This reflects a runaway 40% growth in the past year and is a huge milestone for the website launched in 2000 by two school friends hoping to meet new people. It also proves an online community can still be successful whilst refusing to be drawn into the seedier side of online dating.
True to their founding ethics, MakeFriendsOnline owners, Martin Bysh and Marcus Hamilton, have always insisted their community exists for people to make friends, not to wreck marriages. Uniquely in it’s online environment, MakeFriendsOnline removes and excludes users who attempt to use the site to cheat on a partner. This has resulted in an average 250 users being removed from the site each month and has resulted in voluntary refunds totalling over £300,000 since the site was founded. It is therefore with undeniable pride they are now able to announce a membership of over a million despite refusing to be drawn into profit-led but ultimately unsavoury membership recruitment methods.
Today’s MakeFriendsOnline is a huge online community featuring bustling Chat Rooms, lively Message Boards, private messaging facilities and on-site support in the shape of the highly popular Dating Doctor and Agony Aunt sections. In common with most sites, MakeFriendsOnline can boast countless marriages and babies but, unlike most sites, those couples usually remain part of the community which bought them together, enjoying the ongoing social gatherings and friendships whilst encouraging and supporting new members.
With MakeFriendsOnline thriving, Martin & Marcus have recently been eyeing the market with a view to seeing where else their skills and ethical approach might benefit. They noted there was a great demand for free-membership sites but such sites were almost always populated by users seeking ‘a bit on the side’ or banner ads for highly questionable services and products.
From this observation, MakeFriendsOnline’s sister site, Smooch.com was born. Smooch is not a cheap alternative; it is a fully faceted online portal providing most of the features which have made MakeFriendsOnline so popular. And like it’s sister site, Smooch is also ethically led, disallowing dishonest members and undesirable contributions. Unlike MakeFriendsOnline, however, Smooch will be sustained solely by advertising, thus making such a site accessible to those who cannot afford monthly membership fees.
In the 16 weeks since it’s launch, Smooch.com membership has exceeded all expectations in both member acquisitions and page views, while MakeFriendsOnline.com continues to grow from strength to strength, making it clear to those who doubted that there is plenty of room in this market for both free and premium services.
Kaynak : 