SAN FRANCISCO — The online dating sector apparently is winning the hearts and minds of investors after another matchmaking site decided to take the plunge and go public.
This time around it is mainstream dating site Zoosk, which offers a “proprietary behavioral matchmaking engine” that learns from clicks, messaging, and other actions of its members to produce matches that are supposed to find better matches.
Zoosk today filed a Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission, announcing plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering.
Other companies already trading publicly in the dating space are FriendFinder Networks, which operates AdultFriendFinder and hundreds of similar dating sites; IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owns Match.com and OKCupid.com; and, Spark Networks, which operates ChristianMingle.com and JDate.com.
As part of the filing, Zoosk provided details of its mainstream business, which includes 26 million members worldwide and 650,000 paying subscribers across 80 countries, according to 2013 year-end figures. Zoosk said that those numbers represent an increase from the 18 million registered members and 483,000 paying subscribers a year earlier.
While subscriptions accounted for $153.8 million of its revenues in 2013, the company also said it has a growing virtual currency business, which increased from $5.4 million in 2012 to $24.3 million a year later.
Zoosk has raised $60 million since being founded in 2007.
XBIZ World will present a special focus on the adult dating space next month in its May issue.
