United Kingdom

White Label Dating mentions The Tonight Show from the iTV network which noted it is estimated that there will be 15 million singles in the United Kingdom by 2011. According to the post, this will make the value of the dating industry at that point, of over £1billion. By comparison, in 2008 there was 10 million Canadian singles and 93 million single Americans. As a general rule of thumb I found for the G7 countries that roughly 1/3 of the population is single at any one time.

For more dating sites that service the UK, see our United Kingdom dating category.

Here are two interesting points from an article called "Dates with destiny", which is hosted on easyJet Inflight.

• Match.com launched their United Kingdom dating site in 2001, interesting enough Marc Simoncini, the founder of Meetic (which is set to purchase Match.com's European Operations) was also launched in 2001.
• In 2004 as online dating became more popular, Match.com became the first dating site to run TV commercials.

For more information on Match.com's British dating site, read our review.

According to NewMediaAge, eHarmony is going to be doing a big marketing campaign in the United Kingdom. This is the first major marketing campaign for the UK version of the dating site, which launched last July (see story). For the first month or so eHarmony UK was offering free 90 day memberships to help populate their database with profiles. The digital marketing agency which eHarmony hired called Essence, will soon be launching a display, search and affiliate campaign. NewMediaAge also estimates eHarmony's US marketing budget at $160 million.

To find out more information about this popular dating service, read our eHarmony review.

It looks like Match.com UK mascots Cupid and Fate will be around for another year. Starting December 26, 2008 Match.com will begin its new multi million pound marketing campaign in the United Kingdom. This campaign will dedicate 50 percent of the available air time to creative's for the new matchmaking personality test (see Story). The new ads will use humour and are targeted primary at women between the ages of 25 to 34.

Read our UK Match.com review for more details on this dating service.

Instead of launching Chemistry in the United Kingdom (which is available only in the US and Canada) Match.com has decided to include a personality test called Match Insights as part of the UK Match.com dating site. After reviewing the 2 tests I found them almost exactly the same (at least with the way I answered the questions). For existing Match.com members you can find the personality test in the My Profile section. According to the press release about this news:

... the self analysis is available free to all match.com online dating members in the UK. This will be followed by a premium service available early next year which will deliver every ’match insights’ user their best matches each day based on their personality type.

It looks like this will become an additional paid service that will most likely continue to be a part of Match.com instead of becoming a whole new dating site.

Match.com UK celebrated 2 milestones in London yesterday. Since 2001 more than 1 Billion emails and 1 Billion winks have been sent through the Match.com dating site. During this celebration Match.com launched match100, a new consumer panel.

The responsibility of this group is to consult on new services and provide a valuable on-the-ground view of the search for love in 21st century Britain.

The match100 is made up of a diverse group of old and current Match.com members from all over Britain. The groups first job will be to create an Insiders Guide to Online Dating based on their own experiences. Find the new match100 media center here.

Related Story: eHarmony has Issued more than 1 Billion Matches

For the full story visit Marketing Week and for further information on Match.com UK dating site read our detailed review.