Online Dating

The Daily Yomiuri Online has an article called "NPA targets online dating sites / Agency wants stricter regulations as current law being ignored". The Japanese National Police Agency wants tougher regulations regarding prohibiting minors under the age of 18 from using dating services. They have found currently this regulation is largely being ignored. In a suggested revised law, dating site operators would need to take measures to confirm a member's age, such as requiring users to fax copies of ID certificates to dating site operators. There are a few other proposed changes mentioned as well for the current internet dating regulations in Japan.

The Time website has an article called We Just Clicked. It talks mainly about the issues large online dating companies are going through when they expand from their own markets to other countries with different cultures. As example, one point talks about international dating sites having to rethink profile questions and what is culturally appropriate. In Japan, it was pointed out they don't really need to ask about hair color since almost all of the people have the same color.

I got a little bit of laugh out of this next point. eHarmony advertises on their site that marriages happen too their member on average 90 a day. According to "We Just Clicked", these unions have so far produced 100,000 children with a disproportionate number of them named Harmony.

Match.com was also talked about a fair bit in the article. It looks like in some countries Match.com is doing extremely well, while in others they have hardly made a dent. Match.com now is in 35 countries and of the 15 million, 1.3 million members pay for the full service and off those 30% live outside the United States. In the Scandinavian market, of the current 2.2 million online daters, 1.5 million have joined Match.com. It is unclear if Match.com counts the total number of members from all of Match.com branded dating sites from other countries in the 15 million they say are members. I always though, when Match.com US said they had 15 million members, that was the total number of members who joined the US site. The reason for my thinking this is Match.com dating sites for other countries look different and they don't allow you to use your US member account if you try to login.

In the U.S. alone, there are close to 1,000 dating sites. With competition so furious and with the growth in the North American market slowing, these sites are looking abroad for more revenue streams. For more information about eHarmony, check out our review and for Match.com please read this review.

eHarmony announced yesterday that they have a new online id verification service for its members. This service, which is provided by ReliID allows eHarmony members to validate their full name, age and address. RelyID uses publicly available information for the id verification. Once members are verified they will have a RelyID badge displayed with their profile showing other users that they have completed the process successfully.

I'm glad other large dating services have started to offer this type of verification service. It's a great first step which willl go a long way in helping people trust the information they find in a profile. This should generate a lot more communication for eHarmony members who have been verified. But, how much further can eHarmony go? True.com does criminal background checks and I have seen some other sites like MillionaireMate.com verify photos. It would be great to see all of these services combined. I wonder if this service is available on eHarmony Canada?

For more information on this new verification process read this News Release and for more information on eHarmony, check out our review.

Update 2008-01-16: I just notice that Online Dating Insider has some more information on this new verification service including the cost ($5.95) and how the actually verification takes place.

Update 2019-10-22: Please note that the Online Verification Service is not available anymore.

Online Dating Insider has an article about Match.com's new service called MatchStudios. The cost is a one time fee of $40 and includes a review of your profile by Matches experienced profile writer staff. After a review, Match.com will contact you via phone and discuss any text changes with your profile that is recommended. You can either add in these changes yourself or Match.com will do it for you.

Match.com may also recommend you use their Match Photo Review service. The review is no cost, but if changes are recommend, they will put you in contact with a company called LookBetterOnline.com. Look Better Online offer easy access to photo professionals across North America (over 6000 cities). The service costs $149 which seems a little steep, but they do offer a 100% Risk Free Guarantee. There are terms to this guarantee, but they are not too bad. If you don't think the photos will give you more emails than before, then you can ask for a reshoot or your money back. If you ask for your money back, it is less a sitting fee of $60 to $75. For more information about this photo service, click here. There have been a lot of these type of services over the last few years and most of them seem to have disappeared. Look Better Online is one of the few popular ones and has been around for a while.

MatchStudios is designed to make your profile more attractive to other members. I'm sure the service works well, but I think you would most likely get as good advice from your friends and family regarding your profile. According to our poll Do you tell your friends you're Dating Online?, over 55% of 330 votes by our readers don't tell people they use online dating. I guess these singles could use MatchStudios if they feel their profile is inadequate. As far as profile photos are concerned I think most people's picks are pretty good. A picture of you laughing or at a family gathering tells a potential match much more than a professional model shot. Then again, members of sites for Wealthy Singles may want to use a service such as this.

For more information on Match please read our review.

From this Press Release, Lavalife announced the launching of a free Canadian online city guide. Called Where to Go, this guide currently has entries for 5 major Canadian cities. The cities are Toronto Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. When you visit the site once you have selected the the city, you can then view different restaurants, bars and attractions that are recommended places to take your date. For the more serious relationships there is also a travel, spa and hotel guide.

This is a good idea for probably about 20% of the singles meeting online. Most people look for matches in or near their city where both parties already know the local hot spots. This will be used more for people traveling to meet someone in a city they are both familiar with. It is much better to surprise your date than asking him or her where they would like to go. What would be nice to see is members of Lavalife make recommendations. This way you would probably get a lot more of the smaller restaurants and bars that can offer a more cosy and romantic atmosphere.

FriendFinder does something similar to the Where to Go guide but, it is actually built right into the dating site. FriendFinder goes a step further by offering member recommendations, reviews and ratings on their listings.

The New York Times is reporting that Spark Networks is up for sale. Spark Networks owns a large number of dating services (probably close to 20) with their flagship dating sites being AmericanSingles.com, BBWPersonalsPlus.com, and JDate (in order of size). According to comScore Media, the Spark Networks of dating sites are the 4th largest with 2.45 million visitors in November, 2007. Yahoo! Personals had the most visitors on the metrix with 4.23 million people for that month. This comparison is slightly unfair to other dating services since, the Spark Network is made up of a group of different dating sites. Still AmericanSingles.com did have 1.20 million visitors for November which is still a very large number of people and sales.

With shares (LOV) closing at $4.90 yesterday this gives the company a value of $131.4 million. Some Analysts predict that it may go for as high as $185 million, especially since the share price has risen close to 20% in the last few weeks. Spark Networks are in talks with companies that own related sites like MySpace, Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo! Personals too see if interest in a sale can be generated.

Recently there was another dating network sold for the tune of $300 million, see the story here.