The CEO of EliteSingles is not worried that Brits will turn away from the Berlin-based dating site after Brexit as love conquers all.
Jeronimo Folgueira is CEO of premium dating service EliteSingles and its parent firm Affinitas, which also runs European counterpart eDarling and bought French market leader Attractive World in October.
He said EliteSingles is “highly profitable” while the core English-speaking markets of the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have seen 92 per cent year-to-date growth in registrations for 2016.
All Affinitas’ sites are run from Germany.
“Brexit won’t fundamentally change how we view the UK,” he told BusinessCloud. “We are having lots of success outside the European Union anyway.
“The UK is becoming a smaller part of market for us because of the collapse of the currency – but it will remain a great market because people will always need to find love.
“[After the June vote] we sent an ad campaign out to our users in the UK: ‘Don’t worry about Brexit – with someone by your side, the future will always be bright’.”
EliteSingles, founded in 2013, focuses on professional singles seeking long-term relationships and commands the highest subscription prices. It uses personality and lifestyle match making to increase its customers’ chances of lifelong love.
“The questionnaire focuses on travel history, education and profession,” he said. “We match people with the same economic and education level so they have similar backgrounds, topics of conversation and interests – people they can hold a conversation with.
“We have a 30-50 per cent success rate. We can’t guarantee love, but we can increase its chances massively,” he continued.
“When our customers fall in love, they will cancel their subscription – but they would leave anyway if they became frustrated. We’d rather it was because they fell in love!
“They also tell their friends how they met through us: we lose a customer, but often gain one. And if they break up, they will come back to us.”
Despite its name, the firm changed its logo in March to avoid being viewed as too elitist.
“After research we wanted a more friendly look: we don’t want people to think our service is only for the rich and those who think highly of themselves,” he added.
“We don’t want to be elitist. The product has to be affordable to attract a wider demographic of people.”
Folgueira said Match.com and eHarmony are EliteSingles’ main competitors, but not popular app Tinder, which is part of the Match group.
“We target people who are 40-plus years of age,” he said. “Tinder is for far younger people and people looking for a more casual relationship. We are moving away from something that superficial.
“But Tinder is growing the market. It is more acceptable for the younger demographic to use it – then, when they get older, EliteSingles will be a better option for them to find longer-lasting love.”
Affinitas recently reached 40 million global registered users while more than half a million new members are signing up each month.