Can JDate com Pull Enough Weight?

JDate com has been a favorite site for singles to place Jewish personals dating ads and meet each other for some time now. Yet this dating site was one of those that lost subscribers in recent months, meaning that its parent company, Spark Networks, suffered a loss of profits in the first half of 2009. The company owns a long list of dating sites, like American Singles, Christian Mingle, and others that target particular ethnic or social groups. But the dating sites like www.jewishmingle.com and www.jdate.com (with sites in the U.S., the UK, France, and Israel), have always brought in most of the company’s income.

The reason for the reduction of profits from www.jdate.com and the other Jewish personals dating sites might stem partly from the economic downturn that has affected much of the world in recent months. Yet that can’t be the whole story, since all of the other networks, including www.americansingles.com, www.catholicmingle.com, and so on, turned a slight profit. So perhaps there was a flaw inherent in the Jewish dating internet sites themselves that contributed to their losing subscribers and, therefore, income for the company.

This appears to have been the problem. Even though JDate com was used by so many, it had been criticized as being too “clunky.” So if people needed to start cutting corners because of the slow economy, they might have been more inclined to cut membership on a site that didn’t operate as easily as others did. Spark Networks seems to think that was the case, at least, since the company produced a “face lift” for the site just in time for the summer of 2009. The improvements include a more modern design and better profile pages, enhanced search features, the JBlog for members, and a new video section.

The CEO of Spark Networks, Adam Berger, recognizes that even if all the company’s other dating sites bring in small profits, it’s still the Jewish dating sites that bring in the most profits. This means that even if the other sites continue to be profitable, the company still needs to see to it that the Jewish sites return to profitability. Spark Networks obviously hope that the redesign of the JDate com site will be the beginning of that process.

Rene Lacape is a seasoned insurance agent. He has been dealing with both corporate and individual accounts for several years up to the present. If you need him, you can check his website and give him a call. Act now.