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August 25, 2011 - The Vancouverite Behind Plenty of Fish
August 3, 2010 - Dating Site 'Plenty of Fish' Makes Waves in Music Scene
November 11, 2009 – POF.com Teams Up With Lady Gaga http://www.pressreleasenetwork.com/newsroom/EINNews.php?id=54993
POF.com, the world's largest free dating site with more than 17 million members, has partnered with Iconic recording artist, Lady Gaga.
June 25th, 2009 - Flo Rida to Premier 'Available' Video on POF.com http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/06/prweb2576994.htm
POF.com, the largest online dating site in the USA, and world-class rapper, Flo Rida, are teaming up to unveil his latest and hottest new video, 'Available'.
March 09th, 2009 - POF.com Rings True With Online Daters http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/03-09-2009/0004984771&EDATE= POF.com is now the official #1 online dating site in both the USA and the UK according to Hitwise and is quickly gaining the reputation for being the site where people meet their true love. At least that's the case in San Diego, California.
August 8th, 2008 - Against All Odds' vs. 'Money for Nothing' Online Dating Sites Evoke Passion among Winners, Losers and Gays
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/08/prweb1177404.htm
Second-ranked POF.com gets kudos from an industry insider, when she says of its founder, "As the owner of a free online dating service, I will be honest and say that I have a lot of respect for all his hard efforts." One happy opinion says, "There are plenty of regular guys on this website that are not afraid to have a conversation with you." Reviewers say you can view photos and make contacts for free, which they appreciate.

July 28th, 2008 - comScore Media Metrix Ranks POF.com #1 Dating Site in North America And U.K. By Total Visits
http://www.pr-inside.com/comscore-media-metrix-ranks-plentyoffish-com-r726277.htm

POF.com is now the leading dating site in both North America (U.S.A. + Canada) and the United Kingdom.
May 5th, 2008 – PEER 1 Wins Four Telly Awards for Creative Online Video Stories
http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-20-2008/0004817261&EDATE=
Growing Pains" episode one received a bronze award in the Video Comedy category. This is the first of the three-part humorous video short series telling the story of a home business start-up that quickly grows out of control. Additionally, PEER 1's POF.com video customer story won three bronze awards in the Video categories of Infomercial, How-To/Instructional and Comedy. The story focuses on the POF.com business, as the largest free online dating site, and illustrates how PEER 1 helped the business grow with the right infrastructure and hosting solutions.
July 28th, 2008 - POF.com #1 Dating Site In North America And U.K.
http://www.pr-inside.com/comscore-media-metrix-ranks-plentyoffish-com-r726277.htm
The latest comScore Media Metrix numbers now rank the free dating site POF.com as the leading dating site in both North America (U.S.A. + Canada) and the U.K.
July 7th, 2008 - "Worth Keeping" Test From POF.com
http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20080707/CLM03407072008-1.html
The new "Worth Keeping Test" from the free dating site POF.com is a 28-point questionnaire designed to tell you whether to reel him or her in, or to cut bait.
May 20th, 2008 - Peer 1 Wins Telly Awards For PlentyofFish Testimonial Video
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-20-2008/0004817261&EDATE=
PEER 1 Network Enterprises, a provider of online IT infrastructure, is the recipient of four Telly Awards for outstanding achievement with its original short online videos. The winning videos, episode one of "Growing Pains" and the PEER 1 POF.com customer testimonial, were selected among thousands of entries for their humor and creativity.
January 23rd, 2008 - PlentyofFish Selected For New Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2008/1/prweb644611.htm
PlentyofFish has been chosen to join the Microsoft Startup Accelerator Program, designed to connect high-potential startups to an extensive support network that provides access to Microsoft people and programs, guidance on future directions, and support to accelerate their success.
November 27th, 2007 - POF.com Ranked #1 Online Dating Site in the United Kingdom by comScore World Metrix
http://prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=213708
According to comScore World Metrix, POF.com is now the #1 online dating site in UK as ranked by unique visits. POF.com received 7,209,000 visits in the U.K. during the month of October, 2007. Meanwhile, the combined total traffic of all the Meetic sites was 4,397,000, and 2,100,000 for Match.com in the same period.
April 30th, 2007 -- Study of 50,000 Female Online Daters Reveals the Demi Moore Effect
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-30-2007/0004576382&EDATE
A study of over 50,000 women daters aged thirty and over on POF.com from April 19th-25th, 2007 reveals that 35% contacted men 5 or more years younger than themselves. Markus Frind, Founder and CEO of PlentyofFish says, "It's not just men who want to date a few years younger these days. Women in their thirties, forties and older are pursuing younger men on dating sites.
February 13th, 2007 - PlentyofFish Inundated With Marriage Success Stories
http://www.prnewswire.com/news/index_mail.shtml?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-13-2007/0004527060&EDATE=
On Friday 9th February PlentyofFish launched a section devoted to member marriage testimonials. Within three hours, ninety marriage success stories had been uploaded. Now, five days later there are a total of 295 marriage success stories, complete with photos. See http://www.POF.com/success.aspx. Industry analyst and watchdog, Mark Brooks, of OnlinePersonalsWatch.com stated, "No other top tier dating site has such an extensive marriage testimonials section." PlentyofFish now gets 400,000 user logins a day and Markus continues to operate it from his Vancouver apartment. The average age of U.S. PlentyofFish members is 39. PlentyofFish is the most popular dating site in Canada, the 6th most popular in the U.S.A. and the 6th most popular in the U.K.
January 16th, 2007 - Userplane Launches Revenue-Sharing Program with PlentyofFish
http://www.userplane.com/press/userplane_011607.cfm
Userplane, a subsidiary of AOL, today announced that PlentyofFish, the world's top free dating site, has joined Userplane's new ad revenue-sharing program. PlentyofFish has more than 1 million daily visitors and is ranked by Hitwise as a top five dating service in the U.S. Since 2004, its members have used Userplane Webmessenger(TM) to initiate, on average, more than 100,000 IM sessions and exchange millions of text and audio/video messages per day.
October 23rd, 2006 - PlentyofFish Becomes #1 Ranked Internet Dating Site in Canada
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/10/prweb454404.htm
PlentyofFish is the second fastest growing Internet site overall in Canada and the top Internet dating site in Canada, according to Alexa.
August 29th, 2006 - POF.com Surpasses 10 Zillion Members This Week
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/08/prweb430472.htm
A major paid dating site put out a press release announcing their ten millionth member. Markus responds, "Yes, they may have millions of members registered, but that's to their detriment. We cull and clean out old profiles once they become inactive and unresponsive. Most other sites prefer to keep the old profiles in place for excessive periods. It's good for conversions, but bad for users. I won't do that to my users. I don't have to, we're free." PlentyofFish surpassed 300,000 logins in a day in August 2006.
July 10th, 2006 - POF.com to Attempt Speed Dating World Record, 3,000+ Attendees Expected
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/7/prweb409465.htm
On July 22, 2006, Plentyoffish will bring together over three thousand eligible singles for what will be the largest speed dating event held under one roof. The record attempt has been pre-approved by Guinness officials and will establish the first such world record.
March 19th, 2006 - First Major Website Run By An Artificial Intelligence
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/03/prweb360802.htm
In 2004 POF.com was growing in leaps and bounds and CEO and sole employee Markus Frind had a decision to make: He could either hire hundreds of employees and convert to a paid service like all his competitors, or develop an AI to run the site.
PlentyOfFish in the News
February 14th, 2010 - Love, but not at first site http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article7026227.ece
Worldwide, 1.2 billion people logged on to dating sites in December, according to Comscore, and their subscriptions and advertising have created a $1 billion business. The biggest free site, Plentyoffish, is an internet phenomenon. Worldwide it has 19m users and doubled in size last year. Last month Plentyoffish attracted 933,000 visitors in Britain alone, said Comscore. Founder Markus Frind has said it makes $5m to $10m a year in advertising. No wonder everyone wants to be in the online love industry. But online dating can also be a heart-breaking business.
February 14th, 2010 – Make it personal, keep it real http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-0214-profile-20100212,0,1242778.story
The more someone knows about you, the less they want to date you. If you write a massive essay, they're going to find something to dislike about that person. If you don't know something, everyone assumes you're the same as them. Let everything else come out during the dates." — Markus Frind, founder/CEO of POF.com.
February 14th, 2010 - Finding the right online dating service http://www.latimes.com/features/image/la-ig-modernlove14-20100213,0,3240018.story
Hitwise reports that visits to free dating sites like those rose 19% over the previous year. But there's always been the notion that love shouldn't be something you have to purchase. Jeff Testerman, 28, who met his wife, Melissa, 26, on POF.com in 2006, chose free services because "for me, spending money on [online dating] signaled the fact that I was desperate."
February 12th, 2010 - Local matchmaker warns of Internet dating scams http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_14393955?nclick_check=1
But Kate Bilenki, director of love for the popular free dating site POF.com, said most people she knows in their 20s or 30s wouldn't consider going to a traditional matchmaker. "Some people may choose to use match-making services and use background checks, but most will say, 'Why? I can do this myself,' " Bilenki said. Online daters can avert most dangerous situations by exchanging a few e-mails and talking on the phone before meeting, as well as letting someone know they will be going on a date with a stranger on a particular day, she said. While POF.com hasn't had many reports of problems with married users, Bilenki noted that kind of deception happens in everyday meetings too.
February 12th, 2010 - In world of online flirting, virtual gifts are big business http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/02/12/v-fullstory/1476431/in-world-of-online-flirting-virtual.html
One website Brooks works with is POF.com, a free dating service headquartered in Vancouver. It introduced virtual gifts in January. Last year the site ran a test to see if users would pay $10 for one gift. At that price, the users weren't biting. So the cost was lowered, but the staff discovered that as a gift's adorability factor increased, so could the price. ``The cuter they are, the more receptive they are,'' Kate Bilenki, Director of Love at POF.com. ``Teddy bears, hearts, bunnies, cute things like that.''
February 11th, 2010 - Online Dating Faceoff: Match.com vs. PlentyofFish http://mashable.com/2010/02/11/dating-plenty-fish-match/
PlentyofFish is the world’s largest free dating web service (although it now has a $5 “serious” option). Still, for most of its existence it has made millions solely through ads and a staff of fewer than five, led by the founder, Markus Frind. Match.com, on the other hand, has 20+ million users, hundreds of millions in revenue, and is owned by IAC, who also owns Chemistry.com, CollegeHumor, Citysearch, Ask.com and Vimeo.

February 11th, 2010 – Love At First Site http://www.southjersey.com/register/?redir=/entertainment/index.cfm|fa=article|articleID=22011
Internet dating is not only more common; it’s also becoming the norm—no different than, say, meeting a partner at a bar or party. Kate Bilenki, POF.com’s “director of love,” revealed that her free site gets 1.8M hits from the Garden State on a monthly basis.

February 11th, 2010 - Online Dating Explodes as Singles Rush to Find Love for Valentine's

http://colocation.tmcnet.com/news/2010/02/11/4618555.htm
POF.com http://www.POF.com/), one of the world's largest free dating websites, has seen a 60% year over year increase in traffic in the lead up to 14 February. PEER 1 Hosting, which provides web servers for POF.com (http://www.POF.com/), amongst other leading players, is urging dating website service providers to get ready for the predicted unprecedented rise in online exchanges between romance seekers before Valentine's Day. Websites without the right hosting in place could be responsible for putting a freeze on dating this week as sites struggle to cope with the additional demand.

February 11th, 2010 - A beginner's guide to finding love online

http://www.themonitor.com/entertainment/online-35309-love-excuses.html
POF.com is sort of the "plain Jane" of dating sites. It takes a bare bones approach to meeting singles. There are very few features and the design looks very amateur. But with so few tricks and hurdles, it's very easy to get to the important part – finding your next date. Once you've signed up, filled out a profile and uploaded a photo, you can view those available in your area. You can search for members from age 18 to 99, and within 100 miles of you. A few dozen photos will show up gallery-style and you can click on each one to view profiles.

February 10th, 2010 - Web of love

http://bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100210/NEWS0107/2100304/1163&nav_category=
Use of free dating Web sites are growing. Forbes reported that POF.com, a free dating site, placed No. 6 among all dating sites in June 2009, with 2.2 million viewers, nearly double the previous year.
February 8th, 2010 – The Online Dating Game http://www.smartmoney.com/Spending/Deals/The-Dating-Site-Game-What-You-Need-to-Know/
In the ‘You Get What You Pay For’ category, POF.com let you troll for dates free of charge. There are plenty of prospects choose from, but members may not be as dedicated nor the features as sophisticated as those of a pay-for site, says Julie Spira, author of "The Perils of Online Dating."
If you're still a fan of online dating but tired of the traditional offerings, you can try relatively new fish in the sea, POF.com. Started in 2003 by young entrepreneur, Markus Frind -- who still operates the service single-handedly from his Vancouver apartment -- the site's biggest selling point lies in its subscription fees: there are none. Just sign-up, create a simple profile and you're literally free to browse one of the most popular dating sites in Canada today, with 250,000 to 320,000 users logging in daily. Other bonus features, unique to the online dating world, include behavioral matchmaking and the ability to block messages from whole groups of people. So, say goodbye to "HotPants", the 60-year-old husband and father of two with a seemingly tireless libido.
