the way we overpromised and underdelivered. Our studies showed that the odds of meeting someone online and dating him more than a month are roughly one in 10. No computer can accurately predict whom you should be with.
Q: But isn’t blind dating always hit or miss?
A: Yes, but you don’t have to pay $30 a month to be set up by your friend. There’s a different set of expectations. When diet companies show someone who lost a bunch of weight in six weeks, they have to say, “Results not typical.” eHarmony and other sites should do the same.
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From Finn:
Below is their response to me regarding a request to remove my debit card information on a suspended account.
Dear Finn:
Thank you for your inquiry regarding the removal of your personal information from eHarmony. I regret to hear of your concern regarding the storage of your credit card and personal information. Please be assured your information is completely secure and will not be shared with any outside parties. [This is false. eHarmony sends and shares our CC info to a payment processor. Guess what: Last week a payment processor was hacked.]
Please know that eHarmony follows all applicable laws and regulations involving the storage and use of personal data, including payment information. [That's for a judge to decide, not yours. I know for sure this is illegal in Canada.] Also, before an account is established, eHarmony requires that each user read and consent to our Terms and Conditions of Service, which includes granting eHarmony an irrevocable license to any information and content that you provide to eHarmony. By agreeing to our Terms and Conditions, you have authorized us to retain your information in our records. For your convenience, a link to our Terms and Conditions is provided below.
http://www.eharmony.com/about/terms
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Our South American reader Fernando Ardenghi has posted an early review of the site during this pre-launch. He corrected us: they do offer 3 months to initial registrants to seed their database.
As before in Australia and the United Kingdom site versions, registrants can give a Brazil address first then migrate later to their original country. It has been two years since they opened a country site.
Registrants cannot buy subscriptions yet, so Brazil pricing is still unknown at this point.
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Okay, so an eHarmony Brazil is out of the door, just as we suspected last June. I guess it’s time to predict another future eHarmony product, don’t you? Guys, prepare to be surprised with this one, or at least be surprised it took them ten years to do it.
(Image source: http://static.eharmony.com/assets/corp/images/help/jz-logo.png.)
What is Jazzed.com?
Jazzed is a new online dating site from eHarmony, Inc. We’re committed to providing members a better online dating experience by putting control in your hands. We’ve created easy-to-use tools that allow you to search for, communicate with and connect with other members. We want you to quickly and confidently get what you’re looking for – whether it’s a date that leaves you smiling, or the start of an extraordinary relationship. Sign up today and complete our easy profile set-up process—once you’re done, you can start making connections with other members who intrigue you. Continue Reading »
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http://www.eharmony.com.br/
Server settings show that the site has been live since 18 August 2010, coinciding with eHarmony’s anniversary celebrations. Coming after Canada, Australia and the UK, this is the first eHarmony country site in a different language. Like EH Canada, the site mentions no free memberships for its initial registrants.
The first difference that caught my attention is the “refund schedule” based on how soon one cancels one’s account.
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Because we now have three data points (“90 a day”, “236 a day” and “542 a day”) to work with, I was able to run regression analysis and update the formulas on the eHarmony Blog homepage’s javascript marriage counter.
That’s right. As per the calculations, around 1338 eHarmony members in the United States marry every day now. The numbers don’t lie.
Some charts and more details later.
"After spending a decade at Match.com and Yahoo Personals writing compatibility formulas," ??? That is not true because I know Dr. Mark Thompson since October 2003. His company WeAttract was sued by Match. He had written a whitepaper full of (math) mistakes. "CONSUMERS ARE HAVING SECOND TH …
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