The focal company of the case is Zoosk, a “romantic social network” founded by Alex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh.
b. Zoosk is both a website and an app that allows individuals to meet form relationships through their existing social networks.
2. Analyzing consumers
a. Right from its initial launch, Zoosk focused on worldwide users. Because Zoosk had two Iranian-American founders and a French Vice President of Marketing, the Zoosk team believed that the company was able to celebrate cultural differences. Since love is everywhere, the Zoosk team wanted to be present wherever there is romance. With this international focus in mind, by 2012, Zoosk users were 50% from the United States and 50% international. Although Zoosk targets regions globally, …show more content…
Zoosk is more social than the traditional dating sites, as it integrates the user’s existing social networks to allow them to meet people based upon online social presence and geographic location. The social aspects of Zoosk allow relationships to more naturally progress when compared to sites that more resembled a bulletin board of profiles (the more traditional Match.com and eHarmony). It has a significantly larger presence on Facebook (with 11 million likes) than the more traditional dating sites such as Match.com and eHarmony (with less than 550,000 combined). The company was also able to launch before the competition on a variety of social networking sites. They capitalized on the explosion of social apps and were able to grab a large market share right from the start. This served as a barrier to the entry of their competitors, as Zoosk was able to heavily diminish the pool of potential users for other sites. Additionally, Zoosk required that customers created a Zoosk.com account as opposed to simply utilizing their existing social media accounts. This served them well when smaller social media platforms went out of business and hurt their competitors who had not engaged in this practice. Zoosk also offers some unique components to users, like Couple Profiles. Independent apps on Facebook such as “Best Match” and “Hot or Not” lacked the overall success of Zoosk and could not match its brand credibility. Zoosk also utilized a global mindset from the start, and was able to leverage the worldwide presence of Facebook to bring romance to all areas of the world. Zoosk also attracted a younger demographic than the traditional dating sites. For this reason, they have significantly more time to market to these individuals before they hit the target age range of the competitive services. The competitors must then convince these individuals to switch to their service instead of simply joining, which can prove more
b. Zoosk is both a website and an app that allows individuals to meet form relationships through their existing social networks.
2. Analyzing consumers
a. Right from its initial launch, Zoosk focused on worldwide users. Because Zoosk had two Iranian-American founders and a French Vice President of Marketing, the Zoosk team believed that the company was able to celebrate cultural differences. Since love is everywhere, the Zoosk team wanted to be present wherever there is romance. With this international focus in mind, by 2012, Zoosk users were 50% from the United States and 50% international. Although Zoosk targets regions globally, …show more content…
Zoosk is more social than the traditional dating sites, as it integrates the user’s existing social networks to allow them to meet people based upon online social presence and geographic location. The social aspects of Zoosk allow relationships to more naturally progress when compared to sites that more resembled a bulletin board of profiles (the more traditional Match.com and eHarmony). It has a significantly larger presence on Facebook (with 11 million likes) than the more traditional dating sites such as Match.com and eHarmony (with less than 550,000 combined). The company was also able to launch before the competition on a variety of social networking sites. They capitalized on the explosion of social apps and were able to grab a large market share right from the start. This served as a barrier to the entry of their competitors, as Zoosk was able to heavily diminish the pool of potential users for other sites. Additionally, Zoosk required that customers created a Zoosk.com account as opposed to simply utilizing their existing social media accounts. This served them well when smaller social media platforms went out of business and hurt their competitors who had not engaged in this practice. Zoosk also offers some unique components to users, like Couple Profiles. Independent apps on Facebook such as “Best Match” and “Hot or Not” lacked the overall success of Zoosk and could not match its brand credibility. Zoosk also utilized a global mindset from the start, and was able to leverage the worldwide presence of Facebook to bring romance to all areas of the world. Zoosk also attracted a younger demographic than the traditional dating sites. For this reason, they have significantly more time to market to these individuals before they hit the target age range of the competitive services. The competitors must then convince these individuals to switch to their service instead of simply joining, which can prove more