December 21st, 2009 - Best single-parent dating websites http://www.helium.com/items/533133-best-single-parent-dating-websites
The best dating site I have come across in general is called, plenty of fish you can access their homepage at www.POF.com. What makes this site unique is unlike some other sites this one is all about dating; it was created by a man that got feed up with paying for the old sites and still not meeting the right people. Of course dating sites are just like going out to meet someone, you want to find the right scene for you and plenty off fish lets you narrow down the people who can talk to you by letting you choose precise qualifications your potential match must meet. Plenty of fish is also very age friendly.
December 2009 - Mr. Lonely Hearts. How a computer nerd from nothern B.C. revolutionized online dating (and got filthy rich) without even trying.
http://tinyurl.com/VancouverMagazineArticleDec09
Markus Frind got up around 9 this morning - but hey, who’s keeping track? Things were quiet until the phone rang at 10: workers arranging to swing by his Coal Harbour Condo to see about the deck. While Frind waited for the tile guys, he did the following: „Surfed the seb,“ he recalls. „Looked at different things. Sat around. Had something to eat. Watched some TV.“ ...
November 27th, 2009 - Being a Twit makes you MORE social in the real world, you Twat
http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/stuartstobbs/2009/11/26/being-a-twit-makes-you-more-social-in-the-real-world-you-twat/
Then of course there’s internet dating. According to Nielsen Online, dating site Plenty Of Fish had a unique UK audience ranking of 543 000 in October. That’s a lot of people looking for love virtually. According to the site, over 18 000 000 dates will take place worldwide between its members, and their chief executive and founder, Markus Frind, says that 100 000 of those people will actually get married. I find it hard to believe that that is not an inflated figure to drive usage, however, it definitely gives some indication of how the virtual world is affecting the real one.
October 23th, 2009 - Truth About Ugly Websites…
http://www.articlemotron.com/Article/Truth-About-Ugly-Websites-/380422
I was struck by an example of just how effective ugly websites can be this past week as I was browsing through some web related news. I stumbled across the story of Plenty of Fish (http://www.POF.com/). This is a very plain looking website that offers a free online dating service much like Match.com (but without the subscription fee).
August 26th, 2009 - GET BACK (ONLINE EXCLUSIVE): Falling back into the dating world http://www.westender.com/articles/entry/get-back-online-exclusive-falling-back-into-the-dating-world/life-and-style/
“Once it starts getting a little bit colder, people stay indoors a lot more — and, of course, are on their computers — and would like to find someone to snuggle up and watch a movie with,” says Kate Bilenki, spokesperson for local dating website POF.com.
August 25th, 2009 - The Top Online Meat Markets
http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/25/popular-online-dating-entrepreneurs-technology-eharmony.html
POF.com--at No. 6, boasting 2.2 million viewers, nearly double the amount a year ago--offers its brokerage services for free and looks to turn a profit selling advertising. "We’ve been growing so fast, I don’t even know what normal is," says founder Markus Frind.
July 29th, 2009 - Marriage-Maker Claims Are Tied in Knots
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124879877347487253.html
And Markus Frind, chief executive and founder of Plenty of Fish, doesn't advertise about marriages, but says his site brings about 100,000 marriages a year, a figure based in part on "some study I found online."
June 27th, 2009 – Internet dating unplugged http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jun/27/internet-dating
I met many people who had good experiences and formed relationships with people they met online. Markus Frind, the CEO of Plentyoffish, a free dating website, says that one-third of users form a relationship, a third do not and a third give up.
April 23th, 2009 - Endless Possibilities for Online Dating http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1653127/endless_possibilities_for_online_dating.html?cat=41
Without Google, I likely wouldn't have found it, but with the search for "free dating sites" I found POF.com. It looks like an amateur site, but I was pleasantly surprised. You write your own profile, set your own filters, post your pics and start looking. The best part is it's 100 percent FREE. (Which, let's face it, is a huge relief during these tough times.) My first time on there in 2006 I ended up meeting a guy and dating him for five months (After two really terrible dates with two other guys I'd met on there.)
April 19th, 2009 - Love and money
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/spectrum/Love-and-money.5181723.jp
While 'marriage' and 'children' were always popular key words, during this period last year POF.com users mentioned the word 'job' in their profiles 5.5% of the time. This year, that number has risen to 7.7%.
April 1st, 2009 - 10 People Who Have Made A Fortune Online
http://www.articledashboard.com/Article/10-People-who-have-made-a-fortune-online/797924
So, number one is Markus Frind, the founder of the web site POF.com. POF.com is an online dating site, one of the busiest and the most popular web sites in the world. Markus Frind has built and currently maintains his web site himself. Upon his statements in Markus' blog POF.com has 30 million hits per day.
March 10th, 2009 - Don’t Fork Over Cash For A Love Match http://www2.nbc4i.com/cmh/news/local/article/dont_fork_over_cash_for_a_love_match/13691/
POF.com is one of the biggest free dating sites, recently hitting a million users in one day.
March 6th, 2009 - PlentyofFish Adds Pay Option for “Serious” Daters
http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/06/plentyoffish-adds-pay-option-for-serious-daters/
Online-dating site PlentyofFish announced plans to add a pay option aimed at customers who want to show that they’re serious about meeting someone.
February 15th, 2009 – What do B.C. people like to do with thein Sundays? http://www2.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=694b6be0-66cb-4bf6-9f52-d193618ccfe8
It's a 21st century fairy tale: Boy from Hudson's Hope starts a website as a hobby, website starts getting clicks, website earns boy $10 million a year in ad revenue. For Markus Frind, the 30-year-old CEO of dating site POF.com, Sundays are low-key, with lots of video games and hot tubbin' with girlfriend Annie Kanciar.
February 13th, 2009 – Dating 2.0: Looping for Love in All the Online Places http://www.networkworld.com/news/2009/021309-dating-20-looking-for-love.html
Though different people swear by certain online dating websites, the number one free online dating website in the U.S., U.K. and Canada is POF.com, run by CEO Markus Frind. Since its 2003 launch, the site has grown by word of mouth to more than 13 million page views each day. According to Frind, there's always a jump in site traffic between the day after Christmas through the Wednesday after Valentine's Day, as well as just before Thanksgiving. Singles tend to join the site around family-related holidays-anytime they're reminded of being single, Frind says.
February 13th, 2009 – Online dating: The technology behind the attraction http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9127711/Online_dating_The_technology_behind_the_attraction
In fact, POF, a free service, was the second-most-visited online dating site last year, behind Singlesnet, according to Hitwise, a Web site traffic monitoring service.
