Match Group

If you missed installment one of this article series on OKCupid’s report on age-based dating practices, click here to read OKCupids Asks: Why Aren’t Men Into Older Women?

According to OKCupid, men are pretty much missing the boat when it comes to the women available in the dating pool. Why? Because they skew their age preferences toward women significantly younger and pay little attention to those even marginally older. Men would do much better, they say, at meeting their goals for a healthy, happy relationship if they didn’t rule out the “older woman.” OKCupid used a sample set of 100,000 female users in their study and narrowed down the case for older women into three key areas: sexuality, attitude and looks.

It’s incredible what OKCupid’s user data revealed about sexual preferences for the female population. The original post has a really cool “heat map” that shows, by sliding a slider from age 18 to 40, how female users’ sexual preferences change with age. The younger lean towards preferring sex once per week, while that preference distinctly changes as you approach and move beyond women in their 30s. (Guys – take note. No more complaints about lacking an active sex life if you’re ruling out women who may be a bit older than you!)

Older women also have healthier perspectives on sexual issues like contraception and STD testing according to the post, with older women feeling more strongly about protected sex and frequent STD testing. In a nutshell, younger females seem to want less frequent sex, do it unprotected and are less interested in regular STD testing. (Guys?)

The overall attitude of the older woman is better adjusted as well, according to OKCupid. Their member profile data indicated that women in their 40s have significantly high levels of self-confidence, are happier with their lives overall and feel that the best days of their lives are ahead of them. Now that’s a refreshing outlook, isn’t it? If you’re worried about getting marched to the altar, however, fear no more. 96% of women in their 40s are content being in a relationship that may not end in marriage, but only 62% of 18-year-old women can say the same.

The final area of comparison: looks. OKCupid cites a misconception that women become less attractive as they get older. They also rule-out those who are in long-term relationships or already married and may tend to pay less attention to their appearances. They concluded: women are equally as attractive, regardless of age. Want a real shocker? Check out the fabulous photos of actual OKCupid users at the end of the article. We think you’ll have a hard time guessing who’s the “older woman!”

Bottom line for the guys: maybe you want to take another look at your age preferences in your online dating profile. If you’re willing to pass up a great sex life with an attractive woman with a killer sense of self-confidence, well – your loss! But they’re out there and waiting – all you have to do is click. For more information on the dating site, check out our review of OkCupid.

Popular online dating website OKCupid recently dug into its member base and asked the question: why are men not seeking women of their equal age or older? According to their post-Valentine’s Day blog entry, the typical user on their site aged 22-30 states age preferences for female matches to be younger. Now, that was worth a deeper look by their staff and what they found might surprise you.

OKCupid’s user base peaks at about 7 million users aged 24 and drops significantly as age increases. This could simply be a factor of OKCupid having developed into an online dating site that caters to a younger crowd or that membership over age 30 decreases because people in those age brackets are in relationships/married. So herein lies the question that OKCupid set out to answer: why are older women on the site having a more difficult time matching-up than their male counterparts?

It all comes down to age preferences stated in the male user’s online dating profile, they say.

While the male to female user ratio on OKCupid stays fairly balanced across the age brackets, men consistently indicate in their user profiles that they prefer dating younger women. While they do indicate that they are open to older women, it’s with much narrower limits. For example: OKCupid’s average 31-year-old male user sets his age range preference for women as 22 to 35 – a full nine years younger but a mere 4 years older. And here’s the shocker – as male age increases, age preferences toward younger women skew even further. They give the example of their median 42-year-old male user typically looking for women up to fifteen years younger but only three years their senior.

Interestingly enough, when OKCupid flipped the coin, they found women to be much more tolerant of age ranges. Women on the site typically message those younger and older than themselves with equal frequency. They also become more open to dating older men after age 29 according to messaging practices tracked on the site.

So with the skew in view, where does that leave men and women in the quest to find a match when age enters the equation? Check out the second installment of this article: OKCupid Says Men Are Looking for Older Women and Just Don’t Know It. For more information on the dating site, check out our review of OkCupid.

The recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Innovative Award is Match.com. In 2009 Match.com introduced a number of new features and it was also the year in which Match.com embraced the smartphone. MatchMobile has been around since 2005 (I believe) and allows the everyday cell phone to connect to Match.com, search for matches, view profiles, and send emails. Match.com decided to expand on this functionality and last March released an iPhone App. With its larger high quality screen and touch interface the iPhone made mobile dating easier to view and simpler to use (no typing on a 10 digit pad). iPhone users also were able to edit their profiles and use other features of Match.com which is not available on MatchMobile. The iPhone with its built in GPS also allowed Match.com to offer location based dating to its members. This opt-in feature allowed you to see if there are other Match.com members nearby in which you could communicate with. This is ideal for singles who enjoy the bar scene and want to find other singles in the vicinity. Later in the year the Palm Pixi and Palm Pre also saw the release of a similar Match.com dating application and in January 2010 an App for the Blackberry was released. An app for Andriod is also expected soon and once released Match.com will have a dating application for 90 percent of all smartphones. This gives them a huge jump on the competition.

Late in December of 2009 Match.com released a suite of matching tools called "My Match". These tools were designed to complement Match.com's existing search capabilities. In the suite members will be familiar with the "Daily 5" which Match first launch in December of 2008. The Daily 5 provides a quick and easy way for you to review qualified matches based on your profile information and preferences. The next tool is called "Mutual Match". It works by sifting through Match.com's database of members to identify those who not only match your criteria, but whose criteria also match you. The third dating tool is called "Singled Out". This feature allows Match.com when they find a member who really stands out as someone they think you'll have a connection with, to "single this match out" for your consideration. The last tool in the suite is called "Like At First Sight". This tool has an additional quiz component which concentrates on finding out what makes a good first impression to you. Based on your answers Match.com will introduce you to members which should have immediate appeal for you.

If you are interested in a dating service which continues to innovate and create a better overall online dating experience then Match.com is an ideal choice.

Read our review of Match.com for more information about this online dating service or visit Match.com directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: OkCupid.

Match.com and Meetic have created an equal partnership together in Latin America where the two dating companies will be combining their resources. According to the CEO of Match.com, Greg Blatt:

By combining ParPerfeito's strength in the Brazilian market with Match.com's presence in the rest of Latin America, we believe we're best positioned to drive that expansion and create an asset of meaningful value. We're confident from our work together in Europe that further partnering with Meetic will be a productive experience.

The online dating market is less mature in Latin American than the larger North America and Europe markets. By making a combined push now both companies feel that they will come out ahead in this merging dating market. Match.com will control the new entity's operations and will pay Meetic $3 million in cash at the closing (March 15, 2010). I am not sure what Meetic's responsibility in all this is but, I will assume that they must be required to push traffic to the new venture. At the beginning of the fourth year of operations Match.com has reserved the right to buy Meetic's share of the entity at fair market value.

When we receive more news about this new entity (like the name of the website) we will be sure to pass it on.

For more on the story read the press release.

Match.com currently offers their dating application on the iPhone (see Story), the Palm Pixi (see Story) and the Palm Pre (see Story), or so I thought! While researching a story about the Google Android OS I see Match.com now offer a dating application for the Blackberry phone. As with the other Match.com smart phone applications you can browse for singles, send and receive emails and wink at members. Blackberry App users can also upload photos and edit their profiles. These smart phone apps for the most part allow you to do everything you can on the website. As far as I can tell the Blackberry Match.com dating application was released sometime late January, 2010.

We also just got news that Match.com is currently working on a dating application for Android phones. Once this app is completed in the coming months Match.com will have almost 90 percent of the world's smart phones covered with their dating application. When you combine this with their current matchMobile service (which has been around for a number of years now for regular cell phones) you can tell Match.com has taken a special interest in mobile dating.

For more on the story read Forbes. To find out more about mobile dating applications on Match.com, read out review of Match.com.

This coming weekend at Chemistry.com they will be offering all members the ability to communicate for free. This means starting Friday Feb. 5th, 2010 to Sunday, Feb. 7th, 2010 new and existing members will be able to email the matches Chemistry sends them for no cost.

Chemistry.com is a dating site which offers an in-depth matchmaking system. You don't search for matches on this dating site, Chemistry sends them to you based on what you entered in your profile and what combination of personality attributes their research shows creates a healthy and long relationship. Dr. Helen Fisher is a famous Biological Anthropologist who helped Chemistry.com create their unique matchmaking and communication process.

This is Chemistry's fifth time running this promotion with the last Chemistry.com Flirtathon happening in the beginning of December, in 2009 (see Story). For more information on this matchmaking service, read our Chemistry.com review.