Types (Niche)

eHarmony legal troubles may be over in New Jersey but in California they are just starting. According to a press release another class action lawsuit has been filed and certified by California Superior Court Judge, Victoria Chaney.

The plaintiffs in that case maintain that eHarmony’s decision to establish a separate site for gays rather than integrate its flagship site, eHarmony.com, amounts to an unlawful “separate but equal” policy and the continued marginalization of gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

eHarmony's separate site for gay singles is called Compatible Partners, which just launched recently.

An article on QUEERTY called If eHarmony Must Allow Gay Dating, Should Gay Sites Have To Welcome Straights? examines the California lawsuit more closely with some good comments by their readers. The author seems to be on eHarmony's side as he points out if eHarmony must allow gay singles to join their dating site, then sites like ManHunt and Adam4Adman should allow straight singles to join. Some of these gay dating sites do allow heterosexuals to join but most do not cater directly to this type of sexual orientation.

Well, eHarmony finally launched its dating website for same-sex matches yesterday, called Compatible Partners (a day before they were required too). This was part of a settlement agreement with the New Jersey Attorney General that involved a discrimination case against the company.

Compatible Partners Snap Shot

The actual Compatible Partners works pretty much the same as eHarmony and, that might be a problem. Compatible Partners uses the same Patented Compatibility Matching System. As stated on the homepage:

The Company's patented Compatibility Matching System was developed on the basis of research involving married heterosexual couples. The Company has not conducted similar research on same-sex relationships.

While I have not finished our review yet, I can tell you the Compatible Partners questionnaire is pretty much the same as the one on eHarmony. One would tend to think that what makes a heterosexual relationship a success would differ somewhat from a gay relationship. eHarmony does run eHarmony labs which is where the research is done for their matching system. It has a $3 million a year budget. I wonder if they currently have set aside any of these funds for researching what makes a successful gay relationship?

At least what Compatible Partners does bring to the table is a gay and lesbian dating site for establishing long term relationships that is not driven by sex, as a lot of other popular same-sex dating sites seem to be.

If you are looking for a same-sex relationship, visit eHarmony's new dating site CompatiblePartners.net. For a limited time they are offering a free 6 month membership (for the first 10,000 registered members).

Update: Our new review of Compatible Partners is now online.

Match.com has done a number of smart moves lately to keep members using their dating site. On Tuesday, Match.com launched a free application on the Apple App Store for the iPhone and the iTouch. Members now can use most of the features available on the website, on their iPhone. This includes, viewing and editing of your profile (including taking a picture), viewing other members profiles and, sending and receiving messages. New to Match.com as well is the built-in location-based technology available through the iPhone and iTouch. This is an opt-in feature that gives members the ability to see other members near their current location on a graphic map. This feature uses the iPhone's built in GPS and the iTouch's wireless internet connection IP address location.

Match.com has another service which is similar to the iPhone App called MatchMobile. It was launched in 2007 and is designed to allow members to access Match.com with most cell phones. This product uses a mobile web interface and has similar features as the Match iPhone Application, except without the location based technology. Match.com also charges $4.99 for 6 months use of MatchMobile. Since the iPhone App is free, I wonder if MatchMobile will soon be offered for free as well?

Over the last year a few dating sites have created location based dating and they must be cringing now with the news that Match.com has stepped up to the plate relatively early to offer this type of service.

Check out the press release for more information and read our Match.com review for an overview of this dating site.

Here is the gender ratios of members at ChristianCafe.com grouped by age range for January 2009:

Source: Online Personals Watch

Except for members who are 18 - 20 years old, females make up the greater percentage of members at Christian Cafe. As you move up in each age range segment, females gain a few more percentage points over the previous segment. By the 51 - 60 age rage there are twice as many females as males. Does this mean older males are less likely to consider Religion as an important factor in dating or do just more older females join dating sites in general compared to men of similar age?

For more information on this award winning dating site, read our ChristianCafe.com review.

ABC News has a story that looks at Sugar Daddy dating to find out if this type of dating arrangement is a fun way to explore love or if it is prostitution. The most famous Sugar Daddy arrangement was when Anne Nicole Smith went out with, and ultimately married the Texas oil billionaire, J. Howard Marshall in the mid 90s. ABC examines a couple in New York. Melanie is an 18 year old part time model who is going out with a guy named Chris. Chris is a 40 year old multi millionaire who also happens to be married. They both see the relationship as mutually beneficial. He gets to feel young again and has a sexual companion (I'm not sure where the wife is with all this) and Melanie gets a $5,000 a month rent apartment, all her bills paid, and to travel for free. According to Melanie:

... a sugar baby is a relationship you're dating someone but you have a monthly allowance ... You make it clear if you want to have sex or you don't want to have sex.

Good Morning America also weighed in on the subject , some on the panel called the woman in these type of relationship escorts and prostitutes while others said it was more like dating with perks.

As long as no one is getting hurt or doing anything illegal I usually don't have a problem with it. I just wonder why in stories like this, it is always the woman who has to defend herself. Chris is an active participant in the relationship as well. In fact, since Chris is married, he should be the one on trial.

For more information on the story The Anatomy of Dating a Sugar Daddy, visit ABC News. For a full list of our reviewed Sugar Daddy dating sites, check out our [staticpage: Wealthy-Singles-Dating-Sites] category.

There is a promising future for mobile dating as predicted by Juniper Research. They claim the value of the chatroom market and mobile dating will grow to almost $1.4 billion by 2013. For the most part revenue will be generated by subscriptions but event-based charging (like paying a fee to contact someone or virtual gifts) and advertising will continue to become a larger part of the revenue stream.

... many companies which have migrated to this approach are seeing conversion rates amongst customers buying premium rate goods and services which generate revenues significantly in excess of those achieved under flat rate subscriptions.

By 2011 it is predicted less than 30 percent of mobile dating customers will be on a flat rate subscription model. China and Japan currently have the largest number of mobile dating customers.

There is no mention what the 2008 revenue is for this market. Currently from our reviewed online dating services, Match.com (called matchMobile), Date.com, Lavalife, DatingDirect and Shaadi.com all offer a mobile phone service along with their dating website. Other sites like MeetMoi also offer location based mobile dating based on the GPS in your phone (with lots of privacy options of course). With the rise of 3G and the large bandwidth it provides I expect to see the rise of video mobile dating as well.

For reviews on dating services that offer a mobile/cell phone dating service check out our new Mobile Dating Category.