Ross Williams: Global Personals

Ross Williams, 33
Company: Global Personals
Web: www.globalpersonals.co.uk

No-one has benefited from the online dating explosion more than Ross Williams. Eight years after setting up his own web-based dating service, Global Personals, Williams now owns a portfolio of sites which includes Singles365.com and Datingagency.com, backed up by a white label service which counts The Independent and Cosmopolitan as clients. Global Personals is now firmly entrenched as Europe’s largest privately owned dating company; revenue has grown almost 4400% over the past five years, and more than 6.6m use Williams’ various sites. Having relegated the previously dominant match.com to second place in the UK’s online dating sector, few would doubt that Global Personals has the potential to maintain this amazing rate of growth in the years ahead.

2013 update:

Global Personals has become one of the largest privately-owned dating services in the world with annual revenues approaching £50m and more than 140 full-time staff. The white label arm of the business has seen particular success over the last two years; the company now has 1,480 partners running 7,000 dating sites powered by Global Personals’ service and 90% of the company’s revenue comes from these partnerships.