OK Cupid

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Advertising on Social Networking Community
Sites October 29, 2007
2
BACKGROUND

• TheSpark.com
• Sold to iTurf, Inc. (NASD TURF)
• Leading site for humor, personality tests
• Yahoo! Best of the Web Maxim Site of the Year
• Reached over 5MM monthly unique users
• SparkNotes
• Sold to Barnes Noble, Inc. (NYSE BKS)
• Leading site for online study guides
• Preferred by 90 of HS, College students
• Accumulated over 10MM accounts
• eDonkey
• Leading P2P file-sharing application
• Accounted for 30 of all European internet
  traffic
• Peaked at over 30MM global users

• OkCupid.com
• One of the largest online dating sites in US
• One of only two major free online dating sites
• 3 differentiators Free, Fun, Effective
• Free
• Dating represents one of the largest online
  subscription business
• But other social networks are free
• Fun
• Offline dating is fun, but traditional online
  dating is sterile
• UGC makes OkCupid a destination site rather than
  a transactional site
• Effective
• Patent-pending matching algorithm estimates
  compatibility between users
• Generates deep, dynamic profiles

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SOCIAL NETWORKS ADVERTISING ASSETS

• Social Graph
• Real offline relationships
• Embedded information on friends preferences,
  membership in groups, etc.
• Communication Platform
• Members engage deeply in communications to from
  others
• Commercial products/messages can be the subject
  of or participant in conversations
• Deep Profiles
• Some social networks collect unprecedented
  amounts of data
• Networks with strong online identities have
  more reliable data
• .

Social networks have a reputation as a bad place
to advertise because campaigns are run without
leveraging their core assets.
4
OKCUPIDS ADVANTAGE DEEP PROFILES

• 1,000,000 users have answered a question
• Mean 233 questions answered
• Median 99 questions answered

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COLLECTING PERSONAL DATA

• Users will give OkCupid data they wouldnt give
  any other site, leading to extremely deep
  profiles
• We can insert commercial questions alongside the
  organic, user-generated questions
• Examples
• What form of birth control do you use?
• What is your favorite type of movie?
• Do you like pets?
• What kind of car do you drive?
• .

Even the most well-respected online brands
generally cant credibly ask such granular
lifestyle questions.
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TARGETING

• Not all media buyers are ready to target so
  granularly, but some are
• To simplify buying, we have grouped our users
  into 20 affinity groups
• .

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SUMMARY

• Social networks are evolving into platforms for
  the internet, just as Windows is a platform for
  personal computers
• Social graphs, communications, and data must be
  leveraged to make advertising on social networks
  effective
• Facebook leads among social networks OkCupid
  among dating sites

Social networks / community sites are fulfilling
the promise of portals as users homes on the
web.
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ONLINE DATING LANDSCAPE

• While Match.com (1.2 MM subs) Jdate (72k subs),
  eHarmony (estimated 750,000 subs) SHRINK
  despite hundreds of millions in advertising,
  OkCupid (500k active users) grows without any
  marketing spend.

Messages Sent 80 growth in last 4 months
Daily Logins 28 growth in last 6 weeks.
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QUESTIONS?