More On Online Love From The Oxford Internet Institute

A little while ago, we took a look at some of the findings from a recent study conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute that collected data from cohabitating couples in 18 countries. Each participant was asked questions like:

• How did you meet your partner?
• What dating strategies did you use prior to meeting your current partner?
• How do you maintain your current relationships and social networks?
• How do you use the Internet in everyday life and work?

Several patterns became clear from the data:

1. Success through online dating is steadily on the rise. More than a quarter of the relationships studied that started within the last 5 years began online.
2. Dating online compliments dating in the offline world, which is still popular despite the explosion of online dating sites.
3. Nearly half of people who meet online do not actually meet using dating Web sites, but rather connect through more general social networking sites.

Using online dating sites to find love was most popular in Germany, where 29% of the couples studied reported meeting their current partners online. Sweden followed closely behind, with 28%, while Greece and Ireland represented the lowest percentage, with fewer than 16% of couples saying that they met online.

The most popular offline location to meet people was, surprisingly, the workplace - 20% of couples who met their partner offline said that they met at work. Church, on the other hand, was the least successful love location: less than 2% of couples said they'd met there, and only 1 in 15 who said they were actively looking for love at church had found it.

The study found that gay men use online dating more than anyone else, with 50% turning to online dating sites, while heterosexual men prefer to search in bars and clubs (73%).

Of the couples who reported meeting their current partner online, only 38.5% said they had met through an online dating site. The rest met in places like:

• Chat rooms: 24%
• Social networking sites: 14%
• Bulletin boards: 8%

Though that might not sound like much compared to the 38.5% who did meet using online dating sites, consider this important point raised by Marina Adshade: MySpace wasn't around until 2003, the same year that LinkedIn was born, and Facebook didn't go online until a year later. The OII's research covers all couples that met since 1980, far before the proliferation of social networking sites. Looking only at couples who met after these sites became available, the popularity of social networking sites would likely be much greater. So next time you update your online dating profile, consider updating your profile on Facebook as well...you never know where love might be hiding!