General News

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.

WQAD did a piece in their Closer Look commentary segment on online dating and the Match.com suit. The interview of a man named Barry was shown during the segment where he talked about his issues with Match.com, he was the same gentleman who was interviewed on Good Morning America a few days ago (see Story) . At the beginning of the clip the News Anchor referenced the dating statistics from Online Dating Magazine that a number of other stories have been using lately. In 2007, according to Online Dating Magazine, over 20 million people visited one or more dating sites each month. As a result of these visits to dating sites, there are more than 120 thousand marriages a year. I'm not sure how they calculated these statistics but I am going take a closer look myself and see what we come up with for 2009. Maybe I should keep a chart of this information for our Online Dating Statistics and Facts page?

Note: Unfortunately the source to the video and/or image which once was displayed here has since been removed by the authors for an unknown reason.

WQAD at 6:30 also released the results of an informal poll they did about the success rate of online dating sites. I couldn't find the poll on the website (no matter how hard I searched) but, in the clip they mentioned that 50 percent of their viewers reported success on dating sites, 15 percent did not find a date and, 30 percent had not tried a online dating site. It wasn't mentioned how many people took the poll.

I'm late on a few stories but I thought I should get this one out. Lavalife is now offering Speed Dating and it is currently free to try until June 24th, 2009 (2 days left)!

Online Speed Dates at Lavalife starts 8 pm each night (local time), and you get the chance to meet 10 singles in your area and all in 30 minutes. The events are arranged by location and age group. The age groups span 10 years (i.e. 30 to 40). Your current Lavalife profile will have to be completed and you will need to fill out an additional speed dating profile. This includes a picture, (the one from your Lavalife profile can be used), 'Ask me About' phrases which includes 3 topics you enter that your speed date may want to ask you about, and your email contact information.

Once your profile is complete you click 'Sign up now' below the event of your choice and you'll be presented with a confirmation screen. Once the event is about to start you log into Lavalife and click on the speed dates tab to enter your event. Make sure you show up on time as you cannot join in once the event starts. Each speed date allows you to text chat with the other person in real time. You get 3 minutes on each speed date and at the end, you get 30 seconds to decide if you clicked with the person. At the end of the 30 to 35 minute event you will receive your click list. This list provides you with the email addresses of the members you clicked with and who have clicked you.

Once this free offer is over, speed dating events will go on sale for $4.99 each. You may also purchase 3 event passes for $3.99 each and a package of 5 events cost $2.99 each. Passes only expire if your Lavalife account has been inactive 180 consecutive days (6 months).

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

JDate.com received a complete site makeover this month that includes both the front end of the site and the members area. The new look of the homepage (on the left) gives a more modern and professional feel than the previous version of the site (right). Other updates include redesigned profiles and searching. You now can now search by keywords or a phrase. This allows you more control over who is returned in search results since you can now search the entire profile, including any text inputted by the JDate member. Search results also have been updated to include a new mini search view which is available while you are viewing a potential matches profile. Enhanced search filtering of results is also available for the quick search tool.

Two other new features include a blog and video show. JBlog is a new web blog for members which JDaters can contribute too, discussing their lives and dates. A certified therapist will also blog her advice, analysis and answer any questions from the community. JDateTV is a weekly produced online video that follows "eight JDaters on their journeys to find their soul mates". The first season is now online in its entirety and available for viewing.

You can find the JBlog here and the new JDateTV here.

For more information on this dating site for Jewish singles, read our JDate.com review.

2 more of our reviews passed 100,000 page views last week. On Friday, June 19th our Yahoo! Personals review had 100,132 page views and our
American Singles review had reached 100,039 page views. This makes Yahoo! Personals our 7th review and American Singles our 8th review to reach this milestone.

Researchers at the University of Arkansas took a look at several claims of the more popular online dating sites. Psychology professor Jeffrey Lohr and Aimee King and Deena Austin-Oden (psychology graduates) found that the claims are more self serving than anything else. They wrote an article about this topic called Browsing for Love in All the Wrong Places which can be found in Skeptic magazine, volume 15 number 1. We found a review of this article at PhysOrg.

One example that the researchers used, as pointed out by PhysOrg, which made them skeptical of claims by dating sites is customer satisfaction testimonies. It is assumed by the researches that most dating sites only select satisfied customers reviews to display, rather than an average sample from all testimonies received. This is an obvious point and I am sure most people realize testimonials and reviews on a dating services own website are all preselected. In fact most companies in any industry would operate this way. It is how marketing works.

eHarmony, Perfectmatch.com, Chemistry and Match.com are all talked about in the review of the article at PhysOrg. The one example given about Match.com is their claim that they are responsible for twice as many marriages as any other site in the world. According to the review, Match.com: