eHarmony

The Unofficial eHarmony Blog sure knows how to dig for eHarmony news. They found this banner on the eHarmony US website:

under the URL "http://www.eharmony.com/static/images/diamondgiver/banner/".

From this banner it looks like eHarmony is creating marketing material for a possible new personalized matchmaking service where eHarmony Matchmakers select matches for you and possibly setup the dates (my thinking on this). All this is speculation, but it does sound close to how the China dating site Zhenai.com operates (see Story). They have a 350 matchmaker call center which sets up dates for clients.

The service looks to be called eHarmony Personal Matchmaker Service but the above banner image was found in a directory called DiamondGiver. In the service industry Diamond usually means the highest quality (and most expensive) service. We didn't see the word Diamond in the image so once again we are just speculating.

Match.com has done this type of service before in which eHarmony may be getting into. They called it Match Platinum (the old Platinum service not the new one, see Story). This Match.com service was only available in Texas and was not tied directly to the Match.com dating site. Match Platinum offered customers a one on one matchmaking service but it has since been shutdown (RIP 2006-2008).

To find out what other think about this dating site, check out some eHarmony reviews.

Oops, eHarmony.co.uk got into a little trouble with the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for a TV campaign which aired in 2008. The TV commercial in question shows 8 couples who me on eHarmony. A voice over states during the commercial:

It’s no surprise that over 4 million Americans get married each year. But what might surprise you is that 2% of those newlyweds said they met on eHarmony. And now we’re in the UK.

A total of 5 viewers challenged the 2% of marriages eHarmony claimed to be responsible for, and a further 3 complained about the "significant conditions" needed to receive free matches.

The ASA ruled that the eHarmony ad was misleading because it had made an absolute claim on the statistics in the ad and the dating site also failed to make it clear that 20% of all visitors who attempt to sign up to the service are disqualified. To fix this problem eHarmony plans to indicate that the statistics mentioned in the advertisement are the results of a study done by Harris Interactive in 2007. eHarmony will also further explain that to receive free matches new members must fill out a in-depth questionnaire and fall within the required age range and marital status.

For more on the story, read Marketing Week. To find out more about eHarmony, you can read our review.

There is not much to this Economist article but it does offer a few interesting statistics on the UK online dating scene.

Did you know 5 million singles visited British dating sites in September, 2009? On average about 4 percent of people have used a dating site in Europe. In Britain, online dating is twice as popular with 8 percent of the population having visited a dating service.

This is probably one of the main reasons why eHarmony now operates a dating service in the UK. Since it opened in June of 2008 eHarmony.co.uk now has more than 500,000 singles registered with them. To find out what makes eHarmony a popular choice among singles, read our eHarmony Review.

Starting this Friday, November 20th, 2009, eHarmony UK (eHarmony.co.uk) is having a 4 day long free communication weekend. Until Sunday midnight (Nov. 23rd), all members of this dating service can review matches and communicate with all members for free. All that is required from you, is the time you need to try out this matchmaking service.

eHarmony places an emphasis on long term relationships that lead to marriage. If this is something that interests you, give one of the fastest growing dating sites in the UK a try.

The last free communication weekend for eHarmony UK was held at the end of October, just 4 weeks ago (see Story).

Read our review of eHarmony for more details and users opinions on this popular matchmaking service for British singles.

As Thanksgiving moves closer, we knew the next eHarmony Free Communication Weekend would soon be upon us. Starting tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 19 and to Sunday Nov. 22 all members of eHarmony (US and Canada) will be able to communicate and review their matches at no cost. These 4 day events are the best way for singles interested in online dating to give eHarmony a try and to see if this matchmaking service is the one that not only works for them, but fits their needs as well.

The last free communication event was held in late October, just 4 weeks ago (see Story). This is Free Communication Weekend number 21 for eHarmony here in the US.

Check out our review of eHarmony for more information on the dating site. We also currently have 72 user reviews which you can read that are available from our review page.

The 50 plus singles crowd is not necessarily looking for casual dates. They are looking for a long term relationships that offer companionship. This group of online daters still is being reported as the fastest growing group of singles on dating sites. In the last U.S. Census, seniors are also a growing demographic. It was reported that there are 95.9 million single people in America. 15.8 million (16.5 %) of these people are 65 years or older (see Story). Let's see how some of the more popular dating sites are performing in this demographic.

Match.com is reporting 16 percent of men and 17 percent of women members are 50 or older. Match.com also reported 1,403 million paying subscribers in quarter 3 of this year so this means there are about 236,000 members on Match who are at least 50.

eHarmony's first quarter of 2009 saw a 20 percent growth in users 60 and over when compared to 2008. While we don't have any actual subscriber numbers, we do know that the average age on eHarmony is 35 and that they have been getting about 3.6 million unique visitors per month on their dating sites (US, UK, and Canada).

In the last 5 years Lavalife.com more than doubled its members who are 45 or older. In response to this surge in members, LavalifePRIME was launched in 2007 and now has more than 70,000 members.

To find out more about the dating sites listed here please read our eHarmony review, Match.com review, and our LavalifePRIME review. For more dating site specifically for seniors, check out our Dating Over 50 category.