网络交友产业迎来呆大王

    36岁的雅冈是一个热情的怪人——对，也是个狂人。他说话语速很快，也很坦率。他咧嘴笑道：“总有一天我会被炒鱿鱼，那也挺好。”听这位Match的首席执行官谈起收购，很难不让人想起《菜鸟大反攻》（Revenge of the Nerds）这部电影：一个自称内向的人，只施展出一点点的功力，就在一个蒸蒸日上的行业成为顶级大腕。（看看曾被称为“与好友约炮”的Down，还有让用户上传一张限时销毁的照片的Snapchat，包括它们在内的大量新应用表明：一旦网上交友导致了社会丑闻的发生，这个产业就会很快萎缩，并可能迅速地彻底消亡。）

    能够成为一名连续创业家让雅冈非常兴奋。如今他扮演着完全不同的角色。如果继续在这条路走下去，他能够心满意足，就此收手吗？他说：“我喜欢开公司，这是我骨子里的追求。但这也是个极好的机会——可以成为收购方，而不是总当待价而沽的出售方。”

    确实，Match收购了太多公司，网上交友领域的强大竞争对手已经屈指可数：最大的对手是eHarmony，这家公司主打以结婚为目的的交友。其次是Spark Networks（与SparkNotes毫无关系），它是依托于地区的交友网站如JDate和ChristianMingle的母公司。再之后的对手，规模则急剧下降。不过后面这类对手中，PlentyOfFish（完全免费，打价格战），HowAboutWe（专攻情侣可以一起进行的活动）和Zoosk（据说今年将会公开上市）也算有些分量。这几家公司都有自己的侧重点，不过任何一家似乎都无法发展到足以匹敌Match或eHarmony。后者最近召回了2007年退休的尼尔•克拉克•华伦博士（你从该网站的广告商可以认识他）担任主管。当被问到Match时，华伦对《财富》说：“实际上只有两家交友网站，他们和我们。我们彼此之间有趣的竞争已经持续十年了。”

    华伦的公司正砥砺前行，不过他们还需要同Tinder这样的创新产品展开竞争。这是一个非常流行的手机应用，用户可以对他人选择“赞”或者“踩”。许多Tinder的用户不知道这是Match的产品。这个应用由Match的R&D实验室研发，在雅冈的指导下发布。尽管Tinder不是个大型网站，却是这家公司目前致力进步，专注于创新的重要信号。

    Tinder的首席执行官是肖恩•拉德（他告诉《财富》，他通过这个应用遇见了现任女友），但是雅冈对它也很着迷，每天都要找他谈话。雅冈认为Tinder是“我们研究出来的最令人激动的产品。”看着Tinder这样的热门应用蒸蒸日上，你可能疑惑Match调整业务是否会导致什么风险。雅冈不这么认为，他将IAC的交友产品比作一条工具带。

    如果Match.com让你深入了解一个人，你得确定你们有着共同爱好，还要相信你们的约会不会搞砸。Tinder则完全不同，它倾向于让用户和约会对象随意地喝一杯，压力也不那么大。雅冈说：“如果你是单身，想利用网络技术来一次约会，那么我认为在你的约会的工具带上多准备几种工具是再正常不过的事情。”

    这个比喻可以看出雅冈的乐观态度——也许可以进一步想象，一个人利用两个网站或者三个应用，来发掘将来的约会机会——同时也可以看出他对兼并的信心。当然，他需要相信每个约会的人都需要许多网站和应用，因为他正在不断收购它们。如果他总能做出明确的收购决定，大家尽可以期待Match进一步壮大。不过，如果雅冈很快就在浩如烟海的新创公司中发现了新目标，你也不用感到太吃惊。（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正  

    Yagan, 36, is warm and quirky in person -- and, yes, nerdy. He speaks quickly and also candidly. "It's going to get me fired some day," he says with a grin, "and that's fine." Listening to him talk about his purchasing power as CEO of Match, it's hard not to think of Revenge of the Nerds: Here's a self-professed introvert who is now the de facto guru in a growing industry with, some feel, only barely tapped potential. (A host of new apps, like Down, which was originally called Bang with Friends, and Snapchat, which allows you to send a photo that will quickly vanish, suggest that if there was ever any social stigma with using online dating, it is dramatically waning and may soon die completely.)

    Yagan was deliriously happy being a serial entrepreneur. Now he's in a very different role. Farther down the road, might he get the itch to leave? "I love starting companies. That's my DNA," he says. "But this is a pretty great opportunity -- being able to buy instead of always being on the sell side."

    Indeed, Match buys so much that the list of significant e-dating competitors is short: Its biggest is eHarmony, which places an emphasis on marriage as the goal. Next: Spark Networks (no relation to SparkNotes), the parent company of religion-centric dating sites like JDate and ChristianMingle. After those, size drops steeply, but there are options like PlentyOfFish (totally free, thus it competes on price), HowAboutWe (focused on activities couples can do together) and Zoosk (rumored to be going public this year). Each one has its own angle, but it's unlikely any can grow to rival the size of Match or eHarmony, which recently brought back Dr. Neil Clark Warren (you know him from the site's ads) to run it after he retired in 2007. Warren, asked about Match, tells Fortune, "There are really only two sites, there's them and us. It's been a fun chase that we've had for 10 years."

    Warren's company is ramping up its efforts of late but will need to compete with innovative new products like Tinder, a virally popular mobile app that invites you to swipe "yes" or "nope" to a person. Many of Tinder's users don't realize that it is owned by Match; the app came from its R&D lab and launched under Yagan's guidance. Though it is no large site, Tinder is an important signal of the innovation the company is now focused on moving forward.

    Sean Rad is Tinder's CEO (and tells Fortune he met his current girlfriend through his app), but Yagan is deeply involved and speaks to him every day. He sees Tinder as the "most exciting thing that has come from us." As a hot app like Tinder gains steam, you might wonder if there's any risk that Match is cannibalizing its own business. Yagan thinks not; he compares IAC's suite of dating products to a tool belt.

    If Match.com allows you to read up on someone, make sure you have shared interests, and be confident you won't have a bad date, Tinder is at the other end of the spectrum, suited to meeting up for a casual drink with less pressure. "If you're a single person and you want to use technology to get dates," Yagan says, "I don't think it's crazy to have different tools in your dating tool belt."

    That's an analogy that shows much about Yagan's optimism -- it may be a stretch to imagine one person actively using two different websites and a trio of apps, all at once, to mine for prospective dates -- as well as his faith in acquisitions. Of course, he has to believe that every dater needs multiple sites or apps, since he continues buying them. If he keeps making wise decisions in what he selects, expect Match to get even bigger. But don't be surprised if Yagan soon moves on to a new fish in the corporate sea.