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Online Dating Magazine Interview with Michael Jones About the Evolution of Online Dating

Founder and CEO of Userplane, Michael Jones oversees the company’s business strategy and company operations. As Userplane’s application suite has matured, Jones has successfully positioned Userplane as a leading provider of web-community applications in the social software space. Jones frequently represents Userplane at conferences and currently holds the position of President of IdeaOasis, a social networking and online dating industry association. Jones is also an advisor and analyst to Kolabora.com, a website dedicated to exploring collaborative software.

Prior to founding Userplane, Jones was founder and CEO of PBJ Digital, a national web development agency, with clients ranging from Disney to Boeing. A frequent speaker at industry-related events, Jones presented the keynote address at the 2003 Online Flash Film Festival conference in Barcelona Spain, and has been a featured guest at several dating conventions and expos. Additionally, Jones has been published in numerous internet journals, including iMediaConnection.com. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business and Marketing from the University of Oregon.

Online Dating Magazine publisher Joe Tracy recently caught up with Jones to get his thoughts on the evolution of the online dating industry.

ODM: Hi Michael and thank you for sharing your time with our readers. In what ways has the online dating industry changed or evolved in the last 2-3 years?

Michael Jones: We have definitely seen the rise of niche dating sites, and more recently, specialized communities. The niche sites have actually provided strong value to users by aggregating those with similar interests into somewhat of a “smaller” space; thus promoting better, more relevant connections.

In addition, we are seeing more distributed online dating in which users are connected through personal spaces like blogs, personal homepages and open profile pages. This allows a search engine to become the dating aggregator.

ODM: So if more people are using blogs, personal pages, and open profile pages, where does that leave online dating services? How can they address this growing segment?

Michael Jones: I'm not sure yet. I think a lot of people are looking for the answer to that question. My guess is it won’t displace current online dating or niche sites. It just creates an opportunity for an open user profile system that could be used for dating. So I would say it’s no immediate threat.

ODM: One of the biggest complaints from males is that there aren’t enough females on many of the online dating services. In an April 2004 guest editorial you wrote for us, you stated that sites should give away more free lifetime memberships to women in order to help balance the ratio numbers. Is this still your recommendation? What other ways can dating services attract females?

Michael Jones: As services become more safe and reputable, the general population, including females, will become more accepting of online dating. The issue facing online dating, and many other online businesses, is the increase of fraudulent and non-reputable online services. The more "tricks" used to deceive or entice users into systems, the more weary people become, and the more the entire industry suffers. Fortunately, many trusted sites committed to online dating for the long-term are taking professional approaches to the customer relationship. These players will be the leaders in building more credibility within the industry.

ODM: I fully agree with you on the tricks. They build mistrust among users. Which tricks do you specifically see as most deceiving?

Michael Jones: Accurate user representation is often one of the most deceiving. It's not only the sites with fake profile creations, but also those featuring fake, highly attractive members on their homepage that can both drive traffic or be a barrier to entry for some users. Thankfully, I’m not an expert in online dating tricks, but we often do come across sites using unethical billing practices, no easy cancellation procedures, and sites that pose as dating sites only to be a front for adult activities or illegal activities. These do quite a bit of damage. Luckily, as our industry grows, we are seeing less and less of this issue.

ODM: In your guest editorial you also wrote, “My sincere hope is that in the near future, dating sites will be judged not by a few pretty faces, but by their ability to provide unique, interactive online experiences – experiences unmatched by any alternative medium, online or off.” Would you say this has happened? If not, why?

Michael Jones: Since visual search is still the key component in most dating sites, I would have to say no. Although, with the use of new matching tools, such as “tagging” and psychological profiles, I think it's getting better.

ODM: Converting users is vital and in your guest editorial you gave some good examples for conversions. Retaining a converted customer is also vital. What are your thoughts on keeping a person using (or coming back to) a service after they’ve become a member?

Michael Jones: I have not seen many sites using tiered membership structures, which many other businesses have found successful. We setup our applications to allow tiered features, with quick upsell opportunities for desired features. Most dating sites still seem to have a single cost offering, which is limiting.

Conversion and user retention is an ongoing issue with online dating, especially for sites that aim to build long term relationships, resulting in the loss of paying members. There are a few sites that focus on "long term relationship" needs, but most are currently ignoring this market opportunity. We often recommend that sites with retention problems take a look at how they handle user profile exposure and search, and even recommend they use our Sitesearch product. Search, being the key to many sites, is often overlooked, and long-time members lose exposure and interest over time while search primarily features new users. In our experience, having a system that keeps both older and newer users "in-the-loop" helps with member retention.

ODM: As you know there are about three to four online dating services that have dominated the top spots for years. It seems an impossible bubble to break into. What does an online dating service have to do to reach that level and become part of that bubble?

Michael Jones: Hopefully it is not really a bubble and just a sustainable marketplace! I don't believe you have to be on the same scale as those large players to be successful in the online dating industry. A small team of 10-20 staffers can build a solid online community with strong revenue. If you're shooting to become one of the mega-brands in the online space, I believe you need, aside from a major marketing budget, a very innovative approach to community that will solve some specific problems that even the large communities face. There are definitely ways to compete with the large sites of scale, but in looking over the past 10 years there have been very few mega-internet brands built. I would love to talk to anyone tackling that challenge to see how we can help!

ODM: What are some of those specific problems that the large communities face?

Michael Jones: That's the multi-million dollar question. All major systems have weaknesses. Marketing and innovation are often a part of that weakness. If you talk to members of any large dating or social networking site, they will undoubtedly tell you what they dislike about it. A business associate that competes with a major online brand once told me, “I don’t worry about competing with [insert large digital brand here]. At the end of the day there is just another guy like me that works in that company. I'm not really competing against the entire company, but really just that one guy. He has a steady paycheck, and my paycheck depends on my sites success --- so I'm much more motivated than him!”

ODM: Tell us a little bit about Userplane and your role in the company.

Michael Jones: Userplane is a group of dedicated individuals focused on connecting users through innovative applications. We have been together for nearly five years, beginning as a consulting/strategy firm and growing into our own product company. As the CEO, I work to facilitate growth in each of our divisions, including creative, technical and business. I am fortunate to be in the position of seeing many new community startups and getting a larger view of the overall marketplace. I communicate daily with many site owners, and work to balance the needs of their communities with the application development efforts we have internally.

ODM: Thank you for your time, Michael. One final question: On many dating services you now find blogs, tagging, video chat… what’s next?

Michael Jones: There are a lot of new online tools that could be considered the next "must-have" feature. I believe the next big move in the industry will be on a much larger scale. "Traditional” online dating sites will become more “community” focused, and current communities (like blog networks) will begin to dive into the matchmaking business. It seems like most new sites always ask for a user profile now. As site operators continue to catch on to what users want, browsing/searching and connecting users will become more and more of a standard.

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