Plentyoffish Reels in Unexpected Revenue Stream that makes Userplane Webmessenger Pay for Itself

Plentyoffish, the world’s top free dating site, has always operated under an ad-supported business model, so it immediately took the bite when Userplane introduced a new ad revenue-sharing program.

Within two months of participation, Plentyoffish received a boatload of cash that nearly absorbedthe monthly licensing fee for Userplane Webmessenger™, a leading IM and chat tool featuring both live text and streaming audio/video.

Plentyoffish estimates that within the next six months, its haul of Userplane ad revenue will exceed its licensing costs by about 10 percent – resulting in an IM tool that not only pays for itself, but pays Plentyoffish for using it.

“The Userplane ad program created a new and unexpected revenue stream that brings the cost of Userplane’s IM tools down to free.”
– Markus Frind, Plentyoffish Founder and CEO

Little Fish Nets Big Success
Plentyoffish, a pioneer in free dating services since 2003, controls more than 80 percent of the free dating market. It’s the most popular dating site in Canada, and a top five dating service in both the United Kingdom and the United States, according to Hitwise. More than 1 million singles flock to the site each day.

Despite its massive success, however, Plentyoffish is still a rather small company. In fact, it has only one employee – its founder, CEO and everyman for every job, Markus Frind.

“Plentyoffish is the only massive dating site run entirely by one person. It’s twice the size of some of my competitors – even though they have 200 employees,” said Frind.

He is committed to making sure that everything the site offers is “100 percent free” – including instant messaging. Plentyoffish began deploying Userplane Webmessenger in 2004 as its IM platform. Today, the site generates more than 100,000 IM sessions and millions of text and audio/video messages every day.

“Our members demand IM and refuse email,” said Frind. “It’s the primary way singles want to communicate. With Userplane, they can use Webcams to make their messages come alive.”

Ad-Supported Makes Plenty of Sense
As a free dating site, Plentyoffish creates its revenue strictly from advertising. However, it had never experimented with placing ads directly within Userplane’s IM windows.

In September 2006, Userplane launched a new ad-revenue sharing program for its “integrated install” communities – typically large dating and social networking communities that pay licensing fees for Userplane software. Userplane offered to enable text-based ads within its IM and chat windows, and to splitany resulting revenue.

“Userplane recognized that many of our larger communities are in the process of changing revenue streams, transitioning from subscription-based businesses to ad-supported models,” said Michael Jones, CEO of Userplane and vice president of AOL. “We specifically created this program as an easy, painless way for larger sites to deliver significant advertising revenue with zero effort.”

Plentyoffish joined the program simply by adding a few lines of code to the site. The user experience remains virtually identical, except that unobtrusive text ads now appear in the IM player.

Software That Pays For Itself – And Pays The Site
Two short months after Plentyoffish joined the ad-revenue sharing program, it received a Userplane ad check that nearly equaled Userplane’s monthly licensing invoice – canceling out what until then had been Plentyoffish’s second-largest monthly expense.

“The Userplane ad program created a new and unexpected revenue stream that brings the cost of Userplane’s IM tools down to free,” said Frind. “Any time you can eliminate a bill – and get free money at the same time – is a good time.”

Plentyoffish estimates that it could make as much as $20,000 a month from the Userplane ad sharing program – essentially getting paid to continue using the IM software its members enjoy for free.