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Match.com is an online dating service with web sites serving 25 countries in more than eight languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas and the company also has offices in West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match.com is owned by IAC.〔("IAC's Match.com Announces Successful Tender Offer For Meetic S.A." ) 18 August 2011 ''Reuters''. Retrieved 15 July 2012〕 ==History== Match.com was founded by Gary Kremen and Peng T. Ong in 1993. It was started as a proof-of-concept for Electric Classifieds which aimed to provide classified advertising systems for newspapers. Early on, Kremen was assisted by Peng T. Ong, who helped in the design of the initial system, and Simon Glinsky, who helped in the development of one of the first Internet business plans for Match.com and also provided management and marketing expertise. The initial business scope developed by this team included a subscription model, now common among personals services, and inclusion of diverse communities with high first trial and market leaders status, including women, technology professionals and the Gay and Lesbian community. Fran Maier joined in late 1994 to lead the Match.com business unit where she significantly bolstered the strategy to make Match.com friendly and accessible to women (the men would then follow).〔(LOVE'S LABOR LOST / Online matchmaker still seeks love, money )〕 Match.com went live in early 1995 as a free beta. It was first profiled in ''Wired'' magazine in 1995. The initial users of the service were given free lifetime charter memberships for signing up in an effort to build up the initial database of users for other paying customers to be able to match with. David Landis, president of the San Francisco, California public relations firm, Landis Communications, Inc., helped promote the launch of Match.com during its early stages. Landis and Match.com's PR team retitled the service’s in-house director of communications, “Vice President of Romance,” which enabled him to secure bookings on the ''Today Show'', ''Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee'', and ''60 Minutes'', and coverage in ''People'' magazine, the ''New York Times'', and ''USA Today''. Landis later observed that the strategy “opened the floodgates to media interest” and helped “grow the business from a $5 million valuation to a $55 million business.” In 1998, Match.com was purchased by Cendant. A year later Match.com was purchased by IAC (then still operating under the name TicketMaster). In late 1999, Match.com was moved to Dallas, Texas, to merge with another matching site, One & Only networks, that IAC had purchased the same year. Between September 9, 2004, and April 24, 2007, Jim Safka was the Chief Executive Officer of Match.com. Thomas Enraght-Moony was the CEO from April, 2007 to February 19, 2009.〔(Linkedin.com )〕 Gregory R. Blatt served as the CEO of Match.com from February 2009 - December 2010.〔 〕 In November 2004, Guinness World Records recognized Match.com as the largest online dating site in the world. At the time, more than 42 million singles globally had registered with Match.com since its launch in 1995, and worldwide there were over 15 million members using the service. In December 2006, the layout of the United States Match.com site was redesigned, to go in line with the newly launched series of black and white TV advertisements in the US featuring Match.com members. In late 2005, Match.com in the United States entered into a strategic partnership with Dr. Phil on a new US marketing campaign called "MindFindBind", a monthly subscription program that Match.com members can pay an extra fee to access. It was announced in February 2009 that Match.com's European operations was sold to Meetic for 5 million Euros and a reported twenty-seven percent interest in the company. At the same time that this sale was announced, the current CEO Thomas Enraght-Mooney stepped down, while IAC's (Match.com's parent company) Executive VP and General Counsel, Greg Blatt, took his place. In July 2009, Match.com acquired People Media from American Capital for $80 Million. People Media powers AOL Personals and operates such sites as BlackPeopleMeet.com and OurTime.com. On February 4, 2010, Match.com and Meetic announced a joint venture in the Latin American dating market. The two companies formed a partnership to combine ParPerfieto in Brazil with extended Match.com presence in Latin America. SinglesNet was also acquired by Match.com in February 2010, adding to Match.com's collective portfolio of domestic and international online dating brands. Match.com announced its mobile application for Android in March 2010, making Match.com apps available on all major smartphone platforms. On May 24, 2010, Match.com became the exclusive provider of online dating service for Yahoo! via the formation of a co-branded site, "Match.com on Yahoo!".() In December 2010, Match.com’s CEO Greg Blatt was made CEO of parent company IAC. It was announced in February 2011 that Match.com would acquire dating site OkCupid, diversifying its portfolio of dating sites with a non-subscription based site. OkCupid’s co-founder and CEO Sam Yagan remains CEO of the site. In May 2011, Match.com announced a planned public tender offer for all outstanding shares of Meetic S.A. In September 2011, Match.com invested a 20% interest in Zhenai Inc., a leading Chinese dating site. In 2012, Match.com announced Stir, a service that brings Match.com members together in thousands of events across the country. Stir consists of hundreds of local events each month, ranging from large-scale happy hours to smaller, more intimate events such as cooking classes, wine and tequila tastings, bowling nights, rock climbing, and more. Match.com also introduced a proprietary collection of on-site, dual-player games designed to allow people to get to know each other online in a natural way. In October 2012, Sam Yagan was named CEO of Match. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Match.com」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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