LONDON — Global Personals Ltd. owner of Adult.WhiteLabelDating.com, announced today the acquisition of dating brand Smooch.com.
The company said Smmoch is the 7th largest dating site in the U.K alongside of its parent company WooWise, according to Experian Hitwise.
In addition to Smooch and WooWise, the deal includes the acquisition of Mancentral.com, poised to help grow the company’s gay dating division through its popular brand and partner sites.
The new businesses will be offering free and “freemium” white label products to Adult.WhiteLabelDating.com.
WooWise CEO Martin Bysh and Marcus Hamilton will remain as advisors to the business and will be working closely with Global Personals Ltd. to grow the division internationally.
“The two biggest disrupters of the last decade in the online dating industry have been white label platforms and free dating. With both of these in place, Adult.WhiteLabelDating,com is now positioned to dominate this exciting, profitable and ever-growing industry,” Ross Williams, CEO of Adult.WhiteLabelDating said.
He added, “The team is really impressed by the WooWise freemium white label system, which will allow our partners to grow into this popular dating space, currently dominated by Badoo and Plenty Of Fish. The deal will help our partners monetize members who may not wish to pay on a traditional subscription-based dating site. We've always had huge respect for Martin and the team behind Smooch — it's been one of the top sites in the U.K. for years and has a growing international presence.”
Bysh commented, “Having previously worked with the company as a WhiteLabelDating.com partner, I have nothing but respect for the team and their business acumen. We had some very strong offers on the table from leading global players in the market, but chose Global Personals Ltd. for their honesty and decency, which was confirmed during this process. The company seems to be soaking up the best talent from the dating, digital and media industries and will be able to grow Smooch and our white label services to a worldwide audience.”
The company noted that WhiteLabelDating.com powers more than 7,500 dating websites globally for 1,500 partners and has experienced revenue growth of 1371 percent in the last five years with annual revenues of $58 million.