Summary & Nature of Online Dating

Online dating services are definitely more mainstream than several years ago, but are in trouble and beset by customer dissatisfaction today. Memberships soared after Sept. 11, 2001, but growth has slowed dramatically the past two years as the "novelty" has worn off.  Now, the 850+ dating sites are fighting over retaining members, branching out to off-line services, and focusing more on long-term relationships and marriage, not just dating.

The hot topic now is background checks (criminal, marital status, etc.) and the accuracy of the free profiles dating sites' members post. A handful of states have bills pending or proposed that may mandate background checks for these services, but so far the major dating sites have been excluded from this legislation, due to their lobbying efforts.

According to the Online Publishers Association, U.S. consumers spent an estimated $490 million on online Personal/Dating content during 2005, up less than 5% over 2004.This is compared to 47% growth in 2003 and more than 300% in 2002.

The United States online personals market has evolved over the last six years. Until recently, the market was fragmented but is now consolidating as the main competitors make acquisitions and tie up the major available routes for online personals services to reach large numbers of potential customers by establishing relationships with the major Internet portals, search engines and Internet service providers.

There is no question that the dating websites used to represent the fastest-growing segment of this industry, and that they have hurt many of the other competing introduction services in the process. However, even off-line competitors say that they have actually helped to increase the size of the pie for the entire market—bringing dating services into the mainstream. Many singles today start out using these low-priced websites and eventually migrate to higher-priced services with more personal service (matchmakers). Many soon realize just how much work it is to surf the Internet and how photos and information about potential mates can be unreliable.

The online personals business as been dominated for the last four years by Match.com, which is owned by InterActiveCorp, and the Personals division of Yahoo Inc.

“Still years behind the United States, in Europe, online personals are expected to be the biggest category for paid content for the foreseeable future” stated Joe Shapira, Spark Network’s chairman and chief executive officer. Latin America and Australia are also seen as future growth markets.

• 70% of singles say online dating today is more mainstream, compared to a few years ago.

• 59% of users said that in order to meet someone, they are likely or very likely to join an online dating service, compared with 29% two years ago.

• 12% of users would put an ad in the classifieds section of a local newspaper.

• 53% of men and 48% of women cite the convenience of online dating as a reason why they would be likely to join an online dating service.

• More than 80% of both males and females say that online dating is as safe or safer than meeting someone at a bar.

How Dating Websites Operate – What You Get For Your Money

The online dating services today can be grouped into three categories: