Cupid plc Research how Different Messages Between Users Increase Revenue per Profile, and Whether Internal Site Alerts Also Contribute

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Oct 19, 2011, 04:47 ET

EDINBURGH, Scotland, October 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

For several years Cupid plc has been collecting and collating user behaviour statistics using the most up to date analytical tools available in order to not only monitor its dating sites, but also to stay one step ahead of the competition.

By regularly analysing this data we are able to gain unique insights into the behaviour of our users in order to react, improve and optimise every user's experience. This process also allows us to identify opportunities to make changes that will increase revenue.

As this is the first time Cupid has decided to share some of its learnings from the data collected, we are particularly excited and hope you will find them interesting.

Statistics we analysed in this instance included the following:

24 months revenue and number of payments
Revenue per profile and average payment
Different message types

The third of these needs some further explanation. By 'different' message types, we mean those which members send to one another and also site alert notifications. Not all dating sites have these, and there is a remarkable variation in how different types of messages affect revenues.

Ordinary emails is the largest group in terms of sheer volume. Members send these to one another
Admin messages is a category of emails send from admin informing user about activity relating to their profile (somebody added you as a friend, asked you for a photo etc. etc.)

To consider how these message types correlate with revenue per profile and average payment, it is time to look at some of our data.

In the table below, the group of customers whose data has been analysed:

Admin messages sent to males with/no photo;
Ordinary messages - sent from women with/no photo to males with/no photo.

The parameters shown in the spreadsheet are correlation coefficients.

Table 1. Correlation coefficients between the number of received messages and message types

     Message type        males with no photo           males with photo
                      No. of             Average    No. of          Average
                     payments   Revenue  payment   payments Revenue payment
    Ordinary Mails      -0,4849 -0,3301    0,09665   0,1242  0,3129  0,2584
    Admin messages       0,3650  0,7168     0,6517  0,01748  0,5960  0,8289

Group A. Ordinary Emails

Looking at the table it could be said that the site isn't interested in whether or not the user receives a lot of Ordinary Emails. On the contrary; ordinary emails are very important and provide the possibility for communication as well as keeping users within the site. The growth of the received Ordinary Emails shows a decrease in the number of payments and revenue from male profiles without a photo. Yet at the same time the average payment increases. This is closely related to the fact that customers who start spending more time on the site spend money on more advantageous packages - a year instead of a month, for instance - and become regular customers. Note in particular the positive correlation of average payment.

The more time a male user spends on the site, the more likely it is that he uploads his photo. This takes the customer into the 'men with photo' category which yields more in terms of positive revenue value. Therefore the increase of the amount of sent and received Ordinary Emails keeps users on the site, providing a hugely significant quotient of the site's basic earnings.

Group B. Admin messages

Let us move now to consider Admin messages. The given data proves that Admin messages work better to attract new users to the site. The positive values in number of payments yields an income coefficient which shows that these types of messages cope well with this task. The more Admin messages sent, the greater the number of payments and revenue.

A user receives these messages when somebody performs some sort of activity on their profile trying to get to know this person better. If a male user likes this woman and wants to initiate a chat he purchases a short membership package; if he is more and more interested in the person he receives more communications and consequently more Ordinary Emails, which places him in the aforementioned Group A. Naturally not all customers continue communication for many reasons and therefore they are not interested in prolonging their membership.

To conclude: all types of messages are crucial to the success of Cupid in the current marketplace. For those who wish to prolong communication and thus their membership, Ordinary Emails are perfect; for those just starting out on the site, other types are more pertinent. After all, once they find someone in whom they are interested, they will send more Ordinary Emails and leave others behind as they improve their relationships.

In the future, Cupid will create and track various sorts of messages based on this data and see if there is a certain correlation among them.

Cupid plc listed on AIM in June 2010 and is a leading provider of online dating services

Cupid has built a base of over 34 million members in 39 countries (those countries with over 1,000 members), with a growing proportion of members coming from outside of the United Kingdom.
Cupid offers a wide variety of online dating services allowing members to interact with each other and access the content available on the Group's websites. These websites are intended to appeal to dating users of diverse ages, cultures and social interest groups. The Group's most heavily visited websites include http://www.cupid.com, http://www.flirt.com, http://www.benaughty.com and http://www.girlsdateforfree.com.

The majority of services are also available via Apple and Android App Stores for mobile users as well as through their own Facebook apps - eg. http://apps.facebook.com/cupidcom and http://apps.facebook.com/benaughtynow.