Flirtic.com, a dating and matchmaking site that began operating in early 2011, chose Russia as its first step to international expansion beyond its native Estonian market.
A beta version of the service is being launched this week to serve users in Moscow, but Flirtic.com has plans to cover St Petersburg, Kiev, and other Russian-speaking cities later this year, explained Andres Susi, the site’s Executive Director, in an exchange with East-West Digital News.
Flirtic.com’s marketing plan for Russia includes regular Internet ads and traffic building partnerships.
The site targets people from 18 to 35 years of age seeking a quality dating experience geared more for fun rather than marriage. Flirtic offers innovative online matchmaking functions which calculate the compatibility of a potential couple based on the results of a wide variety of simple psychological tests.
“Based on these quizzes and by having users play matching games, we provide interesting icebreakers for our users to start the conversation, while also gathering tons of data about users’ interests,” Susi added.
Another feature, ‘Flirtic Dates,’ allows users to invite each other out to one of the restaurants or cafes featured on the site. Once a user’s invitation gets accepted, that person pays for the date package, and redeems the offer.
Flirtic.com works under a ‘freemium’ model with bank cards, as well as electronic currencies such as Yandex Money and Webmoney, accepted for payment in Russia.
Among Flirtic’s board members and advisors are Yahoo’s Vice President April Henry and Nicola Riordan, a former member of Skype’s marketing team.
In June 2011, the prominent Russian venture fund Almaz Capital Partners provided a round of financing of an undisclosed amount to develop Flirtic in Russian and English speaking communities.
Few international players on the market
The main players operating in the Russian online dating market are dating giants Mamba.ru, which claims over 6 million registered users and over 100,000 simultaneous users, and Loveplanet.ru, which reaches 800,000 users daily, as well as matchmaking services Monamour.ru and Teamo.ru. The latter, launched by Fast Lane Ventures in 2011, recently completed a round of investment with a Japanese venture fund.
Western dating giants Match.com and Meetic are absent from the Russian market, where the absence of universal recurring billing systems has so far prevented the localization of their concept.
But Germany’s eDarling launched its Russian version in early 2011. In February 2012, the site claimed it had reached more than 1 million Russian users in one year and that it attracted 13,000 daily users.
