Match.com - The World's Leading Online Personals Site

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It also provided content for America Online(AOL)7 in Japan and the US, and partnered with Tiscali8 in France, Spain and Italy, Wanadoo9 in Spain, and T-online10 in Germany. Match conducted research and surveyed singles living in Europe and the US to better understand what they sought, their expectations from dating and their outlook on friendship, romance, long-term relationships and marriage. By 2003, Match had more than 939,000 subscribers and 12 million visitors to the company's sites. For the first quarter in 2005, the company reported revenues of $54.2 million, an 11% increase as compared to the corresponding period in 2004, while international subscriptions had grown by 24%.

Match was a part of Interactive Corporation (IAC)¹¹ and was headed by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Barry Diller (Diller). Diller had a career in Hollywood¹² spanning 30 years. During this tenure, he also became the Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures Corporation¹³ for a decade. Under Diller, IAC transformed itself from a media & electronic retailing company to an interactive commerce company.

In October 2001, Match also started providing online personals to Swoon.com, a website that provided a wide range of astrology-related services. In April 2002, Match and Excite Network¹⁶ entered into an exclusive distribution partnership in which Match provided content and advertising on Excite's relationships channel...

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7] AOL is one of the largest providers of online services. It offers e-mail, interactive newspapers and magazines, conferencing, software files, computing support and online classes, in addition to full Internet and World-Wide Web access.

8] Tiscali is the European Internet Communication company providing broadband and narrowband access for consumer and business applications as well as innovative communications services and contents. By June 30, 2005, Tiscali had 4.8 million active users in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK and Czech Republic.

9] Wanadoo is a French Internet Service Provider (ISP). It is a subsidiary of France Télécom. It operates in France, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lebanon & Jordan. France Télécom also owns Orange, one of Europe's largest mobile operators.

10] T-Online is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom. It is the largest internet service provider in Germany. T-Online had an estimated 13.4 million customers in Europe in the first quarter of 2004 and reported sales of about 1.58 billion euros in 2002. T-Online uses the brands "Club Internet" in France, "Ya.com" in Spain and Terravista in Portugal. In Austria and Switzerland, the T-Online brand is used.

11] IAC is an online commerce company involved in travel business. IAC's business segments range from IAC Travel, which includes Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Interval International and TV Travel Shop; Home Shopping Network (HSN), a home shopping service; Ticketmaster, which oversees ReserveAmerica; Match.com, an online personals service; LendingTree Financial Services; Precision Response Corporation; IAC Local and Media Services and IAC Interactive Development. The company generated revenues of US$ 6.2 billion for the year 2004-05.

12] Barry Diller joined the American Broadcasting Company's (ABC) programming department (ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company) in 1966. By 1969, he was promoted as Vice-president in-charge of feature films and program development. In 1974, he was hired by Gulf & Western Industries to run Paramount Pictures, which it had bought in 1966. In 1984, he joined Twentieth Century Fox and was in charge of developing the studio's new network after Australian newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch bought Fox in 1984. Diller left FOX in April 1992, to buy and run QVC Inc. (home shopping service). In 1995, he took over USA Interactive that was rechristened as InterActiveCorp (IAC).

13] Based in Hollywood, California, Paramount Pictures Corporation is a motion picture production and distribution company in the US. The company is controlled by Viacom, an international media conglomerate. Paramount is involved in television production, theme parks, international film and television distribution and theater operations in Canada and Western Europe.

14] Ticketmaster is the world's leading ticketing company, providing ticket sales and distribution through www.ticketmaster.com, one of the leading e-commerce sites on the Internet. Approximately, 3,300 retail Ticket Center outlets; 19 worldwide telephone call centers; and a broad online and offline marketing network. Ticketmaster served more than 9,000 clients worldwide across multiple event categories, providing exclusive ticketing services for hundreds of leading arenas, stadiums, performing arts venues, museums and theaters and sold 98 million tickets valued at $5 billion in 2004.

15] Village Voice Media is a privately held corporation that owns the Village Voice, America's oldest and largest alternative weekly newspaper. The company also owns LA Weekly, Orange County Weekly, Seattle Weekly and other popular newspapers.

16] Excite is an internet portal with a search engine. It is one of the most recognized brands on the Internet. Excite belongs to the Ask Jeeves network. It offers a variety of services, including web-mail, stock quotes, and a customizable user homepage. In July 2005, Ask Jeeves became a part of InterActive Corp.