is a free
Online Dating Service . It was started in Vancouver, Canada, in 2003 and is now the third most popular dating site in North America, according to Hitwise. The founder and sole operator, 29-year-old Markus Frind, runs the site from his West Vancouver apartment. The site pulls in more than $5 million a year from
Google Advertising .
2
Markus Frind, CEO and Founder of PlentyofFish, graduated in 1999 from British Columbia Technical Institute with a diploma in Computer Science.
3 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 optimizer where he found and fixed errors. In 2003, he had to learn ASP.NET and built himself a dating site to learn the language hands-on. The free dating site, which runs completely on Microsoft software, quickly grew in Canada and then spread, via word of mouth, to the U.K., Australia, and the United States.
4 In 2004, PlentyofFish became a full-time business for Markus.
5
Members can add photographs, if they choose. 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.
6
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.
- Active users: 500,000 logins per day
- Dating site ranking in the U.S.: 2 (Hitwise, July 2007)7
- Dating site ranking in the U.K.: 2 (Hitwise, June 2007)
- Dating site ranking in Canada: 1 (Comscore, July 2007)
- U.S. overall site ranking: 82 (Hitwise, June 2007)8
- Number of page views a day: 30+ million (August 2007)
- Google AdSense earner ranking: 1 (May 2007)9
