Matchmaker.com

Matchmaker.com is an internet (and, prior to the internet, dial-up) dating service. It was founded in 1986, making it one of the oldest of the current online dating sites. From 2000 to January 2006, it was run by Lycos. In January 2006, it was purchased by Date.com.

Matchmaker.com aligns members into one of several demographic or geographic communities, with only limited communication between members of different communities.

Members would complete a questionnaire which consists of several multiple-choice items as well as some essay questions where you can fill in more specific information about yourself such as "What are your hobbies and interests?" or "What would you ideal first date be like?" When one searched for a potential match, matches were ranked according to the percentage of identical responses you have to the responses in someone else's profile in the multiple-choice section of the questionnaire. You could also sort your match list by distance from your zip code to the zip code of the matches.

Origin

Matchmaker.com originated from a Bulletin Board System created by Gregory Scott Smith in San Antonio, Texas in March of 1983. It began as a dial-up system with a single modem based Apple II+. Shortly afterwards it was ported to a Microsoft Xenix based Tandy 6000 microcomputer and written in MBASIC by programmer Jon Robert Boede. It was originally conceived as a pen-pal network for everyone. There were no membership fees and the system operated on user donations.

In 1985 the system was relocated to Houston, Texas and operated of four dialup-lines. The following year two other systems were networked and allowed users in San Antonio, Texas and San Jose, California to join the date-a-base.

In 1987 the software became available to franchise from the programmer Jon Robert Boede. The number of local systems grew to about a dozen and became funded by user subscriptions. This business model allowed for each system to be moved into a commercial office environment for stability.

In September of 1998 the system became burdened by having to provide direct dial-in over modems and a decision was made to move to the Internet exclusively. The website interface was introduced at this time.

At the height of the distributed franchise model in 1998 the number of national systems exceeded 60. An agreement was reached to centralize in Bedford, Texas and incorporate with the name Matchmaker.com. Private stock was issued and there were approximately 12 administrators and employees. Patrick M. O'Leary became the company's president.

History

The original site started in 1986 was in the form of a Dial-up Bulletin board system. Each system catered to a geographic area (code) allowing users to find like interests. The original BBS based system only catered to local computer savvy users within a local telephone area code. However, exchange of email between systems and profiles was later implemented using sendmail and uuencoding making the internet the Matchmaker network backbone.

In the early to mid 1990s, the ASCII BBS style was extended to also be a telnet-based service, allowing access from anywhere in the world without the need for telephone long distance charges. Quickly thereafter, the web based front end was created. The first Matchmaker system to receive the new version was the largest of the communities at the time, "Christie's Matchmaker" (see below). Other Matchmaker franchises quickly also adopted the web based front-end.

In the late 1990s, each of the franchisees agreed to consolidate, centralize, and combine their resources. In 1998, Matchmaker incorporated and relocated all of the Matchmaker servers to Bedford, Texas.

In the very early days of the mainstream Internet (‘90-‘97), MatchMaker.com had over 4 million users with up to 230 million page views per month. This explosive growth generated millions of dollars per annum. Unlike Internet companies of today, MatchMaker.com accomplished its substantial growth with revenues solely generated by the company and not infused or borrowed capital. Its rapidly growing network was in competition with today’s well-known companies such as; Match.com, AOL and Yahoo Personals. Even with this robust group of market competitors, MatchMaker.com became the number one singles and dating network on the Internet. While the company was growing, the “Internet Bubble” crash of 2000 took place. In spite of that crash, the company continued to garner serious financial respect. Matchmaker was purchased by Lycos for $44 million cash, and all Matchmaker related assets (including fourteen employees) were moved to Waltham, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the site subsequently has declined in popularity (due in part to competition and a decrease in advertising following the acquisition.)

In January 2006, the site was purchased by Date.com. (As of March 2006, they still use the Matchmaker name.)

Marketing Strategies (after August 1st 2000)

In 2007, while struggling to stay afloat amidst other popular dating sites, Matchmaker has deployed some interesting, perhaps unethical marketing tactics to draw more people to the site. In one campaign (currently in progress as of October 2007), posts are made to the "Women Seeking Men" section of the social directory site, Craigslist.com. These posts claim to be lonely young women in their early twenties and contain attractive pictures to lure mens' responses. When responses are made to the post, an auto response is sent posing as the young girl stating at some point:

"I would reeeeealy like to talk to you more... but I no longer want to reply on emails anymore because I had a bad experience with weirdo/psycho in the past. Hope you understand!! :P

You can drop me a line on MM (it's kinda like myspace) so I know youre a genuine person and not someone I should be worrying about!! My id is #someid#. I also have about 15 pics on MM.. some half naked, I do a bit of modeling myself :P

So drop me a note through MM and a pic should be nice :)

http://kluv.info/juicycindy.html"

This affiliate link then redirects the consumer to Matchmaker.com. If the consumer then tries to close the window, a bot instant message client pops up urging the consumer to join the site before exiting.

Note: The original founders of Matchmaker.com (Scott, Jon, Patrick, Brett and Steve) never engaged in the above "unethical marketing tactics". What was done by the successors of the founders after the sale to Lycos on August 1st 2000 or by any marketing affiliates is beyond the control of the original founders.

Images

Jon Robert Boede. Matchmaker.com Programmer-Developer.
Gregory Scott Smith. Matchmaker.com Founder.
Patrick Michael O'Leary. Matchmaker.com Founder and President.
Matchmaker.com Stock Certificate. 1999.
Matchmaker.com Business Card for Patrick

Matchmaker.com Business Card for Patrick
Matchmaker.com original computer in 1987.
Matchmaker.com computer in 1990.
New York Matchmaker.com in 1992.

New York Matchmaker.com in 1992.
Matchmaker.com site in Houston, Texas. 1998.
Houston Matchmaker Astrodome Ad.

External links

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