Jim Safka
| Jim Safka | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
May 7, 1968 Elmhurst, Illinois, United States |
| Spouse(s) | Mandy Montoya (m. 1996; div. 2014) |
| Children | 2 |
| Residence | Menlo Park, California |
| Occupation | Executive |
James Patrick Safka (born 7 May 1968) is an American digital media executive and former Chief Executive Officer of Match.com and Ask.com.
At Match.com, an online dating service with more than 20 million members, Safka served as CEO from August 2004 to June 2007.
Four months after Safka took over, Match.com paid subscriptions had increased by 10%, and by early 2005 the number of subscribers topped one million. Under each year of Safka’s leadership, Match.com’s business grew in excess of 20%. In 2006, he sought Dr. Phil McGraw, the well-known television psychologist and “America’s relationship authority” to join forces with Match.com – Dr. Phil's first affiliation with a major national brand. Safka situated Dr. Phil in Match.com's multimillion-dollar national television campaign. Dr. Phil also developed an innovative relationship counseling product, available exclusively through Match.com, based on Dr. Phil’s tough-love approach. Safka's partnership with Dr. Phil ultimately contributed to the brand’s dramatic growth.
Safka was responsible for targeted marketing to key online dating subgroups, specifically baby boomers. This approach accelerated both the brand’s market penetration and its share success. Safka's insight into differing cultural norms and their ultimate effect on what individuals expect from a relationship caused international expansion of Match.com, where the company achieved local dominance through marketing, advertising and product strategies.
Safka served as CEO for Ask.com (a division of IAC search & Media Inc) from January 2008 to May 2009. During Safka's tenure, the Ask Network became the 6th ranked U.S. internet property; its highest ranking ever. Safka led key strategic marketing and product initiatives, enhancing Ask's position in the hotly competitive search category. He re-focused the brand on its question-and-answer origin, and launched an aggressive effort that added more than 300 million “question and answer” pairs to the site. Leveraging the “wisdom of crowds” theory, many of these pairs came from everyday internet users. Safka further expanded the company's leadership in question-and-answers with Ask.com's acquisition of Dictionary.com.
Safka also launched a marketing and advertising strategy leveraging NASCAR—one of the first campaigns of its kind.Tom Garfinkel reflected on the achievement in Sports Business Daily: “It worked because their team was nimble, it worked because of Jim's courage, it worked because there was no competition in this space from Ask’s category. The timing was perfect. We told them that if they came in, they’d be the story. And they have been the story."
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