February 11th, 2009 – The Recession. Isn´t It Romantic? http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/fashion/12dating.html?_r=2&ref=fashion
“During recessions people stay at home more, they don’t want to pay and go to bars. They’re going online to meet each other,” said Markus Frind, the chief executive of Plentyoffish, a free site, where visits have increased 77 percent from December 2007 to December 2008, and 32 percent over the last three months.

February 6th, 2009 – Top 10 Usability Gems on POF.com
http://www.usabilitytesting.tv/articles/usability-testing/top-10-usability-gems-on-plentyoffish.com-/

I am a big POF fan. I even got the chance to say that to Marcus Frind in person at the last iDate conference. As a dating site user for about eight years -- and as someone who has created a few dating sites myself -- I can say that when it comes to usability and making a site sticky, PlentyOfFish is one of the best.

February 6th, 2009 – Why Pay Match.com When Dating's Free Sites Beckon? http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2009/tc2009025_287894.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_news+%2B+analysis

Debbie Slowey used to look for love on paid online dating site Match.com. Then she discovered POF.com, which provides similar services at no charge. "It was free, and there were more [people] to choose from," says Slowey, a 49-year-old Florida resident who got engaged to a chiropractor she met on PlentyofFish last summer. "If it's free, why would I go to Match?"
February 5th, 2009 - Multitaskers Say One Online Dating Site Won't Do http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=6812829
Markus Frind, CEO of the free dating site POF.com, estimates 15 percent of the people in the United States who are active on his site are members of other, paid dating sites. About 900,000 people in the North America and the United Kingdom log on each day.
January 29th, 2009 - Cheapos unite, in digital love
http://ctv.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090129.wonline29/tech/Technology/techBN/ctv-technology
Likewise, Vancouver-based dating site Plenty of Fish enjoyed a 77-per-cent growth in visits from December, 2007, through December, 2008. About 900,000 people now log in daily.
January 29th, 2009 – Cheapos unite, in digital love
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/article969151.ece
Dating sites take care of the formalities: Plenty of Fish, for example, forces aspiring members to list their marital status, disclose whether they want children and how many times they booze it up in a week, and finally to elucidate "what makes you unique."
January 19th, 2009 – Too lazy to do it?
http://www.working.com/resources/story.html?id=071f3b22-a2ea-408e-b9be-f549d17258bb
One of the success stories that has already made it onto the site is that of Markus Frind of POF.com, a 30-year-old Vancouverite who launched a completely free dating website five years ago and now collects ad revenues of $10 million a year.
January 1st, 2009 – And the Money Dones Rolling In
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090101/and-the-money-comes-rolling-in.html
Markus Frind works one hour a day and brings in $10 million a year. How does he do it? He keeps things simple.
December 24th, 2008 – Fishing for that perfect partner on the web http://www.canada.com/northshorenews/news/home/story.html?id=dc89ab65-7bf0-4c26-8906-011f224faf89
Developed in B.C., it is a North American phenomenon. There are other sites that offer competition, but none of the main contenders offer what Plenty of Fish offers. Where sites like e-harmony advertise on TV and the web, they are pay to play sites; some or all candidates pay a fee to join. Plenty of Fish is absolutely free.
November 5th, 2008 – Microsoft BizSpark Supports Software
http://www.newsfactor.com/news/MS-BizSpark-Supports-Entrepreneurs/story.xhtml?story_id=0110013HKIJ3&full_skip=1
One entrepreneur, Markus Frind, featured on BizSpark DB, said not taking advantage of the program is "stupid" because the software is free and the program can dramatically decrease business costs. Frind runs the Canadian-based company POF.com, a free online dating Web site.
October 27th, 2008 – REUTEMAN: Lessons in e-commerce
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/27/reuteman-lessons-in-e-commerce/
Barton pointed to a free online dating site - POF.com - "that is taking over the dating world because it's free," he said. Match.com, eharmony.com and other online dating sites charge handsomely for the same thing.
May 25th, 2008 – Canadians are lucky in love: survey
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=4efbf765-2e9b-4124-9a38-86a395c7e3b2
The poll also found that 16 per cent of Canadians had found love online, with the younger demographic having more success -- more than a quarter of respondents aged 18 to 34 had been successful in seeking a mate via the web. Only seven per cent of those aged 55 and older had started a relationship online, either by way of e-mail or the Internet. But Markus Frind, founder of online dating site POF.com, says the average age of his members is 37.
March 9th, 2008 – The new Internet millionaires
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/politics/story.html?id=6ea70f26-747a-45b2-a111-671de5b398d8&k=44884
He works two hours a day and makes as much as $10 million a year. That's why Markus Frind is already considered a dot-com legend at the ripe old age of 29. Frind is the sole owner of POF.com, one of the most popular online dating sites in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
February 13th, 2008 – Starting Up: The Business of Love
http://www.smsmallbiz.com/marketing/The_Business_of_Love.html
That's what accidental entrepreneur Markus Frind found when he launched his free dating site, POF.com, in 2003 from his home in Vancouver, B.C. The site, which began as a side project for the full-time web developer, "grew by a few thousand people within the first few months," he says. After signing up with Google's AdSense to host ads on the site, he reaped more than 1,000 Canadian dollars in the first month. A year later, as love-hungry users flocked to his site, that monthly figure jumped to more than 41,000 dollars.
February 12th, 2008 - Online Dating Boom
http://www.canada.com/topics/lifestyle/relationships/story.html?id=e2bb07f6-6212-4bd5-8f9d-12717325f560
It's this idea of control that is the source of success for online dating sites, such as the Vancouver-based Plenty of Fish website. Users create profiles for themselves and many upload pictures to screen potential partners. The site, started in 2003 by 29-year-old Markus Frind, is virtually a dating haven for millions of people around the world. According to Frind, the site rakes in a net profit of $10 million a year in advertising. He says Ontario is one of the biggest hot spots for Plenty of Fish users, and he claims to be the No. 1 free site in Canada and the U.K.
January 13th, 2008 - The New York Times - From 10 Hours a Week, $10 Million a Year
New York Times Article
Markus Frind, a 29-year-old Web entrepreneur, developed software for his dating site, PlentyofFish, that operates almost completely on autopilot, leaving Mr. Frind plenty of free time. On average, he puts in about a 10-hour workweek. Mr. Frind operates the business out of his apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia, and has net profits of about $10 million a year.
January 3rd, 2008 - The Seattle Times - It's Hunting Season... For Love
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2004104558_datingspike03.html
January is the busiest and most profitable month for online dating services. People start to re-evaluate their lives and they all set their New Year's resolutions to find someone," said Markus Frind, founder of POF.com. POF.com, with 10,000 members in Washington state, projects a 30 % spike in traffic this month.
January 3rd, 2008 - Guardian.co.uk - The Big Switch May Turn Off Jobs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/03/computing.internet
Over the past few decades, we've seen a growth of riches in a small slice of the population. Remarkable is PlentyOfFish, an online dating service. Launched in Canada in 2003, the site experienced explosive growth. By late 2006, some 300,000 people were logging on to the service every day, and they were looking at about 600m pages a month. Only one person, Markus Frind, did this booming business employ.
August 11th, 2007 - The New York Times - Easy Money Isn’t That Easy
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/business/11online.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Mr. Kawasaki said his “hero” is Markus Frind, founder of POF.com, a free dating site. “And by the way, he makes $5 million, $6 million a year with Google ads.”
August 3rd, 2007 - Arcast.tv - PlentyofFish: How One Man Beat The Big Guys
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=331501
Ron Jacobs of ARCast TV, a production of the Microsoft Architecture Strategy Team, traveled to Vancouver, British Columbia to interview Markus Frind, the founder of and one-man show behind PlentyofFish.
July 28th, 2007 - National Post - Kingdom Of The Online Cupids
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=0e18c4f6-9880-4e0e-9349-64424e372b70&k=30784
The Canadian dating site making the biggest splash at the moment is POF.com.
July 20th, 2007 - Making Money Making Dates
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id=61afd33c-cff9-4770-9c13-98ee55ca170d&k=27530
POF.com runs itself. A free service, which was the 82nd most-visited site in the United States last month, according to Hitwise. It ranks third in U.S., ahead of Match.com and eHarmony.
July 6th, 2007 - Chicago Tribune - Plenty Of Fish; Plenty Of Cash
Markus Frind, the 29-year old founder of Plenty of Fish, posted a check recently showing the site earned nearly $1 million from Google AdSense in a 2-month period. He gave it to all his employees. Markus is also the only employee. The site recently jumped into the top 100 among all US Websites. Markus says he's been ignored the last 4 years because of ethnocentricity towards US sites.
June 19th, 2007 - The Today Show
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=49ee9d34-d815-44d9-a1e7-ee36ed196403
Markus Frind, CEO of PlentyofFish is on The Today Show this morning. One man, one (simple) site, #1 in Canada, #1 in U.K. (for heterosexual dating) and #4 in U.S.A.
May 31st, 2007 - Newsweek - Finding a Cheap Date
http://www.newsweek.com/id/34317
The wave of the future, perhaps: free internet dating. POF.com, a free dating site that was launched in 2003, now brings in 200k U.S users a day - and $5 million to $10 million in advertising a year according to Markus Frind, who runs the site by himself. "I think all the paid sites are going to go away, he says" Even Match.com is offering discounts to subscribers: six months free, if you don't find Prince (or Princess) Charming in the first six months. While the online dating industry has been enormously successful so far.
May 23rd, 2007 - The Wall Street Journal - PlentyOfFish Owner Has the Perfect Bait For a Huge Success
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117987775136211487.html?
The headquarters of what may be, on a per-capita basis, the busiest, most profitable site on the entire World Wide Web is on the 16th floor of a brand-new Vancouver building with panoramic views of the nearby Canadian Rockies. It happens to be the apartment of 28-year-old Markus Frind, the owner and sole employee of POF.com, a free online dating site and a model for the next generation of Web entrepreneurship.
April 12th, 2007 – Channel 9 - Interview with Markus Frind, founder of PlentyofFish.
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=300230#300230
The site ran 2 million page views per hour at peak on April 11th, 40-50k concurrent users, on one IIS 6 server at 65% capacity.
February 22nd, 2007 - Daily Press - Playing With Matches
http://www.dailypress.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=8301
I'd like to see a law pass endorsing arranged marriages. In the meantime, I'll study the personal ads, from which to glean my recommendations. Here's an exception: according to its ad, POF.com is a hundred percent, "put away your credit card" free. Hopefuls upload a photo and post a witty blurb describing themselves, then cross their fingers and wait. Some report amazing success. One discovered her true love lived two streets down though they'd never met.
February 21st, 2007 - Sun Sentinel - Billionaire? Biker? Find Your Match
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/sfl-livdaysitesfeb13,1,2373533.story
Those looking to play the field without spending much cash should check out POF.com. In addition to claiming to generate "300,000 relationships a year," the site does not charge visitors for its
February 14th, 2007 - San Francisco Chronicle - Tech's Younger Generation Leans on Web 2.0 for Love
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/14/MNGEVO4DOV1.DTL
While it may be tough for the middle-aged of Silicon Valley to find a perfect partner, it's never been easier for the young and the restless in the high-tech industry to make a love connection. A growing trove of Web sites enable search for those who share feelings and fetishes. Check out the free online dating site POF.com.
February 8th, 2007 - Fox News - PlentyofFish on Fox News
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=2312909&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.2.1
Online dating is 10 years old. But the days of paying to find a match may be a thing of the past if you believe one couple who met online and started their own dating service.
January 19th, 2007 - Time - Internet Dating 2.0
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1580609,00.html
At iDate 2007, vendors demonstrate ways to meet, court, virtual date and even marry without ever leaving home. ...Plenty of Fish, with 400,000 hits a day, was created by Markus Frind, who still runs it out of his apartment. He figured out people essentially exaggerate on profile answers. He follows a more sensible creed: actions speak louder than words. For example, Susie says she wants a solid, stable man who earns $100,000-plus but keeps clicking on profiles of muscle-bound bad boys. Plenty of Fish makes sure she meets plenty of underemployed weightlifters, and some of the stable ones she ignores. "People don't even realize we do this. They just know they are getting results," said Frind.
November 20th, 2006 - Vancouver Sun - Dating Service Connects with U.S. Marshals
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=666f9a75-6c52-4862-a746-00529b392eaa&k=83847
Frind -- who operates PlentyofFish from his downtown Vancouver apartment -- said he got an e-mail from the U.S. Marshals Service at 8:16 p.m. Saturday. Someone watching Americas Most Wanted had called to tell them they saw Bennett's picture on PlentyofFish. Frind combed through the messages Bennett had sent to other users which showed that Bennett had been sending messages to various women as he travelled north from Arkansas. One woman had agreed to let Bennett stay at her place. Frind checked that woman's profile and realized that both Bennett and the woman had recently logged into PlentyofFish using the same IP address -- meaning they were visiting his site using the same computer. Frind was able to give police the phone numbers of other people she had contacted. Frind spoke with U.S. marshals on Sunday, following Bennett's arrest, and they thanked him for his help. "They told me it was vital information," he said. "Basically they had no idea where he was until I gave them all the numbers and the information." Frind is not worried about the bad publicity Bennett's case may attract. "When you're dealing with millions of people, it's bound to happen," he said. "It's like getting struck by lightning." He said nothing like this has happened on the site before. Frind was never served with a search warrant and voluntarily looked through Bennett and his girlfriend's message traffic. He said he wouldn't hesitate to look at a user's private messages again "if a crime has been committed or someone is in danger." See discussion at PlentyofFish Forums - http://forums.plentyoffish.com/datingPosts5895133.aspx
October 18th, 2006 - Global National Canadian News - Plenty of Fish Out There
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3kZlXq2xYE&mode=related&search=
Last year 12% of newlyweds in the U.S. met through the Internet. So we can assume a similar number of Canadians did. Clearly there are plenty of fish available out there and tonight we're profiling one of the biggest nets that catches them. She was HorseLady3, a small town B.C. girl. He was HappyDaddy, a Vancouver chef whose search for love took him on the Internet. "I needed an escape because the separation from my marriage was kind of hard." It wasn't long before the two found each other. "We hit it off and we haven't looked back since." Markus Frind is the Vancouver web guru who just happens to be one of the world's biggest matchmakers. His site, POF.com brought together HorseLady3 and HappyDaddy and thousands of other couples and he runs it all from his tiny Vancouver office. "I am the largest website run by one person. I'm doing about 600 million pages a month." His website is part of a new wave of companies making money on content generated not by them, but by users. The biggest example is YouTube, the online video site that Google recently bought for $1.65 billion. Like YouTube, Frind's site is free to use and is bringing in a heap of cash. [Google Adsense] ads make him more then $10,000 a day. "The tellers always look at me real funny. They're like are you some kind of criminal? Why do you come in with a $900,000 check? I suppose if I went paid, this site could make hundreds of millions but it just wouldn't be fun anymore and I would have to hire people and I don't know, I just like what I'm doing right now."
October 1st, 2006 - Tricity News - Canada: Online Dating Convenience
With work and kids and soccer practices and doctor appointments, how and when do people find the time to connect with one another? It's hard and that's why internet dating sites such as plentyoffish are so popular with singles of all ages. "The internet dating thing is huge - it's almost like a candy store!" a user exclaims, noting she could converse with - even date - several men at once.
June 28th, 2006 - San Francisco Chronicle - Tech Leaders Gather in San Francisco
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/23/SUPERNOVA.TMP
Supernova2006 was produced in concert with the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of business. It brings together such luminaries as Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun and Craig Newmark, of Craigslist. "There's a frenzy of startups," said Markus Frind, founder of POF.com, a free one-man online dating service in Vancouver, British Columbia. "How many news readers do you need, or calendars?" he asked, referring to online products that many companies have bet their businesses on. Frind's online dating service faces its own array of competition. But he insisted that he is making a profit from online advertising -- as proof, he has posted the image of a $900,000 check from Google on his blog -- and declared "I'm probably the only company here making money."
February 13th, 2006 - CNN - The Mythology of 21st-century Dating
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/02/09/online.dating/
According to Jupiter Research, more than 17 million people viewed online personals last year, and about 2.5 million paid for them. (It's usually free to browse; the money kicks in when you want to connect with someone.) There are several major sites to choose from, including the aptly named POF.com.
Blogs on PlentyOfFish
January 23th, 2010 - Plentyoffish vs Match vs eHarmony vs TRUE http://www.onlinepersonalswatch.com/news/2010/01/plentyoffish-vs-match-vs-eharmony-vs-true.html
Real Simple magazine ranked four of the most popular internet dating sites. POF is huge and free but has distorted images. Match is simple to navigate, allows keyword search, and has smartphone apps but has poor screening techniques. TRUE offers background checks but has tacky ads. eHarmony does the matching for members but is more expensive.
January 08th, 2010 - POF.com CEO Frind Says Selling Your Site’s Data Will Reduce Your Site’s CPMs http://www.adexchanger.com/publishers/plentyoffish-ceo-frind-says-selling-your-sites-data-will-reduce-your-sites-cpms/
Markus Frind is CEO of POF.com, an online dating site. AdExchanger.com: What are your thoughts about display advertising these days? Does it work? Everyone is using the wrong metrics these days. What does CPM really mean in terms of business? I think a far better metric that we use is monetization per pixel. If a 728*90 ad has the same CTR and CPM as a ad a fraction of the size why would you ever use bigger ad formats?
November 11th, 2009 - Vegetarian Singles vs. BBQ Singles
http://onlinedatingparadox.com/2009/11/vegetarian-singles-vs-bbq-singles.html
So there I was poking around my favorite free online dating site, POF.com, when I stumble upon a little known component of the Plenty of Fish dating site.
March 11th, 2009 - Online Dating Profile Word Clouds
http://onlinedatingparadox.com/2009/03/online-dating-profile-word-clouds.html
Using this concept, I decided to conduct my own little experiment using the profiles on the Plenty of Fish dating site, specifically the "Interests" section of the profile.
January 27th, 2009 – Have a Dating Site? Sel lit to Plentyoffish
http://mashable.com/2009/01/27/plentyoffish-paid-dating/
Despite increasing market share, Markus Frind, the one-man workforce behind the free and extremely popular POF dating site, is looking to create a few waves in his current business model.
January 7th, 2009 – Free Dating Sites Give Paid Sites A Run For Thein Money
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/07/free-dating-sites-give-paid-sites-a-run-for-their-money/
The somewhat counterintuitive move is IAC/Match.com’s answer to POF.comYour browser may not support display of this image. , a popular free dating site that was long run by one manYour browser may not support display of this image. out of his apartment (he now has an office and a small team).
December 20th, 2008 – Plentyoffish Not in Langer of Over Fishing, Increases Market Share http://mashable.com/2008/12/20/plentyoffish/
POF.com, the Canada-based dating site that boasts over 900,000 active daily members and one solo developer, is actually gaining market share and distancing itself from seasoned competitors with full staffs and fancy websites like Match.com and eHarmony.
February 8th, 2008 – The Power Of One http://marygardner.blogspot.com/2008/02/power-of-one.html
One such person was a guy by the name of Markus Frind. Markus is a regular kind of guy who looks really smart and wears really cool glasses but when I saw his company name, I nearly got weak at the knees. I started jumping up and down and screaming like I was meeting a rock star. And to me, I was!!! My husband had just recently read an article about Markus who is the owner and founder of the number 1 dating website in the world called POF.com Before I stopped screaming and jumping up and down I quickly called my husband and asked him the name of the website we were reading about recently. When he announced it was POF.com, I promptly handed the phone over to him and introduced the two programmers to one another.
