Online Dating

The company which owns the Australian dating site RSVP, didn't perform very well last year. Fairfax Media's revenue for the year which ended in June, fell 27 percent to $605 million AUD when compared to the previous year. The online division of Fairfax which includes RSVP, TradeMe (auctions) and Stayz (accommodation) suffered a 8 percent fall in earnings for the last half of the year. In the several year before 2007 the online division had experienced double digit growth.

The loss of income from online job ads was the cause listed for the earnings drop in Fairfax's online division. It is not mentioned how the dating site RSVP actually performed but from reading between the lines it appears to experienced a marginal decrease in revenue as well.

For more on this news, read The Australian Business and to find out more about the most popular dating site in Australia, check out our RSVP review.

In Mecklenburg County, North Carolina reported rape cases are up 16 percent this year. The county has a population of almost 1 million people and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police are blaming "Internet dating and online classifieds offering sexual services" as one of the main reasons for the rise in rape cases. Across America the number of reported rapes has increased by 30 percent since 1993. Part of these increases are attributed to less shame in the social stigma of being a victim and in the city of Charlotte's case, stepped up outreach programs.

The Charlotte police have also contacted Craigslist,

... asking the online posting company to warn women advertising personal services that Charlotte had become too dangerous for them.

In Mecklenburg, the previous 2 years saw a downward trend in rape cases but with the rise this year, the police are for some reason pointing the finger at adult Internet dating services. Online dating is not, new and has been very popular over the last 5 years. With Craigslist in the news lately (see Story) I think they were just an easy target for the police to lay blame. Craigslist is of course not completely blameless here and it is well known they are having problems with illegal services being posted in their online personals category, it's just that these problems have been going on for a number of years, not just in the last year when Mecklenburg County has seen the rise in reported rapes.

People Media, in association with Chicago market researcher Synovate, released the results of a national wide survey of 1,000 people conducted last month which shows 49% of Americans knows of someone who found a date online. This statistic has almost doubled since a 2006 survey done by Pew Internet & American Life. It was also found, in the age demographic of Americans who goes online the least, people 65 or more, that almost a third (31 percent) knew of someone who had found a date online.

From the survey, it was also found that 28 percent of the respondents knew more than one person who found at least one date online:

• 3.4% knew more than 5 people
• 4% knew 4 or 5 people
• 20.7% knew 2 or 3 people
• 20.6% knew 1 person

A few more interesting details from the results include, singles are more likely to know someone who dated someone they found online, when compared to a person who is married (55% compared to 44%). Similarly Caucasians were more likely than other ethnicities to know someone who found a date on the internet (51% compared to 40%).

To find out more about a few of People Media's dating sites, read our review of BlackPeopleMeet.com and our review of SeniorPeopleMeet.com.

Match.com released a list of the top 25 most affordable cities in America for dating. In each city the average cost of a typical date was compared, which was a casual dinner for two plus two movie tickets. Pittsburgh came out on top, since it was the cheapest at just over $77 for a typical date. Los Angeles rounding off the list at number 25, with a couple needing to spend $126 for the same date. Here is the complete list of the top 25 most affordable cities for dating:

1. Pittsburgh
2. Detroit
3. Sacramento, Calif.
4. Phoenix
5. Indianapolis
6. St. Louis, Mo.
7. Tampa
8. Orlando
9. Houston
10. Charlotte, N.C.
11. Atlanta
12. Denver
13. Cleveland
14. Miami
15. Portland, Ore.
16. Minneapolis
17. Seattle
18. Philadelphia
19. Boston/li>
20. Dallas
21. Washington, D.C.
22. Chicago
23. New York
24. San Francisco
25. Los Angeles

For more information on the topic, read the press release. To find out further details about the dating service, read our Match.com review.

Opps, we made a mistake. Originally this post had stated that eHarmony US and Canada were having a free communication weekend starting today August 28th until August 31st. It looks like we were incorrect. As reported 2 weeks ago the eHarmony Free Communication Weekend is still on (as of right now) for the UK and Australia (see Story). We do expect a free promotion to come soon for the US and Canada, if past experience is any indication. Most likely Canada's will be held on the Labour Day Holiday weekend (Sept. 4th-7th).

Read our review of eHarmony for more information on this popular online matchmaking service in the United Kingdom and Australia.

CheckedProfile.com is a new service designed to allow people to have their photo's and email address verified. They soon plan to have 5 levels of verification which will allow people to verify Name, Age, Country, Phone, Address and Net Worth. Only the first level is available now and prices range from free to $99.99 USD for all levels of service. CheckedProfile is aimed at people who use dating sites and social networks. The problem of profile and photo dishonesty is not new and there are already several other companies offering similar services which we have talked about before (see Story).

The way CheckedProfile works (at least for the level 1 photo verification) is you create an account an upload the photo you want verified. The service then gives you a custom alphanumeric code which is unique to your picture. You then need to put the code on a piece of paper and take a picture of yourself holding the paper. This new photo then is uploaded to CheckedProfile. Once verified (by an actual person) you will then get your original photo back with a verified stamp integrated into it along with a code. People interested in you, can now visit CheckedProfile.com to type in the code from the photo to verify that the photo has indeed been verified (along with any other information).

As with most of these type of services there are a few holes in the verification process that if people wanted to, they could circumvent. For one thing, a scammer could just steal someone else's photo that already has been verified and pass it off as his own. A scammer could also mock up a photo with the verified information, it may not pass the test when someone checks it on the website but I bet not everyone will understand that they need to do this. The last problem I see is, someone could just get their good looking friend to do the process for them. While CheckedProfile's verification process is not 100 percent it is a step in the right direction. If they improve on the verification methods maybe it will become one I would recommend.

Visit CheckedProfile.com directly and for more services designed to help you succeed in dating, take a look at our Dating Profile Help category.