Snapshot
Trilibis enabled Webdate™, the world’s fastest-growing online dating service, to provide all of its members with anywhere, anytime mobile access to the entire online community while incorporating the Webdate™ visual brand identity and rich graphic content into the mobile applications. And they did it all in less than one month because Trilbis put Webdate™ in control.

The Company: Webdate™
Webdate™ is the fastest-growing online dating community in an industry that raked in $473 million in 2004 and is expected to bring in $516 million in 2005. Webdate™has enjoyed a rapid ascent in the online dating ranks and now has the sixth largest market share with more than 3.5 million members. In an industry that averaged membership growth of 17% in 2004, Webdate™ flew past their competitors with membership growth of 800%. 1

The Challenge
Online dating is a fiercely competitive business, with the number of dating service sites reaching 836 in early 2005, up from 611 in January 2004. Webdate™ President and COO Abe Smilowitz knows that to stay ahead of its competition, Webdate™ must always offer its clients a better product and experience.

In early 2003, Smilowitz set out to extend the Webdate™ community to the mobile world thereby giving its members anywhere, anytime access to the entire Webdate™ community and its services. “You don’t have to be in front of your computer to be online dating anymore.” Said Smilowitz, “my vision is that our integrated mobile option will give a big push to online dating participation.”

The requirements for a mobile Webdate™ business were clear:

• Ensure all member clients can access the community from anywhere at any time with whatever mobile device they use.
• Give all members access to the community simultaneously so that no segment of the community population is excluded from mobile access.
• Use the same database for the mobile version of Webdate TM that the online version uses so that the online Webdate™ community and the mobile Webdate™ community are one and the same.
• Enable member photos to be displayed as they are on Webdate TM online and extend the Webdate™ visual brand identity to the mobile market by using Webdate’s logos, color palette, and overall design “look and feel” in the mobile applications.
• Maintain control of the mobile application so updates and changes can be made quickly and easily.

In addition to these primary requirements, Webdate™ wanted to roll out their mobile business quickly to gain first mover advantage in their space, and they wanted to do so relatively painlessly – from both a resource-commitment perspective and a cost perspective.

Unfortunately, the fragmentation of technology in the wireless communications industry presented significant challenges to Smilowitz’s plan to take Webdate™ mobile. It quickly became clear that Webdate™ would need to hire an entire team of programmers to develop enough applications to be compatible with a majority of the mobile networks and devices that their members use. And, they faced the reality that it could easily take more than a year before they could launch their complete mobile business, so to retain first mover advantage, they would be forced to stagger the mobile business rollout to just certain mobile networks and phone models. As if these hurdles weren’t discouraging enough, Webdate™ also learned that incorporating logos and graphics and creating custom screen layouts for their member clients’ mobile devices would make the entire effort even more difficult, time consuming, and costly.

By selecting Trilbis, Webdate™ avoided the hassles, delays, and expense of in-house development and launched Webdate Mobile in July 2003. Smilowitz was pleased by how well customized and visually compelling the Webdate Mobile™ application was, displaying member photographs as well as the Webdate™ logo, colors, and images. He also recognized the value of the integration of Webdate Mobile™ with the online Webdate™ database because it enabled members to seamlessly switch back and forth between mobile and online applications.

Smilowitz and Webdate™ were happy with WebdateMobile™, but Trilibis knew that there could a better solution for Webdate™ and any other content provider, community or marketer trying to take their business mobile.

Trilibis shifted its focus away from being a third party developer and manager of mobile applications for other businesses, and focused on evolving its sophisticated technology to empower content providers, communities, and marketers to easily create and manage mobile applications themselves and reach virtually all mobile end users in just a few weeks. This solution became Trilibis’ SmartPath Mobile Publishing Solution™.

Trilibis developed the SmartPath™ Solution to solve the unique problems faced by content providers, marketers, and online communities, like Webdate™, in their quests to enter the mobile market. It became clear to Smilowitz that the SmartPath™ solution would satisfy each of Webdate’s original requirements for their mobile business by leveraging Trilibis’ sophisticated technology to reach virtually all mobile end users and putting that technology into a solution that Webdate could easily manage. In February of 2005, Webdate™ rebuilt and redeployed Webdate Mobile™ using Trilbis’ SmartPath™ Mobile Publishing Solution, satisfying all of its original requirements and fully enabling its mobile strategy.

"Within just a few weeks of launching Webdate Mobile™, thousands downloaded the service to their phones and began enjoying the benefits of mobile flirting," said Smilowitz. "Our latest version will enable us to reach millions of additional subscribers around the world. Our goal is to make mobile webdating a world-wide phenomenon."

Webdate Mobile™ enhances the Webdate™ online experience by offering anywhere, anytime access to the entire Webdate™ community, complete with profiles with photos, searches and profile browsing and anonymous email messaging to other members. Members can chat with their private group of friends or reach out and meet new people in their area or around the world.

Webdate Mobile™ allows clients to use their handsets to search for potential dates, download profiles, and initiate text messages and anonymous phone calls. Additionally, Webdate Mobile™ makes the Webdate™ community accessible for the first time to a new demographic of members – those who have infrequent access to a computer or who simply prefer to use their mobile devices.

Through innovation and a commitment to providing its clients with value and superior services, such as Webdate Mobile™, Webdate™ has been recognized as among the best of the leading online dating services in the world.

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