Deloitte Technology Fast 50: No. 17
Regional winner: South East
Global Personals is Europe's largest privately-owned dating company with more than 6,400 websites, but founder and CEO Ross Williams isn't offended if you've never heard of him.
"We operate some of our own niche dating websites, but around 80% of our business is working with 1,400 partners around the world, providing white-label dating sites for other brands, so they don't have our name on them" Williams says. "But in terms of revenues, we've already overtaken competitors in many of our markets."
Global Personals designs and implements online dating platforms for customers including Trinity Mirror, the Independent newspaper, and magazine publisher Bauer, with annual revenues of £30 million and profits of £2.2m in the year ending August 2011. Despite the tough economic climate, online dating continues to boom, says Williams. "Even if people don't have much money, a dating website is great value for money, and people think a few pounds a month for the ability to go out and have fun is a good investment" he says.
However, Williams is aware that the potential for growth in the UK isn't unlimited. "You get to a point where you either grow the category, or you move overseas, and so in the past year we've expanded significantly in both South Africa and Australia" he says. "We have built up £3m in the bank and we're also looking at acquisition. There is a lot of consolidation in this market."
Recruitment has been a significant challenge for the business and previously Williams has recruited developers from overseas, but this year the company has taken a creative approach, by sponsoring the Silicon Milkround, a recruitment event for IT graduates. This has helped enormously, and the company's location, in Windsor, also means it is within commuting distance from West London.
Williams says the next opportunity for Global Personals is finding new ways to monetise its member database, which contains detailed demographic information on a million consumers. "If you want to know about men in London aged 30-40 who earn over £100,000, then we have that information, and not many companies can do that" he says. "It is a tremendous asset."