Statistics

Since the company launched in the late-nineties, eHarmony has branded itself as a more serious online dating service, focused on helping users find relationships and cultivating a different reputation that popular hookup app Tinder.

The company has long prided itself on this distinction, but in the process, has also fallen behind fast-growing apps like Tinder and Bumble who cater to a more tech and social media-saavy audience. eHarmony’s strategy to attract new users has focused primarily on TV advertising, an old school approach, but now they are ready to move forward and capture more users via social media ads.

“When I became CEO a year ago, there were a number of things that needed changing,” said eHarmony’s Grant Langston in an interview with Digiday. “The apps, communications and design all felt antiquated — it was like we stopped working on the product in 2010.”

I am always looking for the latest dating service statistics and I see that the research firm IBISWorld has updated their report on dating services in the United States for 2017. I don't have access to the complete report but they do list a few statistics on their summary page.

Now when people think of dating services they think of just online dating. In today's world online dating covers both websites and dating apps (mobile dating). This is not the complete picture though as matchmakers, and singles events (meeting people in real life) are also included in these statistics.

In 2017 revenue is expected to be over $3 billion USD. Annual growth from 2012 to 2017 is 5.3%. In all there are 6,747 companies in the dating business who employee 9,592 people.

If you are interested in more information on the dating industry you can check out our Dating Industry facts and statistics page which also includes information on the more popular companies in the dating world along with different statistics about relationships when related to meeting online.

Online dating is one of the most popular ways to meet people, thanks to free apps and services like Plenty of Fish and Tinder. But many daters opt to be more particular in their search, and are willing to pay for a more curated experience, whether it’s online dating, matchmaking, or even “casual dating” services, like escorts.

According to a new study done by Statista for the Digital Market Outlook (DMO), the United States has the largest share of adults worldwide who are actively paying for a dating service. More than a quarter – 26 percent - of daters in the U.S. are paying for dating services, followed by the UK at almost 21 percent and Germany with 17 percent.

Daters in France, China and Saudi Arabia were the least likely to pay for a dating service according to the study, with 13%, 11% and 5% of daters respectively who were active paying customers at the time of the study.

Early last year Beijing Kunlun purchased a large stake (61% for $93 million) in Grindr. Well they must have liked the results of the purchase as it has been announced that they plan to purchase the rest of the shares (31.47%) for $152 million USD. This means they will become the sole owner of Grindr.

Grindr currently is based in Los Angeles, California. The dating app matches gay men based mainly on photos and location. The app currently has 27 million registered users from almost 200 countries with 30% of them from the United States. For more on this dating app you can read our Grindr review.

Tinder has a reputation as a hook-up app, but what about people who want to find lasting relationships? Should they look elsewhere, asking friends to set them up or striking up conversation at a bar instead of going online? How does Tinder really compare to people who meet the old-fashioned way – in real life?

A new study (commissioned and released by Tinder) shows that contrary to stereotypes, many people use Tinder with the intent of finding a relationship. And for those who prefer the real life approach, who proclaim it to be more genuine or organic, it seems this is not the reality, either.

Thanks to Tinder, we may now have a glimpse of what daters really want.

As we close out the first quarter of 2017, Happn has big plans to drive growth during the remainder of the year.

CEO Didier Rappaport told Business Insider that the company is working on a “new business model” that adds subscriptions to the service. Though the subscription model is still being tested, the tentative plan is to remove the ads (which currently fund the company) for users with paid accounts.

Since launching three years ago, Happn has built a user base of 25 million people. However, the company has yet to become profitable, and that’s its chief goal for 2017.