Online Dating Magazine > Online Dating News > Kiss.com Closing Down

Kiss.com Closing Its Doors

(onlinedatingmagazine.com - December 11, 2003) The Kiss.com service will be shutting down on December 31, 2003, forcing members to either sign up on Match.com or uDate. The move comes nearly a year after USA Interactive (which runs Match.com) announced that it was acquiring both Kiss.com and uDate.

For years, Kiss.com and uDate ran the same type of dating service, using the exact same user interface. After the acquisition, USA Interactive began heavily promoting Match.com via the Kiss.com service. USA Interactive is trying to structure the closing as "the new Kiss.com, powered by Match.com," which simply uses the same database and service as Match.com.

Kiss.com was founded in 1994, and began experiencing phenomenal growth in the year 2000, with a greater than 400% revenue increase over 1999. That same year, Kiss.com placed 22nd on PSBJ's Top 100 Fastest Growing Private Companies List.

In December 2002, USA Interactive announced it was acquiring both uDate and Kiss.com for approximately $150 million in USA common stock.

The uDate service was recently downgraded by Online Dating Magazine in a review of the service, which has failed to evolve since the acquisition.

Related Links:
» USA Interactive Acquires uDate and Kiss.com

> Perfectmatch.com - The best approach to find the one. <

All Online Dating Magazine content, including the content on this page,
is © copyright by Online Dating Magazine and may not be
republished or reused in any form. You do have
full permission to link to this article.

Do you agree or disagree with this article? Have
more to add? Submit a Letter to the Editor today or post a comment below.