邮购新娘借助网络卷土重来

    今年年初，这家总部位于莫斯科的公司请来了布鲁克斯这位在线相亲业的知名咨询师来掌管其增长战略。它还拓展了在美国的业务，聘请了更多美国人，在纽约设立了办公室，而且还引入了一家曼哈顿的公关公司，号称今年打算在营销上砸进4,500多万美元。最近，它还在消费者新闻与财经电视频道（CNBC）、探索频道（Discovery）、高尔夫频道（Golf）、历史频道（History Channel）和美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）上大做广告。对此，布鲁克斯的说法是：“我们现在对声誉非常非常重视。”

    同时，这家公司还在努力整顿自己的运营方式。比如，和我在线聊天的安娜塔西雅和我聊上几分钟就能拿到一些回扣，而这是违反公司政策的。布鲁克斯称：“这是绝对禁止的。不过不守规矩的事仍时有发生，所以我们正在升级游戏规则，杜绝这种做法。”公司正计划对那些付钱给女性、让她们上线与客户互动的本地代理商严加管制。

    布鲁克斯把这类问题归咎于全球化过程中“成长的烦恼”。他们的网站扩张速度太快，所以难以达到严格的质量控制标准。不过他表示，随着跨国相亲被越来越多的人接受，这类问题都会迎刃而解。他说：“如果你觉得我们正在走向一个全球化的社会，那毫无疑问这正是我们前进的方向。在社会交往上，我们正变得日益国际化。这是件好事。”

    不过现在的尊享国际相亲行业看起来和10年前的邮购新娘行业似乎截然不同。首先，它的规模要大得多。从美国移民统计数据和塔希莉司法中心（Tahirih Justice Center，华盛顿地区的非营利性组织——译注）的分析来看，1999年从事跨国婚介的公司大概有200家，促成了4,000到6,000桩婚事。到了2010年，这类公司已经达到了400家，促成的婚姻数量则飙升到10,000 到 15,000桩。而这还只是一小部分。这个行业现在基本上都在网上运转了。实际上，AnastasiaDate的绝大多数用户永远也不会跑到国外去和他们的聊天对象约会。

    这个网站的运作方式是：网站的绝大多数活跃用户是年薪超过10万美元的美国男性，年龄在35岁到60岁之间。要在网站上互动，就需要购买积分。积分是按比例定价的，20个积分的起价是15.99美元，1,000个积分的定价则是399.99美元。每分钟即时通讯聊天需要一个积分。特殊的尊享表情符号——如震动的多彩“LOL”——要价更高。视频聊天（没有声音）每分钟需要6个积分。有声音的视频聊天收费更高。

    网站用起来很简单。AnastasiaDate还运营着AmoLatina.com和 AfricanBeauties.com这两个网站，通过AsianBeauties.com提供的免费试用视频聊天，我很快就和一个穿着细条纹背心的年轻姑娘聊上了。我们没法聊得深入，语言障碍太大了。不过她已经注意到了，我其实不是男人（挥手示意！本文作者是女性——译注），我们也确认自己的摄像头都是正常的（竖起大拇指！）。尽管知道了我的性别，在我的试用时间结束后，她还是给我发来一大堆粉红色的表情符号，并发来“嗨，亲爱的，请回复”和“我好喜欢你啊”这类信息。

    Early this year, the Moscow-based company hired Brooks, who is a prominent online dating industry consultant, to head up its growth strategy. It has also expanded its U.S. presence, hiring more Americans and opening a New York office. It brought on a Manhattan-based PR firm and says it will spend more than $45 million on marketing this year. Recently, it ran ads on CNBC, Discovery, Golf, the History Channel, and CNN. Says Brooks, "We are very, very sensitive to reputation now."

    The company is also trying to clean up its act. For example, the online interaction I had with Anastasia, where she got a small kickback for minutes chatting with me, is against company policy. "It is outright forbidden," Brooks says. "Abuse still happens, and we're raising our game to stamp it out." The company is planning a crackdown on its local partner agencies who pay women to interact on the site.

    Brooks chalks up problems so far to the growing pains of globalization. The site simply scaled too fast to meet strict standards of quality control. But he says those wrinkles will be smoothed out as dating overseas becomes more widely acceptable. "If you consider where we're going as a global society there's no question that this is the direction we're heading," Brooks says. "Socially, we're becoming more international. This is a good thing."

    Today's premium international dating industry looks radically different from the mail-order bride trade did 10 years ago. For starters, it's much bigger. According to U.S. immigration statistics and analysis from the Tahirih Justice Center, there were roughly 200 international marriage broker agencies in 1999, which coordinated between 4,000 and 6,000 marriages. In 2010, there were 400 such agencies, and between 10,000 and 15,000 resultant weddings. But that's only part of the story. The business now exists largely online. In fact, the vast majority of AnastasiaDate users will never actually go abroad to meet the women they're chatting with.

    Here's how it works: The site's most active users on average are American men making more than $100,000, between ages 35 and 60. To interact on the site, they can buy credits. Credits are priced on a sliding scale, starting at $15.99 for 20 credits, and going up to $399.99 for 1,000. Each minute of simple, instant messaging-style chatting costs one credit. Special, premium smilies -- like a vibrating, multi-color "LOL" -- cost extra. Cam share (audio not enabled) costs six credits a minute. Video chat with voice costs even more.

    The site itself is easy to use. With a free trial cam-share chat on AsianBeauties.com -- Anastasia date also runs AmoLatina.com and AfricanBeauties.com -- I was able to quickly set up a feed with a young woman in a spaghetti string white tank top. Our conversation didn't get deep, the language barrier was formidable. But she did note that I was not a man (wave!), and we established that both our cameras were, in fact, working (thumbs up!). My gender didn't stop her from sending me dozens of rose emoticons after my trial ran out and typing messages like "hey ..dear reply please .." and "i like you so much .............."