RSVP

This is the second year for the Editor's Top Pick - Australian Award. The winner of the award this year (2010) is RSVP. Australia's number one most visited dating site got even busier in 2010. Now on average over 1,200 singles join the site every day and its membership base has now reached 1.6 million members. According to an their own internal statistics, RSVP is responsible in matching eight percent of all current long term relationships in Australia and three percent of marriages in the country. It is the place where 1 in 10 Australian couples meet.

There are several different membership types available at RSVP. You have the free standard RSVP membership which allows you to send emails to paid members, RSVP Priority that allows you to send email to all members, and RSVP Private which gives you even greater control over your profile. If that is not enough they have MyType which is a private and guided online dating experience where they will supply you will highly compatible matches.

If you are looking for a popular online dating site for Aussie singles then RSVP.com.au should definitely be on your list to check out.

Read our review of RSVP for more information about this dating service or visit RSVP directly.

This Year's Runner Up for this award is: eHarmony

Our Australian visitors have become a important part of our community, so this year we decided to offer the Editor's Top Pick - Australian Award. The recipient of this Award is the most visited dating site in Australia, RSVP. In business for 13 years and with over 1.5 million carefully screened profiles this is an Australian singles best choice for an online dating service.

As with most countries, Australia has plenty of dating sites which can make it confusing for first time online daters, which one do you join? Well, we found RSVP has several reasons why, which made it our pick for Editor's Choice.

• They have over 1000 new Aussie singles joining the site every day. RSVP is very popular in cities like Sydney, Perth and Melbourne (just to name a few).
• Profiles need to be mostly completed before a member can communicate or be viewable by other members.
• New members can reply to subscribed members messages. This means members who buy stamps can communicate with all users on the dating site.
• Easy to filter profiles of members who have not logged in recently. When searching you can specify to filter out members who have not been active within a certain time period.
• One of the few dating sites to offer single events and parties in all States of Australia.

RSVP is dating site for all types of single people. It doesn't matter if you are gay or straight, young or old, or if you are looking for a casual relationship or something long-term, there will be someone on RSVP that meets your match criteria. RSVP makes it easy to find these people by offering excellent search tools and once you have found them, you can use email or instant messaging to get to know them better. If you are looking for love in Australia, then RSVP is the dating site to try out first.

Read our review of RSVP for more information about this dating service or visit RSVP directly.

There was no Runner Up this year for the award.

According to IBISWorld the online dating industry in Australia experienced a 5 percent growth in 2009. This year they predict that growth may reach 10 percent with earnings of almost $100 million AUD from advertising and subscriptions.

So how many people use dating sites in Australia? RSVP, the leading Australian dating site, surveyed more than 3000 people. They found that 50 percent had used online dating before with 10 percent of those surveyed (300 people) finding a partner on the internet. The number of active online dating accounts in Australia is also expected to increase from 1.5 million to almost 2 million by 2020.

For more on the story, read The Times of India. To find out more about Australia's leading dating site, read our RSVP review.

Edward Butler, a senior analyst at IBISWorld, used Australian Bureau of Statistics data and industry surveys to review and crunch data on the global sex services industry. He determined that the $1.2 billion industry has seen a 6 percent ($74 million) decline since the global financial crisis started. Brothels, tobacco and alcohol are usually recession proof but that doesn't appear to be the case this time.

Some analysis like Butler think that the popularity of adult dating sites have taken business from the sex industry. Adult dating sites make it easier for consenting adults to be frank about what they want and need in terms of sex. It has never been cheaper for like-minded individuals to organise casual liaisons with the rise of adult and casual dating services.

About 1.5 million men and women now have accounts in Australia with sites such popular dating sites as RSVP, Match.com and eHarmony. Most of these singles are not looking for casual sex and are intent on finding a partner for a long term relationship. Adult FriendFinder, one of the more popular casual sex dating sites reports on having just over 892 thousand profile listings from Australia.

For more on the story, read The Sydney Morning Herald.

From a Australia point of view, online dating for singles 50 years or older, is seeing a huge increase in popularity. The premier Australian dating site, RSVP has seen a 30 percent increase of these members each year, for the last 5 years. Currently 13 percent of all members are over the age of 50 at RSVP.

RSVP is not alone in their findings. Other Australian dating sites are reporting the same trend. Match.com Australian dating site has seen similar numbers. 12 percent of Match.com.au members are over 50 and this age groups saw an increase of 23 percent in 2008.

For a bit more on this story, see Stuff. To find out more about the most popular dating site in Australia, read our RSVP review.

The company which owns the Australian dating site RSVP, didn't perform very well last year. Fairfax Media's revenue for the year which ended in June, fell 27 percent to $605 million AUD when compared to the previous year. The online division of Fairfax which includes RSVP, TradeMe (auctions) and Stayz (accommodation) suffered a 8 percent fall in earnings for the last half of the year. In the several year before 2007 the online division had experienced double digit growth.

The loss of income from online job ads was the cause listed for the earnings drop in Fairfax's online division. It is not mentioned how the dating site RSVP actually performed but from reading between the lines it appears to experienced a marginal decrease in revenue as well.

For more on this news, read The Australian Business and to find out more about the most popular dating site in Australia, check out our RSVP review.