December 16th, 2007 - CaryNC - Business in Cary NC, Durham NC, Chapel Hill NC, and Raleigh NC business- Plenty of fish raked in plenty of sales
propeller
POF is a social network, and these web 2.0 extravaganzas top the charts as some of the most vitiated sites in the world. Some examples of popular social networks include MySpace, Face book, Orkut (owned by Google), Friendster, Yahoo 360 (owned by you guess it Yahoo!), and Hi5. What I thought was very interesting about Mr. Frind’s network is that he was competing in an established and also a very very very competitive market. However, he innovated and added a rare flare that wasn’t found, and that is simple, he made it FREE.
December 7th, 2007 - The Tech Talk Blog - Guy Kawasaki interviews the guys who don’t need no stinkin’ venture capital
http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/takahashi/2007/12/07/guy-kawasaki-interviews-the-guys-who-dont-need-no-stinkin-venture-capital/
Kawasaki rounded up four people who were at the right place with the right idea at the right time. By making money with virtually solo operations, they are the lucky ones who make it look so easy.
December 6th, 2007 - Welcome to Wally World - PofF 8/10
http://www.welcometowallyworld.com/plentyoffish-mate-or-date/2007/12/6/plentyoffish-makes-top-ten-us-sites.html
This is incredible! Look at this. PlentyofFish has beaten MSN and Facebook on the Compete.com Top Ten U.S websites ranking (based on the parameters below - not just traffic). Not just that - look at the other sites on this list - Pogo - a games site, followed by two gay date sites (ha ha) and a site dedicated to scribblers. And the avatar playground for kids GaiaonLine is performing well too. Markus Frind has this to say about his site's listing.
October 30th, 2007 - X2iN | Digital Knowledge Mashup - Plenty-of-Fish owner has the perfect bay for huge success
http://x2in.blogspot.com/2007/10/plenty-of-fish-owner-has-perfect-bay.html
PlentyOfFish is the success that it is because of several converging Web trends. Servers and server software have become simple and reliable enough that they can run on their own, without a lot of babysitting. What's more, a remarkably sophisticated economic infrastructure now exists that allows busy Web sites to make lots of money, certainly enough for one person to live very well.
October 29th, 2007 - Read Write Web - Plentyoffish: 1-Man Company May Be Worth $1Billion
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/plentyoffish_one_billion.php
I caught up with Markus today via email and asked how the business is doing now. He didn't want to get specific about earnings, but he said that POF will earn $10 Million + next year (which puts it at around $30k per day).
September 27th, 2007 - Connected Internet - POF.com - One Man + One Language + Three Servers = Multi-Millionaire
http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2007/09/27/plentyoffishcom-one-man-one-language-three-servers-multi-millionaire/
While much larger pay sites, such as Match.com or Eharmony.com are setting up hundreds of servers, paying hundreds of staff and forcing people to pay at minimum $30.00/month, POF.com has done all of this for FREE, with no staff and a lot of help from Google Adsense. Truly a prime example of success in this Web 2.0 world.
September 13th, 2007 - DoshDosh - Learn From an Adsense Millionaire: Notes on Markus Frind and POF.com
http://www.doshdosh.com/learn-from-adsense-millionaire-markus-frind/
17 Tips on Building a Lucrative Online Business or Website - The quoted text is extracted from some of Markus’s blog posts as well as interviews over the past few years. All of the specific references are left at the bottom of the post and do visit them to read more, if you’re interested.
August 15th, 2007 - Blognation - Chatting with Markus Frind of Plenty of Fish
http://ca.blognation.com/2007/08/15/chatting-with-markus-frind-of-plenty-of-fish/
He strikes me as the kind of “normal guy” who is just very humble about what he’s done. What has he done? He launched POF in 2003. Today it earns north of $5 million a year, 600-700k relationships started (including my current one … I’m not just a blogger I (was) a client!) and it’s all still run out of his spare bedroom.
June 11th, 2007 - Common Craft - Plenty of Fish and Dating Site Disruption
http://www.commoncraft.com/plenty-fish-and-dating-site-disruption
These days, 20+ employees and millions of capital can be more of an impediment than an advantage - especially if you count the happiness factor. I count Markus as one the few who are showing us the business models of the future.
May 23rd, 2007 - MapleLeaf 2.0 - Some WSJ Love for PlentyofFish
http://www.mapleleaftwo.com/some-wsj-love-for-plentyoffish/
PlentyofFish is another one of those quiet Canadian online success stories - perhaps because its owner, Markus Frind, is far from a PR-seeking machine and perhaps because it’s a business focused on the quasi-shady world of online dating.
March 22nd, 2006 - Web Publishing Blog - How to make $300,000 a month from free online dating
http://www.webpublishingblog.com/how-to-make-300000-a-month-from-free-online-dating.htm
As humans one of our biggest weaknesses is becoming obsessed with what is not important. We spend 90% of our time on that little 5% — and that is why so many of us fail. PlentyofFish is an example of what happens when someone understands that its not the fancy design that brings in visitors, its something else. He understands that search engine traffic is important, but its even more important to have visitors that come back to your site again and again.
February 21st, 2007 - Online Personals Watch - Community Next Notes
http://onlinepersonalswatch.typepad.com/news/2007/02/community_next_.html
On Saturday 10th February I attended Community Next ( communitynext.com) in Silicon Valley. From the final panel: PlentyofFish contrasted executive opinion on the final panel on two points. Markus believes that advertising is actually very important in building an online community. Other speakers (HororNot, Fark, Hi5, Slide, Suicide Girls) did not. Markus stated that 'passion' is not as important as 'cold hard analytics skills.' Other speakers believed that passion for the site was their primary success factor.
February 7th, 2007 - Tech Crunch - PlentyofFish Inspires Jobster to Attack the Monster
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/02/07/jobster-gets-serious-about-killing-monstercom/
Jobster, which has raised nearly $50 million in venture capital, is making a dramatic business model shift starting tonight, by making all job listings free (and much more). Their goal is to do what PlentyOfFish is doing to Match.com.
December 28th, 2006 - Compete.com blog - The Real Top Dating Sites
http://blog.compete.com/2006/12/28/top-online-dating-sites-yahoo-personals-true-match-plenty-of-fish/
Ranking online dating sites purely on visitor traffic is flawed; membership is a prerequisite to use the services, and member activity is the foundation of successful matchmaking. Member visits reveal actual engagement. POF.com showed that free services can be successful; 9th in terms of visitors, the site leapt to 5th in member interaction. More importantly, it was one of 5 sites with more than 10 million member visits, putting it in a class with much higher trafficked sites and besting its next competitor by a multiple of 2x.
