Online Dating

It looks like Barry Diller will be turning over his CEO job at InteractiveCorp (IAC) soon to Match.com's Greg Blatt. Barry Diller will still remain IAC's chairman and their biggest shareholder. Greg Blatt has been in charge at Match.com since the beginning of 2009. There is no word yet who will take over at Match.com.

For more on the story, read the WSJ and to find out more about some of the dating sites IAC owns, read our Match.com review and our Chemistry.com review.

eHarmony has launched dating sites in the United Kingdom (2008), Brazil (2010) and now it looks like one will be launched in Japan soon. Currently the eHarmony's Japan website (eHarmony.jp) has a welcome message explaining what Japanese singles can expect if they join the dating site plus a short message at the top saying that they will launch soon.

If the launching of the last two country specific eHarmony dating sites is any indication, eHarmony will probably offer three month memberships for free, for the first three months to help populate the member database. We will update our blog when the new site goes live so stay tuned.

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

I was happily surprised to see that eHarmony.com has an early gift for us this holiday season. They are having a free guided communication event starting today (Dec. 3rd) and ending on Sunday December 12th, 2010 (at 11:59pm PST to be exact 😉).

So what does a free guided communication event offer? It allows new members to create a profile, take the personality test and review matches at no cost. Plus, all members will be able to communicate with their matches with the four step guided communication process for free. This initial communication is designed to let matches learn more about each other. During the free guided communication event, Fasttracking the communication process, eHarmony Mail and viewing of members profile pictures are not included.

The last free event occurred at the beginning of November (see Story).This event will mark the 31st time eHarmony has offered it.

For more information on this popular dating site, you can read our eHarmony.com review.

They may have been shy about trying online dating when the trend first started, but now Baby Boomers make up the fastest-growing demographic in the online dating market.

According to a recent article in Time Magazine, online dating sites have seen a surge in memberships of those 50+ looking for love. At Match.com, memberships of those aged 50-65 has increased 89% in the last five years. And on JDate.com, members in the 50+ age group jumped 40% in only one year. In fact, its parent company has a website dedicated specifically to the Boomer market called SingleSeniorsMeet.com, and is its fastest-growing property.

Dr. Helen Fisher, anthropologist and consultant for Chemistry.com, notes that Boomers are the perfect candidates for online dating. They have met most of the people in their network of friends and business colleagues, have limited time, and don't usually go to bars, so the Internet is becoming a more appealing way of meeting new people.

Female Boomers seem to be making the most impact, according to Fisher. She states, "Women are powering into the job market; they have more disposable income so they can walk out of bad marriages...The expectation now is that older people are going to date, and remarry."

Baby Boomers have also had more experience with long-term relationships than younger online daters, and are therefore more certain about what they want in a relationship, which works for online dating. According to Match.com, 71% of members 50+ are divorced and 11% are widowed.

"Many Boomer daters sign up for online dating post-divorce or after a long dating hiatus," said JDate spokesperson Arielle Schechtman. "They are busy professionals, so being able to learn about potential dates online, on their own time schedules, makes online dating more valuable to them than to other age groups."

For more information on the dating sites mentioned in this post, please read our Match.com review, Chemistry review, and our JDate review.

It has been reported that China's leading dating site, Jiayuan.com, is getting ready to be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market in the first half of 2011. The dating site has hired Price Waterhouse Coopers to audit and prepare the listing. With the IPO they hope to raise about $100 million in US funds.

Jiayuan.com was launched in 2003 and has had about 25 million people register online so far. The company also claims that they are responsible for 4.5 million people getting married.

Data from iResearch.cn indicates that since 2008, Jiayuan.com market share in China has hovered just under the 50 percent mark. In 2009, revenue for Jiayuan.com was 80 million Yuan ($12 million USD). It is estimated that this year the company will have over 100 million Yuan ($15 million USD) in revenue.

For more on the story, read China Knowledge. To find information on other dating sites for Asian singles, check out our Ethnic Dating category.

Pauly Shore is the spokesman and judge for the new Mate1.com contest. The contest is called "Check Please!" and is designed to find the most awkward date experience. There is $5,000 in prizes and just a few steps required to enter.

• First, you will need a 1 to 2 minute video with you describing or re-enacting your awkward date
• Second, you will need to upload the video to YouTube. You will need to title and tag the video with "Mate1 Check Please! Contest"
• Third, you will need to register as a contestant at CheckPleaseContest.com
• Finally, you need to spread your video through your social channels. The top ten viewed and mentioned videos will be judged by Pauly Shore

Here is Pauly Shore giving more details on the contest as well as his most awkward dating experience:

To find out more about this story you can also read the press release. For more information on this dating site, please read our review of Mate1.com.