Dating Services

Spark Networks is one of the few dating companies to be a Better Business Bureau (BBB) Accredited business. They have been one since 1999. Being a BBB accredit business means that the:

... BBB has determined that the business meets accreditation standards which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints.

Why is belonging to the BBB important? The BBB is an international recognized independent organization that allows consumers to not only voice their own opinions about a company but it also allows them to file a complaint which will be monitored by the BBB on how the accredited business responds. If you check out Spark Networks BBB report you can see the number of complaints they have had in the last 36 months and the type of response which was given. The response of Spark Networks directly reflects their BBB rating. This doesn't mean Spark Networks has to comply with every consumer request but they do need to follow the contract they entered in with their customers or risk receiving a lower BBB rating.

Match.com released a interesting study on April 20, 2010 about America's dating behavior. Back in 2009 and early 2010 Match.com commissioned Chadwick Martin Bailey to conduct 3 studies. With these studies, 3 surveys were created to collect data:

• Marriage Survey - A survey of people who were married within the last 5 years.
• Online Dating Survey - A survey of people who have used dating sites within the last 5 years.
• General Survey - A survey of people who are single or are in a new relationship.

Over 11,000 people participated in these surveys. All are 18 years or older and live in the United States. The General Survey's participants also had income of at least $30,000.

From these surveys Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB) concluded several interesting findings.

Marriage Survey - 7000 participants

• 38 percent of couples who married in the last year met through work or school.
• 27 percent of couples who married in the last year met through a friend or family.
• In the last 3 years (and year), 17 percent of couples who married met on a online dating site. (1 in 6 couples)
• Bars, Clubs and other social events counted for only 8 percent of marriages.
• Churches counted for 4 percent of marriages.

Online Dating Survey - 3000 participants

• Match.com counted for 30 percent of all marriages of people who met on dating sites. The 2nd ranked competitor was at 16%, followed by the 3rd at 15 percent.
• 35 percent of Match.com members had a relationship of 3 months or more. The 2nd ranked competitor was at 17%, followed by the 3rd at 16 percent.

General Survey - 2525 participants

• 20 percent of single people have dated someone they met on a dating site. (1 in 5 singles)
• 20 percent of people in a new committed relationship met on a dating site. (1 in 5 singles)

Click here (pdf file) for the full Match.com and Chadwick Martin Bailey study. To find out more about this dating site, read our Match.com review.

Yahoo! Personals is offering a new promotion to members. You can now get these special prices below until May 27, 2010.

Yahoo! Personals Special Offer:

• $11.66 per month for 6 months, a 61% savings. $69.96 billed every 6 months.
• $14.98 per month for 3 months, a 50% savings. $44.95 billed every 3 months.
• $19.95 per month, a 33% savings. Billed monthly.

These prices are a significant savings over the existing $29.99 Yahoo! Personals charges for a 1 month membership.

To find out more about this dating site you should check out our review of Yahoo Personals.

Classified Intelligence Report disclosed today that they have estimated for 2010 that Craigslist will generate $122 million in gross revenue with profits ranging from $88 to $99 million. This works out to about $4 million per employee. Last year (2009) revenue was estimated to be $100 million and back in 2003 revenue was estimated at $7 million for Craigslist. According to the report, half of their revenue in 2010 will come from recruitment advertising while 30 percent comes from the Adult Services listings and a further 17 percent coming from apartment ads in New York City.

In 2009 Craigslist was accused of being a large source for prostitution. In a bid to appease lawmakers Craigslist renamed their "Erotic Services" category to "Adult Services" and upped the fee per listing to $10 (it was $5). Craigslist also agreed to manual approve each listing. When the Erotic Services category was around Craigslist donated the proceeds from these listings to undisclosed charities. Since the name change, Craigslist has stopped this practice.

Find out more at AimGroup.com and for further details about this classifieds website, read our review of Craigslist.

Chemistry is offering a free communication weekend starting this Friday, April 30, 2010 and ending Sunday, May 2nd, 2010. This 72 hour event allows all free members of Chemistry to not only create a profile and be matched with other singles for free, but members will be able to communicate with all members for no cost. Plus, no credit card is required!

If a dating service which matches you on your personality is of interest to you then you have no better weekend to try Chemistry out than now. These free weekends have become quite popular for them with online daters. This is because Chemistry.com's detailed personality test combined with their guided communication and dating process (called 1-2-3 Meet) is a sure-fire way to meet singles looking for a long term relationship and/or marriage.

The last Chemistry.com free weekend for communication happening in March (see Story). This new promotion marks the 7th time Chemistry has offered a free weekend for members. For further details about this online matchmaking service, please read our review of Chemistry.

Zoosk is a dating site which has grown in popularity thanks in large part to them embracing Social Networks like Facebook (they are the number one dating app on Facebook). In January of 2009 Zoosk had 15 million members and in little over a year they have seen tremendous growth. Today, Zoosk has 50 million users worldwide. To expand their network of members further, Zoosk has announced a free iPhone Dating Application which supports multiple languages. Languages supported include English, French, Italian and Spanish. The Zoosk App also allows members to see who has viewed their profile and also allows members to use the iPhone's GPS for location based matching. Since its release the Zoosk iPhone dating application has become the third most popular dating app for the iPhone.

Zoosk also has released an instant messenger program for both Mac and PC computers. The Zoosk Messenger allows for desktop chat with other Zooskers and was developed on the Adobe Air platform to bring a richer, more interactive experience. This online chat program fully integrates into Zoosk and lets you instantly connect with singles in your area. The program also notifies you when your friends come online.

Zoosk must have been one of the fastest growing dating sites last year. This is due to the additional funding they have received (see Zoosk Funding Story) which allowed them to expand their network to multiple platforms and advertise much more extensively online (I am seeing their ads everywhere now). Zoosk wants to cover all platforms of communication it seems and are hoping to own a bigger piece of the $4 billion worldwide online dating industry.

For more on this story, read the press release. You can also checkout our review of Zoosk.