Global Personals online dating site for niche dating

A business that grows through love, that is what exactly Ross Williams is doing. One third of the UK dating market is controlled by Williams’ firm Global Personals. “It’s one of the most emotional things there is, and yet we’re a business, professionally run,” says Williams.

Williams, after finishing his psychology and French studies in 1990s, started his own company Rawnet. That was the time of the start of the internet boom. Rawnet was a web design and development company. He earned good money and lived a nice lifestyle from the money he earned from the company.

Williams thought about a dating site for the UK in 2003. Sites like Match.com were slowly attracting audience. But Williams had other plans in his mind. Since almost all the dating websites those dates were more or less similar, Williams decided to think different.

Rather than trying to compete with the big players, he decided to create a behind-the-scenes “white label” system and let partners brand and market sites. The name of the company was decided as Global Personals and it also had its own dating site, Singles365.com. Global Personals provided the back end for dating sites branded by magazines Men’s Health, FHM and Cosmopolitan.

Started in 2003, Global Personals now controls almost one third of the entire dating market in the UK. Williams also dissmisses the caution over how many dating sites a country can have by saying people join more than one of his sites.

The company, Global Personals which was started by Ross Williams alone, has grown on to become an 80 staff company. It has also expanded from African to Australia. Williams also says there is scope for niche dating in India.