Match

We have lots of online dating statistics for you today. Most of them have been compiled by comScore which is a company that measures internet traffic worldwide. This will make a nice wrap-up for the year 2012.

To start things, off did you know for the month of September 1 in 10 users on the internet visited a dating site? Well they did. For users of smartphones this statistic doubled to 2 visitors in every 10. Interestingly in quarter 2 of 2010 only 2 percent of every e-Commerce dollar was spent via a mobile device. In 2 short years this has risen to 10 percent which is 1 in every 10 dollars. I would bet that the online dating segment breaks down in a similar fashion since most dating sites have dating apps now.

Anyways, did you know visitors of online dating sites are not a fickle bunch? 26 percent of them visited more than one in a given month. Personal computers still win for quality time though with on average a user spending 80 minutes using online dating sites. This compares to mobile phone users who spent only 70 minutes. Facebook is a target rich environment for the dating site marking machine. 38 percent of all dating site ads are on Facebook. These ads reach almost half (47%) of their target users.

So what are the top ten dating site companies worldwide at the end of 2012 from comScore? Well compared to last year of the top 50 dating sites, 28 percent are new to the list! That is a lot for any industry.

• 1 - Match.com Sites
• 2 - Plenty of Fish Sites
• 3 - Zoosk.com
• 4 - Xpress.com
• 5 - Spark Networks
• 6 - eHarmony
• 7 - SpeedDate.com
• 8 - DateHookup.com
• 9 - Mate1.com
• 10 - Ashley Madison

So how do our English speaking friends overseas feel about online dating? In September of this year 5.7 million people in the United Kingdom (which has a total population of almost 63 million) visited an online dating site. This is a staggering 22 percent increase over the same time period last year. The 55 plus age group demographic led the charge with a 39 percent increase in visitors which topped 1 million unique visitors. The most active age group visiting dating sites was the 25 to 34 year olds with 1.3 million users which works out to 23 percent of all visitors. What was the most popular dating site in the UK? Why Plenty of Fish of course with almost 1.5 million visitors who spent on average for the entire month 115 minutes on POF.com.

A subject related to online dating is social networking. Worldwide for the month of November in 2012, on average a visitor spent 5.2 hours on one or more social network (excludes mobile phones). Over the past 3 months according to Alexa, Facebook came out on top followed by Twitter and then LinkedIn. In the top ten country list (see this) Argentina came out on top with an average of 9.8 hours in a month. Second went to Brazil with 9.7 hours and third was Russia with 9.6 hours. Canada came in 6th with 7.9 hours and the United States was nowhere on the list. This means in the U.S. visitors spent under 7.5 hours a month on social networking sites.

To find out more about the state of online dating in 2012 you can check out this page and view a presentation here. For more information about online dating and dating sites you can read our Statistics and Facts page.

You may not have heard of IAC, but you've definitely heard about what IAC is doing.

Back in 2005, the Internet-focused conglomerate owned a diverse range of businesses that included Expedia, the Home Shopping Network, and Ticketmaster. All were fast-growing businesses, but they failed to work together as a coherent whole.

Over the next three years IAC streamlined, whittling down its assets to 23 businesses and more than 150 Web and media-related brands. Now, in 2012, IAC's ventures total 5.91 billion pages views per month.

IAC will continue to transform, but one thing is certain: the company isn't going away any time soon. Its two main businesses - online dating and Internet search - are thriving and show no signs of doing anything but that for a long time to come. IAC dominates the online dating industry as owner of Match.com and 30 other dating sites, and offers search services through Ask.com and a collection of apps.

In a not too surprising move IAC announced last Friday that it has acquired the free dating site DateHookup.com. No financial terms of the agreement have been disclosed. IAC already owns such popular dating sites as Match.com, Chemistry.com and OkCupid. Datehookup.com was founded by Dustin Weirich in 2002 and has grown over the years to become the 6th most visited dating site on the internet. Every month DateHookup.com receives over 1 million unique visitors.

Over the past few years IAC has acquired a number of dating sites. Here are their most recent purchases:

• 2011 – OkCupid for $50 million (see Story)
• 2010 – Singlesnet (see Story)
• 2009 – People Media for $80 million (see Story)

Every year since 2009 IAC has bought a dating site. If the pattern holds true I wonder who they plan to purchase in 2013? I heard rumors a while ago that they may be interested in Cupid PLC since they are performing well in the European market. I have my doubts it will happen though, since Cupid PLC does operate some adult oriented dating services.

For more on the story you can read the IAC press release. To find out more about the dating sites involved you can read our Match.com review and DateHookup.com review.

According to Dan Slater, an expert in the business of online dating, the answer may be "yes."

