Meet The CMO Of AnastasiaDate’s Umbrella Company, Looking To Dispel Myths About Their Sites
Name: Anthony Volpe
Position within company: Chief Marketing Officer
Period of time in the role: 2.5 years
Tell us a little about your company.
DatingGateways is the international umbrella company for a group of technology and software engineering platforms providing innovative web services, like AmoLatina, that offer social interaction, personal development, and online entertainment. We invest into, develop, and support a range of internet projects and brands under the framework of social discovery. Some of those projects are online dating, the finding of travel companions, social games, language learning, and practicing communities, etc.
What began in 1993 as a company that specialized in software development has evolved over time to support diverse endeavours that all ultimately facilitate social discovery. Ideas grew into projects, projects grew into companies, and the capabilities of DatingGateways grew with them. DatingGateways continues to nurture creative concepts that transform into potent brands.
How many sites are in your portfolio?
DatingGateways portfolio includes several dating sites and mobile applications. Our portfolio of international dating sites consists of AnastasiaDate, AsianDate, AmoLatina, and ArabianDate.In 2010, we launched AmoLatina, where members can build exciting and romantic companionships with members from Latin America. AmoLatina provides a great number of communication services including HD Video Chats, Correspondence, Live Chat, Video Date and Phone Introduction. Due to our unique member verification system, members receive one of the highest response rates in the dating industry.
AmoLatina and the other sites are built on a cutting edge technology platform with the most current innovations to enable speed, usability and more useful options than anyone in the business. Our proprietary state-of-the-art hardware and software systems are constantly improved and maintained by our highly-trained staff of over 500 full-time marketers, artists, engineers, and technicians…the best in their fields.
What are your global revenues?
The global annual revenue of the Anastasia Family of sites for 2015 is just under $200 million in expected revenue for the year.
How many employees do you have, and where are your offices located?
DatingGateways employs more than 500 people and has eight offices in New York, Medellin (Colombia), Malta, Minsk (Belarus), Casablanca (Morocco), Hong Kong, and Chongqing (China).
How many users do you currently have? Which countries have the most users?Established in 1993, the Anastasia family of sites comprise one of the largest international dating networks in the world. More than 4-million members from 89 countries across the globe are registered on our sites. Our newest site is AmoLatina and our largest market is the U.S.
How do you respond to articles that claim sites like yours run highly profitable business models that allow scams to flourish?
In fact, our dating sites have the best anti-scam policy in the industry:
– Members go through the offline verifications process.
– In a rare case when there is an issue, we conduct an investigation and if any negative issue is confirmed we reimburse all the credits incurred with communication of that member.
Some men can spend a huge amount of money travelling to visit women they meet on sites like AmoLatina – how do you protect your customers and ensure they meet up with the person they’re chatting to?
We understand that going for a trip to visit a member on another continent can be expensive. In order to make sure that our member will meet up with the person he is chatting to, we are offering a dedicated service.
Many dating sites experience issues with “catfishing”, spam profiles and fraud. How does AmoLatina ensure that their users are interacting with real people? Can you go into detail about your scam detection software?
Most members on our dating sites have been personally contacted by our staff to prove that they are real and not married.
Although all efforts are done to prevent a scam, I’d like to share a few tips to be safe:
â— Never send any money to any other member;
â— Arrange dates through our “Date Me” service;
â— Exchange contact information with the member through our “Call Me” service;
â— Once in a while conduct video chats with the member you are interested in.
What security measures do you put in place to reimburse members who might be taken in by scams? What criteria do users have to meet to apply for reimbursement?
In a rare case when a member feels like there has been some malfeasance, we conduct an investigation, and if any fraudulent activity is confirmed, we reimburse all the credits incurred during the communication with that member.
The criteria for fraudulent activities include:
â— A member misidentifies herself;
â— A member requests money or expensive gifts;
â— A member deliberately misrepresents her details in her profile: age, kids, gender, marital status or language level;
â— A member refuses to meet a member through our “Date Me” service after corresponding with him through more than five emails.
What do you think are the biggest issues in online dating at the moment?
The biggest issues in online dating is the stigma that people might have regarding this, partly due to the rooted, but inaccurate, associations of online dating with mail order brides. In fact, the leading premium international dating websites like AmoLatina go to great lengths to eliminate the stigma and provide a safe and secure environment for its members to enjoy exciting and romantic relationships with each other.
Can you share a few of your favourite success stories that started on AmoLatina?
Let me share with you one of the recent success stories we had on AmoLatina. It’s the story of Andrew and Girley who got to know each other in November 2012, during one of the AmoLatina international social events. Andrew was sitting hungry waiting for his food, while a beautiful woman, Girley, came up to him and asked if he had eaten yet. He said no and she offered to help him. In a few moments, Andrew had food and his dream woman with him. And the most interesting thing is that at that moment, Andrew could not speak a word in Spanish, and she couldn’t speak any English.
The next day Andrew had to go back home to the U.S., but he couldn’t now leave without seeing her again. He called Girley and asked to meet with him. They had lunch and she left him her contact information. After he returned back home, they started talking every day and after six months Andrew came back to Medellin and proposed. Girley said “yes”, making Andrew the happiest man in the world. On October 4th 2014, Girley and Andrew got married in Medellin, Colombia and in a few days, left for Chicago to spend their lives together as husband and a wife.
What are your plans for the next year?
We are constantly striving to improve the quality of our services and customer satisfaction level. Next year we plan to increase the AmoLatina membership base by bringing to the site more beautiful, interesting, and caring women from Latin America. We’ll also introduce the new services that will help our members to build and enjoy exciting and romantic companionship on our sites.
Visit AnastasiaDate here.