在知乎的一个帖子上看到一个对于约会网站"plenty of fish"的简短描述，顿时就来了兴趣。一个人做了14年的网站(2001-2015)，设计，开发，维护一直都是一个人，并且在开始不久的时间内就通过Google Adsence来赚钱，最后5.75亿美金卖给Match Group。
收购信息：
约会产品提供商Match Group周二宣布，其已经达成以5.75亿美元现金收购约会网站PlentyOfFish的最终协议，该交易预计于第四季度初完成。Match Group是IAC/InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ:IACI)旗下一家子公司，幷计划上市。IAC股价最近3个月以来上涨15%。 -- 2015
在网上查了很多的资料，还特别地去plenty of fish上注册，尝试了好几次，但是死活就是说验证码错误，好几次都不行，就放弃了，网站很简单，没什么让人惊艳的，难以想象可以卖5.75亿。据网络上可查的信息，出售这个网站时，"plenty of fish"的注册用户是9000万，活跃用户是360万。 创建者是Markus Frind，我找到了Markus Frind 曾经写过的文章，介绍了他创建"plenty of fish"的历程。
My short description leaves a lot out, but basically I spent every waking minute when I wasn't at my day job reading, studying, and learning. I picked out "enemies" and did everything I could to defeat them which ment being bigger then them. I refused to accept defeat of any kind, and I constantly forced myself to test new things. I never tried to perfect anything it didn't matter if things didn't work 100% as long as it was good enough I would move onto the next thing. In 2003 the dating market was growing 80% a year unlike the -10% in 2006 so growth was a LOT easier. When 2004 rolled around and word of mouth REALLY kicked in and as they say the rest is history.
I look back now at how ill prepared I was, I didn't know anything about SEO, Advertising, community and I didn't even know what Venture Capital was. Just goes to show you anyone can do anything.
总结：
- 做不一样的事情，当时其他的约会网站都是收费的，而Plenty of fish是免费的。
- 他是技术人员。
- 倾听来自用户的声音，持续改进。这点，从他的文章中也看得出来“At the start of March I had ~40 members my site was running off my home machine, people where complaining I didn't allow image uploading so by mid march I had added image uploading. You can see how absolutely horrible the site looked here”。
- 坚持。
- 没有必要准备充分才开启自己的事业。如他所言："I look back now at how ill prepared I was, I didn't know anything about SEO, Advertising, community and I didn't even know what Venture Capital was. Just goes to show you anyone can do anything. "。
“近朱者赤，近墨者黑”，而近“人性”者富。产品设计一定要满足“人性”。吴军博士在他的《浪潮之巅》中描述Facebook的一段话挺有意思的：
Facebook根据大学和大学的系把用户分成组，一个人可以得到自己同学的真实资料，而无法直接获得其他大学学生的资料。由于每个用户的Email是真的，而且早期几乎所有资料（包括年龄，
性别，地址和电话）都是真的，便为大学生们谈恋爱提供了方便。不少本科生对我讲，他们去“早期”的Facebook的原因是需要真实的性ai(他们的原话是Young people need sex)。这就如同Facebook共同创始人的女朋友也是这么找到的一样。
plenty of fish比facebook创建的还要早，从它的这个名字也可以感受到它的初衷。一个人精心打造产品就可以创造巨大的财富，这是早期的互联网时代，很多人会认为在步入移动互联网的今天，这种情况将不复发生。但是历史一次次告诉我们，每一个时代仍会有“独行侠”创造“奇迹”，相信下个10年也是如此！
全力以赴去创造价值吧！