????36歲的雅岡是一個熱情的怪人——對，也是個狂人。他說話語速很快，也很坦率。他咧嘴笑道：“總有一天我會被炒魷魚，那也挺好。”聽這位Match的首席執行官談起收購，很難不讓人想起《菜鳥大反攻》（Revenge of the Nerds）這部電影：一個自稱內向的人，只施展出一點點的功力，就在一個蒸蒸日上的行業成為頂級大腕。（看看曾被稱為“與好友約炮”的Down，還有讓用戶上傳一張限時銷毀的照片的Snapchat，包括它們在內的大量新應用表明：一旦網上交友導致了社會丑聞的發生，這個產業就會很快萎縮，并可能迅速地徹底消亡。）

????能夠成為一名連續創業家讓雅岡非常興奮。如今他扮演著完全不同的角色。如果繼續在這條路走下去，他能夠心滿意足，就此收手嗎？他說：“我喜歡開公司，這是我骨子里的追求。但這也是個極好的機會——可以成為收購方，而不是總當待價而沽的出售方。”

????確實，Match收購了太多公司，網上交友領域的強大競爭對手已經屈指可數：最大的對手是eHarmony，這家公司主打以結婚為目的的交友。其次是Spark Networks（與SparkNotes毫無關系），它是依托于地區的交友網站如JDate和ChristianMingle的母公司。再之后的對手，規模則急劇下降。不過后面這類對手中，PlentyOfFish（完全免費，打價格戰），HowAboutWe（專攻情侶可以一起進行的活動）和Zoosk（據說今年將會公開上市）也算有些分量。這幾家公司都有自己的側重點，不過任何一家似乎都無法發展到足以匹敵Match或eHarmony。后者最近召回了2007年退休的尼爾?克拉克?華倫博士（你從該網站的廣告商可以認識他）擔任主管。當被問到Match時，華倫對《財富》說：“實際上只有兩家交友網站，他們和我們。我們彼此之間有趣的競爭已經持續十年了。”

????華倫的公司正砥礪前行，不過他們還需要同Tinder這樣的創新產品展開競爭。這是一個非常流行的手機應用，用戶可以對他人選擇“贊”或者“踩”。許多Tinder的用戶不知道這是Match的產品。這個應用由Match的R&D實驗室研發，在雅岡的指導下發布。盡管Tinder不是個大型網站，卻是這家公司目前致力進步，專注于創新的重要信號。

????Tinder的首席執行官是肖恩?拉德（他告訴《財富》，他通過這個應用遇見了現任女友），但是雅岡對它也很著迷，每天都要找他談話。雅岡認為Tinder是“我們研究出來的最令人激動的產品。”看著Tinder這樣的熱門應用蒸蒸日上，你可能疑惑Match調整業務是否會導致什么風險。雅岡不這么認為，他將IAC的交友產品比作一條工具帶。

????如果Match.com讓你深入了解一個人，你得確定你們有著共同愛好，還要相信你們的約會不會搞砸。Tinder則完全不同，它傾向于讓用戶和約會對象隨意地喝一杯，壓力也不那么大。雅岡說：“如果你是單身，想利用網絡技術來一次約會，那么我認為在你的約會的工具帶上多準備幾種工具是再正常不過的事情。”

????這個比喻可以看出雅岡的樂觀態度——也許可以進一步想象，一個人利用兩個網站或者三個應用，來發掘將來的約會機會——同時也可以看出他對兼并的信心。當然，他需要相信每個約會的人都需要許多網站和應用，因為他正在不斷收購它們。如果他總能做出明確的收購決定，大家盡可以期待Match進一步壯大。不過，如果雅岡很快就在浩如煙海的新創公司中發現了新目標，你也不用感到太吃驚。（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正??

????Yagan, 36, is warm and quirky in person -- and, yes, nerdy. He speaks quickly and also candidly. "It's going to get me fired some day," he says with a grin, "and that's fine." Listening to him talk about his purchasing power as CEO of Match, it's hard not to think of Revenge of the Nerds: Here's a self-professed introvert who is now the de facto guru in a growing industry with, some feel, only barely tapped potential. (A host of new apps, like Down, which was originally called Bang with Friends, and Snapchat, which allows you to send a photo that will quickly vanish, suggest that if there was ever any social stigma with using online dating, it is dramatically waning and may soon die completely.)

????Yagan was deliriously happy being a serial entrepreneur. Now he's in a very different role. Farther down the road, might he get the itch to leave? "I love starting companies. That's my DNA," he says. "But this is a pretty great opportunity -- being able to buy instead of always being on the sell side."

????Indeed, Match buys so much that the list of significant e-dating competitors is short: Its biggest is eHarmony, which places an emphasis on marriage as the goal. Next: Spark Networks (no relation to SparkNotes), the parent company of religion-centric dating sites like JDate and ChristianMingle. After those, size drops steeply, but there are options like PlentyOfFish (totally free, thus it competes on price), HowAboutWe (focused on activities couples can do together) and Zoosk (rumored to be going public this year). Each one has its own angle, but it's unlikely any can grow to rival the size of Match or eHarmony, which recently brought back Dr. Neil Clark Warren (you know him from the site's ads) to run it after he retired in 2007. Warren, asked about Match, tells Fortune, "There are really only two sites, there's them and us. It's been a fun chase that we've had for 10 years."

????Warren's company is ramping up its efforts of late but will need to compete with innovative new products like Tinder, a virally popular mobile app that invites you to swipe "yes" or "nope" to a person. Many of Tinder's users don't realize that it is owned by Match; the app came from its R&D lab and launched under Yagan's guidance. Though it is no large site, Tinder is an important signal of the innovation the company is now focused on moving forward.

????Sean Rad is Tinder's CEO (and tells Fortune he met his current girlfriend through his app), but Yagan is deeply involved and speaks to him every day. He sees Tinder as the "most exciting thing that has come from us." As a hot app like Tinder gains steam, you might wonder if there's any risk that Match is cannibalizing its own business. Yagan thinks not; he compares IAC's suite of dating products to a tool belt.

????If Match.com allows you to read up on someone, make sure you have shared interests, and be confident you won't have a bad date, Tinder is at the other end of the spectrum, suited to meeting up for a casual drink with less pressure. "If you're a single person and you want to use technology to get dates," Yagan says, "I don't think it's crazy to have different tools in your dating tool belt."

????That's an analogy that shows much about Yagan's optimism -- it may be a stretch to imagine one person actively using two different websites and a trio of apps, all at once, to mine for prospective dates -- as well as his faith in acquisitions. Of course, he has to believe that every dater needs multiple sites or apps, since he continues buying them. If he keeps making wise decisions in what he selects, expect Match to get even bigger. But don't be surprised if Yagan soon moves on to a new fish in the corporate sea.