November 20th, 2006 - Online Personals Watch - Markus Nails One of America's Most Wanted
http://onlinepersonalswatch.typepad.com/news/2006/11/markus_nails_on.html
Markus happened to stay in Saturday night and caught the email from the US Marshals and was able to quickly turn it around. What might have taken hours at some dating sites, took minutes...and the bad guy got nailed. Nice! Well done Markus.
October 19th, 2006 - Mapping the Web - One Man Army
http://www.mappingtheweb.com/2006/10/19/one-man-army/
Markus Frind is a one-man wrecking machine. He has single-handedly disrupted the world of online dating with a super-easy-to-use, free dating site - PlentyOfFish. PlentyOfFish averages 20 million page views per day or 600 million per month. With Google Adsense running on the site, Frind averages approximately $10,000 a day in revenue from ads alone. Markus lives in Burnaby (a suburb of Vancouver), is in his late 20s and enjoying life. He has no intention of maximizing his ad dollars as he is comfortable where he stands.
October 19th, 2006 - Maple Leaf 2.0 - Plenty of Fish, Plenty of Money
http://mapleleaftwo.com/plenty-of-fish-plenty-of-money/
Markus Frind may be Canada's most successful Internet entrepreneur, although he doesn't have a huge profile or an appetite to build one. He runs POF.com, one of the world's most success online dating services.
September 25th, 2006 - John Chow Dot Com - The Internet's Biggest Google Whores
http://www.johnchow.com/index.php/the-internets-biggest-google-whores/
The following is a list of the Internet's eight biggest Google AdSense publishers. This is a list of individual site owners. Big corporate AdSense publishers like AOL are excluded.
#1: Markus Frind: POF.com
POF.com is the biggest free dating site on the Internet
September 17th, 2006 - Matthew Ingram - Keyword searches as economic indicator
http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/09/17/keyword-searches-as-economic-indicator/
Markus Frind, the founder and sole proprietor of the massively successful online dating site Plenty of Fish, has an interesting theory in one of his recent posts. The post is mostly about how Markus's site ranks compared to other international dating sites (answer: number three), but the interesting part for me was right at the end, where Markus says that searches for info on new homes correlates extremely well with real economic data such as housing stats. I think he is on the right track, and that search data will become (is becoming) an ever more important indicator of consumer behaviour, or potential behaviour.
August 30th, 2006 - Matthew Ingram - Want to date a math genius?
http://www.mathewingram.com/work/2006/08/30/want-to-date-a-math-genius/
How many CEOs of online dating networks can you name who have done advanced math research that led to someone getting the Field's Medal — often called the Nobel Prize of mathematics? I can think of one: my friend Markus Frind, the guy behind POF.com, one of the top dating sites in the world. Markus recently posted a description of how he came up with an algorithm that isolated 23 prime numbers in succession for the first time, and how that research was in turn cited by Terence Tao in a paper he did on prime numbers, a paper that helped contribute to him winning the Fields Medal.
June 30th, 2006 - Online Personals Watch - Interview with Plentyoffish CEO, Markus Frind
http://onlinepersonalswatch.typepad.com/news/2006/06/opw_interview_p.html
Mark Brooks: Plentyoffish is free and has snuck up on the Canadian market and has now established itself in the American market. It's #5 on the Hitwise USA rankings for May 2006, no less.
Markus Frind: Plentyoffish is driven by the community. There are one million people who have moderating powers in the Plentyoffish forum and several thousand people attending parties all over the country every week. And it's all organized and done by users. So unlike the paid sites, Plentyoffish is run by the users.
What you say you want and what you actually want are two different things. It hardly ever corresponds on a dating site. So I just track a user and see what they're actually doing on the site and then show them matches based on their actual surfing preferences. My site is deceptively simple but no one knows just how complex it is under the surface.
June 15th, 2006 - WorkHappy - Interview with Markus Frind
http://www.workhappy.net/2006/06/interview_with_.html
Markus Frind rocked the Internet world this week when he posted a photo of his latest Google AdSense check for nearly $1 million CAD.
Markus Frind: I created the first real free dating and the first one that actually worked. Just like Google created the first real search engine that worked.
June 10th, 2006 - Read/Write Web
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/plenty_of_cash.php
Markus Frind claims he's earning $10,000 per day from Google Adsense from his dating website, POF.com. External data sources do seem to back him up. Markus is basically a one-man band running a website that, by his latest traffic figures, is two and a half times bigger than digg.com. Digg.com gets 200 Million page views per month, but Markus says plentyoffish gets 500 Million: "It is around 2 hours of work a day and that stays steady because as the site grows I automate more and more. Some of that work I get my girlfriend to help me with, she is far more diplomatic when answering mean emails. From what I can tell i should have no problem running it by myself even if it gets to 3 times its current size."
On the hardware side, Markus gave me these details: "I have 4 servers.
1. DB server
2. Web server, handles 1 million pageviews an hour at peak. No static pages at all, way to slow. All pages are Gzipped on the fly.
3. Mail Server. Handles 1 million emails/day and also has a web server that handles a Instant messenger. That translates to 4-5 million polling pageviews/hour at peak.
4. Image server, Like all major sites it serves images to a massive content distribution system/cache.
5. Outbound traffic is 70 to 100mb/sec If it was uncompressed it would probably run at 140mb/sec"
March 24th, 2006 - Web Publishing Blog - Interview with POF.com Creator
http://www.webpublishingblog.com/index.php?s=markus+frind
Use function over form to build an emotional connection with users. Blend ads into content, No flashing crap, make the site useful. Basically all those things that everyone knows you are supposed to do, but very few people actually do. There is no magic bullet, but you should always test new designs or new text to get the result that you want.
For the most part the [online dating] industry wants to ignore the fact i exist and they are just hoping that I will go away, so they don't have to explain to investors why profits are vanishing. I think in the future paid dating will account for 5% to 20% of the overall online dating market. Currently 68% of my membership in the United states has paid for a dating site in the past, draw what conclusions you will.
March 4th, 2006 - Scobleizer -
http://scobleizer.com/2006/03/04/the-role-of-anti-marketing-design
At the Northern Voice conference I met Markus Frind, founder of POF.com. He's Google's #1 Adsense user in Canada. His site is pulling in more than $10,000 per day from Google, he told me, and has millions of passionate users. Tens of millions of page views EVERY DAY. What's the secret to his success? Ugly design. I call it "anti-marketing design." He says that sites that have ugly designs are well known to pull more revenue. Google. Is it pretty? No. Craig's List? Pretty? No. MySpace? Pretty? No.

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