The long flight from Miami with lovely Virgin team gave me the rare opportunity of having time to create a summary for this Miami event.
I asked myself a question – what seemed different this year?
It was interesting to see that there were only few large companies that have kept up with exhibiting at iDate over the last few years, and as Marcus from POF stated – we only have 3 or 4 companies left seriously in business. But is it true? And what does “seriously” mean? Look at Red Hot Pie, Hub people, Freedating.co.uk, Smooch.com, Twoo.com, DatingFactory.com among many others– we are all not only surviving, we are doing really well, and will carry on growing.
The main message from this year’s event is that the dating business is competitive, like any other, and there are no easy ways of making money any more. Having said that, good people, innovative and smart business models, dedication and enthusiasm will always win. There are tons of opportunities out there for you, as our white label clients or individual website owners. But the rules are becoming tougher and there is no time to sit out there on Mount Olympus. So “Screw it, let’s do it” (to quote Sir Richard Branson), I would use it as a slogan for any dating business for 2012.
Big thank you to everyone who came to meet me and George at the event, Thank you to Moreno and Connor who are looking after our USA market, thank you Dan and Angus for giving us exciting moments and thank you George for saving valuable dating business people from speed boat disaster.
We are looking forward to seeing you all in Barcelona again!
Tanya Fathers
CEO, Co-founder