The recent online dating industry conference in Miami, Florida saw a range of participants - from the major corporote players like IAC, the owner of Match and OkCupid, to the indie industry-disrupters like Plenty of Fish and Grindr. Every company thinks they know exactly what the future will hold for the industry - what's going to die out, what's going to be the next big thing - but who really has a handle on where online dating is going?

Day One of the conference began with a keynote address from Gary Kremen, the founder of Match.com, the Internet's first mass-market dating site. Match was, and still is, a hugely successful venture, but the climate is changing and online dating sites must adapt with it.

In 2007, Alex Mehr and Shayan Zadeh did exactly that, by creating a dating site that was modeled on social networking sites. Mehr and Zadeh launched Zoosk as a third-party dating app for Facebook, and by 2012 it had reached nearly 5 million unique visitors and had climbed to the top of the U.S. Rankings of online dating sites. Zoosk's success begs the question: Is the Match model dying?

"One of its former employees," writes Slater, "who spoke to a packed conference room in the afternoon, believes that Match and its kind--i.e. traditional dating sites, which, by the way, currently account for most of the industry--have seen their day." Brian Bowman, the former VP of product development at Match, has created a new dating application called TheComplete.me in hopes of giving the online dating industry the upgrade it needs.

Rather than giving users a static profile, TheComplete.me will tap into the sites that members use every day, like Netflix, Picasa, or Amazon, to create a dynamic picture of who each user is. The idea is to create a profile that evolves with you, and is a more complete and personalized representation of who you are than the anonymous profiles used by traditional dating sites.

Taking dating in this direction means major changes for the ideas of privacy and transparency. "If online-dating culture advances to the point where the person you're hoping to date has an expectation of transparency," says Slater, "or, in Bowman's words, 'authenticity,' openness will become the new norm."

The idea is still in its infancy, but it's big news for the online dating industry and may be, in the near future, big news for you.

Recipient of Gold
Match.com

Recipient of Silver
eHarmony

Recipient of Bronze
Badoo

We wrapped up the 2011 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll today. It ran from October 1st, 2011 and ended today, January 30, 2012. We almost reached 1000 votes, the most we ever have had. In total we had 987 voters who answered 2 questions. The first being which paid dating site would you recommend for the "2011 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award". The second question asked which free dating site you would recommend.

The annual Single's Choice Award is our most important award we give out. This is because it is voted on by you. Collectively our visitors spend many more hours online with these dating sites compared to what it is possible for us to do. We do have our own opinions as well which is why we have the Editor's Top Pick awards. These awards are based on our own experiences as well as the comments we receive from visitors throughout the year.

For 2011 we listed the top eight dating sites for you to vote on. The three dating sites which received the most votes will get an award, Gold for first, Silver for second and Bronze for third.

The recipient of the Gold 2011 Single's Choice Award is Match.com. We also gave this dating site the Editor's Top Pick - Overall award as well. Match.com received 331 votes, which is 33.5 percent of all votes. Most other dating sites in the poll only were voted on about 8 percent of the time which makes Match.com almost 5 times more popular than most other sites.

The recipient of the Silver 2011 Single's Choice Award is eHarmony. eHarmony has won this award 4 times in a row. They had 22.5 percent of the vote which works out to 222 votes. eHarmony's match system is as popular as every with users which is also why they were the recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Match System award as well

The recipient of the Bronze 2011 Single's Choice Award is Badoo. This up an coming social dating site made great strides in popularity in only one year to be able to earn the bronze award. While they only had under half of the votes than what the winner of the silver award received, Badoo did get a respectable 95 votes, which works out to almost 10 percent of all votes.

Here are this year's standings for the Single's Choice award for all dating sites in the poll.

1. Match.com
2. eHarmony
3. Badoo
4. Zoosk
5. Chemistry
6. Date.com
7. PerfectMatch.com
8. Lavalife

Thanks to everyone who took the time to vote for the 2011 Single's Choice Award. Our visitors in 2012 will appreciate knowing which dating services are the most popular.

Recipient
Match.com UK

The Editor's Top Pick - United Kingdom Award for 2011 goes to Match.com UK. According to a recent blind survey Match.com is responsible for more relationships and marriages in the United Kingdom than any other online dating service.

Match.com in the UK allows members to connect online in more ways. Besides through the Match.com web site on your computer or mobile phones internet browser they support 4 different mobile dating applications. Match.com dating apps are available for the iPhone, Android, Windows Phone and Nokia & Symbian. These apps offer most features of the website including creating/updating your profile, searching, search by location, browsing members, viewing photos, and sending winks. If you are a paid subscriber you can also send and receive messages.

It is free to look on Match.com so if you are single and from the UK, why don't you create your own profile and find other people interested in starting a relationship in your area.

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

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