Dating Services

InformationWeek has a press release from True.com that is called "TRUE.com Increases Advertising Spend to $75 Million, Reflecting Positive Corporate Growth ". I had to laugh at the title. When is growth meassured by the amount of money you spend on advertising. It isn't even money they have spent yet, just forecasted too.

With all the news about internet dating safety bills lately, I noticed that the Spark Networks dating sites have a new warning at the bottom of their home pages. Here is the text I am referring to as quoted from AmericanSingles.com:

Spark Networks Limited does not conduct background checks on the members or subscribers of this website.

I wonder if this background checks warning is response to the New Jersey's Internet Dating Safety Act. If so, and since I don't live in the state of New Jersey, it appears they are displaying the message to everyone and not just New Jersey residents.

I've been meaning to post this information for a while.

Spark Networks released their First Quarter 2008 Financial Results on May 1, 2008. Spark Networks revenue for this period is $15 million. This is $1.8 million less from the first quarter 2007 and a decrease of 6% over quarter 4, 2007. It is not all bad news though as operating expenses where cut 27% over quarter 1, 2007 which resulted in a $1.6 million net income. Spark Networks reported a net loss of $1.4 million last year in the first quarter.

As far as subscribers are concerned, Spark Networks in the first quarter of 2008 had 195,325 subscribers. This is a decrease of 16% from 231,313 from the first quarter in 2007 and a decrease of 3% from the fourth quarter of 2007.

I was reading an article at the Noblesville Daily Times about recommended online dating sites and I came upon a statistic regarding eHarmony's goal of reducing the U.S. divorce rate by 1 percent per year. I was surprised at this and I didn't remember hearing about it before. After a little more digging I came up with this eHarmony feature article called Religion, Marriage and eHarmony by the founder of eHarmony Dr. Neil Clark Warren which talks a bit about eHarmony's mission to lower the divorce rate by 1 percent (but not in a year as the other article suggests). I have a feeling the article is a few years old but there is no date so I can't be sure. They do have a success story listed with the article that is dated August, 2004.

Currently the divorce rate in America is around 50% and if eHarmony could effectively reduce this by 1% this would mean 500,000 couples would not have divorced because of eHarmony's matching them. When will they be successful? Let's see, currently according to eHarmony's "Why eHarmony" web page, 90 members get married every day. Lets assume these members met each other because of eHarmony, so in reality it is 45 couples who got married. If this rate was static, it would take over 30 years for eHarmony to reach this goal and this is if every single couple did not divorce and was still alive (to meet the 1% of divorce reduction). eHarmony got its start in 2000 so they are in their 8th year or over a quarter of the way to 30 years. I wonder what the current statistic is for eHarmony on how many people who met on eHarmony, got married, and still are?

I doubt eHarmony would ever release this type of information since I am sure some of their couples have gotten divorced and the news would be spinned to eHarmony's disadvantage. I do think eHarmony matching system does work better than most matching systems, so this statistic would probably be much less than the current 50% divorce rate for all of the United States. In the end eHarmony should of really come up with a more realistic achievable goal. Maybe it should of been based on the number of eHarmony married couples every day. I just would have made one that would have been accomplished within a few years.

For more information about eHarmony, try reading our review.

Date.com, Amor.com and Matchmaker.com (all owned by Avalanche, LLC) will soon be available in multiple languages. Enlaso will be doing the translation services for Avalanche. They offer enterprise language solutions to companies who not only need translation services but business and cultural perspectives as well. In the press release they mention "localizing" the dating sites, I wonder if this means a redefining of the profile depending on the country and the culture? Match.com International does this with great success, they ask dating profile questions that are more relevant to where you live (see The Issues with International Online Dating).

By the end of 2008 all 3 dating services will be translated and localized into Spanish, Portuguese and German and by 2010 there will be another 15 languages added. With online dating growth leveling off in North America, Avalanche is looking to international markets to help grow its subscriber base. Since 1997, Avalanches largest dating site, Date.com, has had more than 20 million members worldwide.

Courant.com takes a look at eHarmony and their online marriage therapy service. It is different than traditional therapy since there is no talking, couples must fill out a detailed questionnaire instead. This paragraph from the article sums up how the 2 year old service works:

Based on that information, the service prescribes a series of self-directed exercises and interactive videos that target their trouble areas — communication, intimacy and conflict resolution, for example. Offered in 20-minute weekly sessions over three months, the site touts among its benefits at-home convenience and a $149 price tag that would otherwise buy them one, maybe two sessions with a traditional therapist.

eHarmony states that they receive between 300 to 500 new registrations to the service every day. They also state that 19% of the couples who are at risk of divorce are no longer after completing the 3 month session.

eHarmony does agree that it does not replace real talk therapy but it is designed more as a practical tool to get couples communicating in their relationship again. There are critics of services that offer online therapy sessions. The biggest complaint is they are not regulated by a governing body.

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

Related Story: eHarmony and being Divorced