Match

To woo in advertisers IAC released some updated statistics for Match.com. Here is what we know:

• Match.com had 20% growth in the first three months of 2009.
• 2.8 million Match.com users connect online and meet offline.
• Match.com members go out on 6 million dates each year.
• A subscriber spends on average 60 minutes per month on the dating site.
• On average a member views 30 pages per day.
• 132 million winks sent out every year.
• Over 56 million first emails sent out per year.
• On average 12 couples get married or engaged every day on Match.com.

In terms of demographics:

• The gender split is 52% female and 48% male.
• 48% of Match.com members are College Graduates.
• Ages 25 to 44 makes up 56% of their members.
• 44% of Match.com members make between $35k and $50k.

It's great to see Match.com starting to release some statistics but, a few things caught my eye. The first being about 12 couples getting married every day. eHarmony says on average 236 members get married every day (see Story). We will have to take a closer look at this point in a later post and see why there is such a difference. Another point that was interesting was about the 2.8 million Match.com members who connect. Is this the number of actual paid subscribers on Match.com in a year? Every quarter Match.com releases the number of subscribers they have, which lately has been from 1.3 to just over 1.4 million people. Of course this doesn't mean if you add up all the quarters you would get the total number of subscribers for the year as the same person could be a subscriber in quarter 1 and in quarter 2. The last point of interest was about Match.com members going out on 6 million dates a year. This could be taken a number of ways but let's assume they mean Match.com members dating each other. This would mean of the 2.8 million subscribers in a year, on average at Match.com you will go out on 2 dates.

Here is the IAC Advertising Solutions web page for Match.com. Since yesterday they have actually updated their PDF and removed some information. For the original PDF released by them that includes all the stats listed, read our local copy of Match.com Statistics for 2008 and 2009.

For more general information on this dating service, read our Match.com review.

The news story of a federal suit by a man claiming he was deceived by Match.com (see Story) is now making headlines on TV news shows. Good Morning America did a piece about a man named Barry who is thinking of being part of a proposed class action lawsuit against Match.com. After using Match.com Barry felt "undesirable and rejected" since he received few responses to his winks and emails. The original federal lawsuit filed by Sean McGuinn

... alleges Match.com perpetrates fraud by returning inactive or canceled members in search results of seemingly dateable people.

He believes he was actually sending e-mails to ghosts of Match.com's past.

Match.com is definitely serious about the mobile market. Yesterday Match.com announced the availability of a application for the new Palm Pre which can be found now on the Palm Pre App Catalog (U.S. only). Now Match.com members with this cell phone can online date on the go by communicating and searching for other members. They can even edit their profile and receive wink and email notifications. Palm Pre's location-based capabilities can also be used that allows a unique search feature. You can find other Match.com member's in your area (this is not enabled by default).

Match.com has been in the general mobile phone dating market for a few years now with a product called MatchMobile. It was recently revamped with a new updated interface and features. Last March, Match also announced their iPhone Application (see Story) which has near identical features as their application for the Palm Pre.

For more information on this dating site, read our Match.com review.

Mark Brooks of Online Personals Watch got in contact with Greg Blatt, the new CEO of Match.com to get a comment regarding the recent New York federal court suit filed by Sean McGinn (see Story) According to Blatt in a statement he made to OPW:

Match.com’s continued success depends upon the success of our members in making online connections and turning them into meaningful relationships offline. The allegation that we would deceive our subscribers by encouraging them to connect with inactive members therefore makes no sense and is contradicted by our 14-year record and the hundreds of thousands of members who find someone special on Match.com every year. We understand that finding romance, offline or online, can at times be emotional and personal, and we wish Mr. McGinn well in his search. But his lawsuit is without merit, and we will defend it vigorously.

It is true, Match.com for the most part does not let you know when you are searching that the dating profiles you are viewing are from paying members or not. The only time you can tell for sure is if the member has the Profile Highlight feature (it is highlighted in red). Most other paid dating sites (like eHarmony) operate the same way. What Match.com does do is attempt to return the most active members on the site that fit within your search criteria. Most active users are either the ones paying for the service to find a partner or new to the service looking to see what Match.com offers. What Match hopes with this strategy is when a paid user messages a new user, it will entice them to signup.

Despite how this suit goes, I bet Match will speed up the process of getting the new Platinum Membership out to all markets (Story). It's almost like they saw this suit coming since the Platinum Membership allows paid members to receive messages from any member they have contacted, whether or not they are a free or paid member of the dating service.

On June 5th, 2009, IAC completed the deal previously announced in early May with Meetic (see Story). IAC sold Match.com European operations for 27 percent equity stake in Meetic along with a 5 million Euro promissory note.

On Tuesday, Match.com was sued in New York federal court by Sean McGinn for $5 million. This New York man alleges Match.com deceives its members by posting profiles of dates who cannot respond to communication requests, since they have not paid for a subscription. McGinn attorney, Noah Hart says people leave the dating site feeling completely "ignored and rejected" since no one replies to their emails. Hart is hoping to turn this suit into a class action.

Online dating sites have been sued a number of times lately. eHarmony has been sued at least twice, over gay rights issues (see Story) and in March True.com was forced to pay a $1.5 million settlement in regards to their auto billing and renewal practices of memberships (see Story).