Plenty of Fish (POF) is the Vancouver-based on-line dating website that has over 100 million users

Plenty of Fish (POF) is the Vancouver-based on-line dating website that has over 100 million users
Photo Credit: CBC

Plenty of Fish dating site sold to U.S. Match Group

Plenty of Fish, the Vancouver-based dating site that has become the largest in the world, has been sold. The Match Group, which owns Match.com, OKCupid and Tinder, paid US$575 million in cash.

On its website, Match Group CEO Sam Yagan says, it was attracted to PlentyOfFish’s consistent growth, and the New York-based company plans to integrate POF’s mobile app into its existing family of digital and online dating services.

“You just talk to a few people and you go out on dates”

In March, PlentyOfFish surpassed 100 million users. It is the number one dating site in Brazil and all English-speaking countries and still growing in France, Spain and Germany.

Canadian CEO and founder Markus Frind launched the company from his Vancouver apartment in 2003. Now it has 75 employees.

Plenty of babies

Frind grew up on a remote farm near Hudson’s Hope, in the interior of British Columbia,  He lived in a house that didn’t have running water and electricity until he was 10.  But he played speed chess with his dad all through his childhood and said it helped him learn to make decisions quickly. Eventually he graduated in computer systems from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

Last October, Marcus Frind, a recent father, who met his wife when they both worked for a former employer, told CBC Vancouver that his site was responsible for plenty of babies; at least a miilion at that time!

When asked about profile advice or secrets, Frind said, “At the end of the day what it really comes down to is you just talk to a few people and you go out on dates. It’s literally just about going on dates. I think if you have about six dates you’ll find someone that you have a relationship with.”

Frind says one of the secrets to the site’s success is that it serves a wide demographic, people from 20 on up.

The Match Group said the deal is subject to approval from the federal industry minister and is expected to close early in the fourth quarter, or sometime in October.

Categories: Uncategorized
Tags:

Do you want to report an error or a typo? Click here!

For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.