International Payment Services
Singles sign up for paid site memberships at a higher rate, driven by couples around them celebrating a day dedicated to love and romance
Hoofddorp, The Netherlands – GlobalCollect, the world’s premier online payment service provider, announced today that if historical trends hold true, online dating sites can expect more than a 10% bump in Valentine’s Day financial transactions taking place on their sites. This prediction is based on an analysis of GlobalCollect’s large database of online dating site transactions processed on behalf of its customers across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
GlobalCollect, which processes millions of transactions per year for some of the world’s leading dating sites, analyzed its 2012 data and found Valentine’s Day transactions beat even weekend averages (typically the peak period of the week) by 10.9%. Valentine’s Day fell on a Tuesday last year, which is coincidentially normally the third busiest day of the week.
GlobalCollect’s client base is comprised of some of the world’s largest, multi-national companies doing business online. GlobalCollect employs payment experts in the travel, video gaming, retail and social networking industries (among others) in order to help its clients fully understand and develop their specific online businesses. An important part of this is GlobalCollect’s large library of historical data, which helps put payment trends into the right perspective as well as make intelligent predictions about future trends.
From Wikipedia:
St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The most popular story associated with Saint Valentine was that he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and for ministering to Christians, who were persecuted under the Roman Empire; during his imprisonment, he is said to have healed the daughter of his jailer Asterius. Legend states that before his execution he wrote "from your Valentine" as a farewell to her.
The day was first associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. By the 15th century, it had evolved into an occasion in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines"). Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards, and more recently, online greetings.
In protest, many singles are now celebrating "Singles Awareness (or Appreciation) Day" (S.A.D.) on February 14 (although some prefer the 13th or the 15th to get away from the commercialism associated with the 14th). It serves as an alternative to Valentine's Day for people who are single, that is, not involved in a romantic relationship. Some people who observe S.A.D. do so out of spite for Valentine's Day, as a Hallmark holiday, or for other reasons.
About GlobalCollect
GlobalCollect is the world's premier Payment Service Provider of local e-payment solutions for international Customer Not-Present (CNP) channels such as internet, mail and telephone orders, and specializes in a wide range of industries such as travel, ticketing, telecommunications, retail, publishing, portals, online gaming, and digital content. While most providers limit their services to a technical link with payment acquirers, GlobalCollect is a full service partner consulting clients on how to increase transaction volumes, expand distribution channels, and reduce costs by streamlining back office processes.
Through a single-interface online payment platform, we offer access to an unrivalled portfolio of local and international payment methods in over 170 countries and 170 currencies, including all major credit and debit cards, direct debits, bank transfers, real-time bank transfers, eWallets, cash at outlets, prepaid methods, checks, and invoices. For more information please visit: www.globalcollect.com and follow us on:
For further information, please contact:
Christopher Schouten
Senior PR & Marketing Manager
Mob. +31 612 911093
E-Mail: press@globalcollect.com
Web: www.globalcollect.com
