OPW
INTERVIEW -- Aug 2 -- Joe Brennan Jr joined Webdate's team in April as
SVP Marketing and Strategy. He was formerly the Director of
Interactive Strategy at AOL. Mark Brooks,
Editor of Online Personals Watch, interviewed Joe after the Mobile
Internet Dating Convention at which Joe shared the keynote address.

Why is Webdate driving mobile/cell phone based dating?
Our
strategy for Webdate is focused on wireless as a complimentary piece of
our entire offerings. Webdate is not focused on 'online dating,'
we're focused on 'dating.' Our wireless services are every bit as
important as the internet services and are totally integrated. So
the philosophy is 'Webdate anytime, anywhere.' Users may come
through the online channel but then decide it's more convenient for
them to use us through wireless. We're connection channel
agnostic. We believe our members should be able to use our
services through any connection, so they can Webdate, anytime,
anywhere.

Are location-based services the future?
I
think so. But, one of the challenges is that the technology is
available right now but the carriers are concerned about the liability
of offering location-based services to their members. We have to
show that such services can produce good revenue streams, address the
liability concerns, and demonstrate to the wireless carriers why this
technology really is necessary in serving their wireless customers in
the future. The market and technology are moving in the direction
of location-based services. I would not bet against it right
now.

Why are you also leading with video based services?
We've
placed our bets on using technology that creates more intimacy for our
members. I mean, with most online dating services you make this
hard leap from profile, email and instant messenger over to
face-to-face meetings. We want to create more interactivity and
give users a better opportunity to learn and get to know dating
partners through the online medium before they meet. We're
creating interactive experiences that allow potential daters to get to
know each other better so that when that first meeting happens, it
isn't a shock. So, the best way to do this is to approximate some
of the real world dating experience. We've started down that path
with video dating. We call it 'webdating.' I think that by
fully integrating both the online and wireless products we're able to
drive a better user experience whilst also reaching underserved
markets. Certain demographics index low on PC ownership and high
on cell phone ownership. By using wireless technology and
combining this with our efforts to improve the dating experience, we
think our service will be much more valuable than services merely
listing personals ads and allowing email introductions.

Will you eventually combine video based webdating into a mobile/cell phone based service?
Right
now the bandwidth is not available on the mobile networks. The
handset technology is not quite available either. But it will
be. If we look at South Korea with their live streaming video
broadcasts we can see the shape of things to come. That
technology will come to America along with the ability to do video
dating on the phone. It's inevitable and something we are
pursuing.

We need to create more dating opportunities for our users and we
have chosen to use technology to create those opportunities...in a real
world, live way. Picture if you will...you're headed out for the
evening and you're able to broadcast that you are going to be at a
certain club, in a certain area and are interested in meeting singles
who are also interested in meeting other singles. We can use the
mobile application as a way of facilitating this. When you walk
through the door of the club you will know who you can socialize with
and who is available, rather than it being a guessing game. You
can know who's looking for new friends, who's looking for a
relationship. We want to use mobile applications to facilitate
meetings in real time and real space but we need the cooperation of the
carriers to facilitate that.