Category Archives: Insiders look

Insiders look into the business. What we’ve tried, what actually worked and what didn’t.

Russian website for girls

It’s ugly now: www.cuteonly.com. It’s like every other shitty website in the market. Now we want to turn it. We need it

  • beautiful
  • standing
  • funny.

What to start with? With ass grabbing of course. Here’s the screenshot:

Translations are fun

A few years ago a girl posted her profile using our automated translation tool called Prompt. And the translation tool gave us this:

First intercourse, than will see.

What she meant was “First a conversation, than will see”. Sure not a sexual intercourse.

Usability of translations

Right now we offer a “one-button” translation for Girls. Here is how it looks like on the Russian website for girls:

Men don’t have any translation tools at all. It’s because all the messages they receive have been translated into English already.

Anyway, we improved the translations for our new version of CuteOnly:

  1. We simplified the single click operation for girls. Now it requires no clicks at all.
  2. Now we offer message source for guys. If the receiver isn’t sure about some point of translation, he can check the source message in Russian and do something about it:
  • Try it with Google Translate. It gives multiple options.
  • Ask a Russian girl to explain. It could be fun.
  • Ask our support to assist.

History of translations at CuteOnly

So, here is the brief evolution of translations at CuteOnly.

At first, we offered no translations at all. We thought it’s not necessary. Online translators became available. Finally, a client could hire a freelance translator for pennies.

Than we integrated an automated translation system (software provided by a Russian company called Promt) which made it possible to translate messages  directly from CuteOnly’s Message Center with a single click.

The quality of translation wasn’t perfect and we wanted to improve it. There is a link in every man’s profile suggesting girls submit a better translation on the Russian website. Look for example at this profile. It’s got a link on the bottom which says “Wanna help us make a better translation?”.  A girl can submit a manual translation by clicking it:

We updated the custom dictionary of Promt after analyzing these submissions manually. It was a big hit.  Together we created the best automated translation system of that time for English/Russian/English translations.

It was before we switched to Google Translate. Once it launched out, it was better than anything. We switched to it a couple of years ago. At this time all CuteOnly translations are being carried by Google.

 

Translations in international dating

Translations have been always a big deal for the international dating. Only a few Russians speak fluent English, and even less foreigners speak Russian.

Some dating sites offer paid manual translations. They charge up to 8 dollars per message. That’s an astonishing amount. Sure, it’s good for business. This model generates around $160 per customer. Much more than ours. Sure it’s good for business, but not that good for a client’s wallet and violates the privacy of correspondence.

We decided to offer it charge-free; it’s been always free (since 2004). Sure we do need money, but charging per message limits the amount of mail and the less mail our customers send and receive the worse for the community in general.

This post looks like a self-promo, right? Next time we will continue in a different key.  I promise.

The new logo

This is our final choice.

Why do we choose that?

  • We find it glossy and stylish. By looking at it some of us even start thinking about Vogue, Yves Saint Laurent and million dollar cocktail parties. Some of us, not all, thank God.
  • It delivers the clear statement. Cute only. Period.
  • Thousands of web services have really nice but similar logos. We have something outstanding. It’s aligned to the bottom. It’s almost black and white. No rounded fonts. No icons.

Right now after writing this text I think that we’ve created a perfection. You must be hating our new logo at this point.
 

Designing new logo

CuteOnly logo was simple. When we’ve launched first back in 2004, we’ve had a million of other issues to care about. Coding, stuff, workflow, new office and cash, cash, cash. Now we have time to think.

Down below are some versions of the logo we’ve created and rejected:

Ugly, right? Especially the last one. Creepy mascot — everybody seems to hate him. He was supposed to be cute, but turned out creepy instead.

All new CuteOnly service is coming

CuteOnly was designed back in 2004 and the design starts to wear out.  Sure we were

  • improving it
  • adding new features
  • fixing bugs
  • rewriting the engine to withhold the workload.

The last one is something hidden from our clients’ eyes. Since the website has evolved from 0 to 100 000 users, a lot of work has been done to support it. But why should you care? Customers like you need a nice, usable and fast service, period.

So we’re creating an all-new CuteOnly:

  • Wholly new design — wholly new brand
  • Wholly new interface — we have rethought every screen and every action
  • Wholly new code — we’ve preserved no single line of code and reworked it all from the scratch.

We’re going to show you some peaces of our work here. Listen to your opinion. Improve. Make it serving your needs, dear customer. See you soon.