General News

In Japan, 8 popular matchmaker services created a industry association that will introduce later this year a system which will certify the quality of service of matchmakers. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will be helping to create this certification system. Some of the points that this certification will address are:

... clear-cut explanations of contract documents, cancellation policies and an obligation by the service providers to obtain public documents certifying that applicants are single.

Some estimates conclude there are almost 3,700 matchmaking companies in Japan with about 600,000 customers. These include both offline and online services.

This new Matchmaking Industry Association is in response to a huge rise in complaints over the last few years in Japan. In 2007 there was 2,871 complaints up 80% since 2000.

When reading the article the one guideline that the association wants to tackle that I was surprised about was "certifying that applicants are single". I'm not sure how possible this is. They can check for marriage licenses but, what can they really do beyond that?

There is a small article at the Calgary Herald which mentions a Ipsos Reid survey about Canadians. The survey asked 1,033 Canadians several questions about relationships and love. The following conclusions where reached:

• 70 percent of Canadians are in love (80 percent of woman and 67 percent of men).
• In total 16 percent found love online. When split into age ranges, the 18 to 34 demographic leads with over 25 percent finding love online. Only 7 percent found love aged 55 or older.

So what did we find out from this poll and how does it relate to online dating? Well it seems there are approximately one third of Canadians not in love. This means online dating sites who service Canadians has a market of about 10 million people. It also appears that 84 percent of singles who are in love found it offline, with the other 16 percent finding it online. It is too bad they didn't mention how many Canadians were not successful in finding a mate online, we would then have a more complete picture on how successful online dating is.

I just took a look at the results of our dating poll:

When using a Dating Site, do you use the services automated Matching System or do you rely on your own Searching abilities?

After 157 votes over the last few months it has become apparent that for the most part, singles use both the dating services automated matching system and their own searching skills when it comes to finding a date. Singles do rely more on their own searches though. Almost 44 percent of the voters said they used both but, relied on their own searches more. 35 voters or just over 22 percent said they just use their own searches. When you total these two poll answers together you get 66% of the voters rely on their own searching abilities more.

On the flip side, almost 20 percent used the matching system more and only 4 % of the voters just used the matching system. This doesn't say much for the confidence of singles in online dating sites automated matching abilities or maybe, people just enjoy the process more of searching for compatible matches. Most dating services that I know of offer both the ability to search and also have an automated process as well. The dating site that stands out who doesn't allow user searching is eHarmony. They are well known for their matching systems and its 29 key dimensions. A lot of people use this service for its matching system and its dedication to find their members a serious long term relationship. I wonder if eHarmony would attract more people if they did have the ability to perform their own searches? It has been suggested before but, if eHarmony did allow searching, it would also show they have less confidence in their own matching system.

For more information about eHarmony check out our review.

Wow this is 2 weekends in a row now that eHarmony is offering a free communication weekend. Usually they only have one every couple of months.

So it is pretty simple, starting today May 23rd, 2008 to the end of Monday May 26th, 2008 all new members who join eHarmony can use the site for free for the same time period. There are no special promotional codes or coupons needed. Visit our review for more general details about eHarmony (including actual user reviews).

The Communications Decency Act (CDA) regulates indecency and obscenity on the Internet in the United States. It also declares that operators of Internet services were not to be considered as publishers unless they actually created the material. This makes them not legally liable for the words of third parties who use their web sites. This includes everything from forum posts and comments too submitted articles.

The Friendfinder Network recently got into legal trouble when someone complained that someone else had created a fake profile on the dating site that “reasonably identified” her. Friendfinder did remove the profile from the dating site but the profile information and photo was still being used in advertising. The reason the Communications Decency Act was not applied in this case is:

... the right to control the commercial use of one’s identity is it considered a general intellectual property right. The judge reasoned that Friendfinder wasn’t entitled to the CDA’s usual brand of immunity due to the intellectual property provision that states the CDA does not preempt intellectual property laws.

In section 5 of Friendfinders Terms of Use Agreement it states:

By posting content to any public area of FriendFinder, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to FriendFinder Network, Inc. and its members, an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, fully-paid, worldwide license to use, copy, perform, display, and distribute such information, rights of publicity, and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works and other media, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.] This basically gives Friendfinder ownership over almost anything posted on their site. This may raise alarm bells when you read it but, it is common practice among dating services, social networks and other web services in which you post information.

While I am far from being a lawyer it appears to me that FriendFinder got into trouble because the information posted in the profile by the other person did not belong to them to post in the first place. Since the information posted in the profile was about some other actual person they had no right to post it, therefore they did not have the right to give up the general intellectual property right of the material to Friendfinder.

It is a sticky situation. Overall the person who actually posted the material is responsible, but Friendfinder did continue to use the information in advertising even after they were made aware of the problem with the information from that particular profile. I'm not sure how old this case actually is but, when you see profile information in FriendFinder Ads now (at least from the ads I see) they have a note at the bottom explaining "Photos and other data are for illustrative purpose only". I guess for the most part they have stopped the practice of using actual profiles in their advertising.

For the full story plus another example legal case, read the post at Public Knowledge and for more information on the CDA visit Wikipedia.

The Los Angeles Business Journal has a piece called "Translating the Book of Love" which looks at the dating service eHarmony and if its current matching and communication system will work well in other countries with different cultures. Currently eHarmony has separate dating services for the United States, Canada and Australia. These services do differ slightly but the questions for the dating profiles and the matching system, for the most part, are either the same or very similar. This is in part because all 3 countries major language is english and the culture surrounding marriage and dating are not all that different.

In June eHarmony plans to launch a UK version with other European countries to follow. The big news is, they do plan to launch a dating site in China. This means a new language for them and new cultural differences to work out. eHarmony did do some research to see if it was possible to convert their dating site and matching system. Through focus groups in China, a panel of psychologists validated the translations of questionnaires and found that cultural differences matter little when it comes to measuring personality types and values. A Beijing University study also confirmed that eHarmony's matching system will work well in matching China's singles together. eHarmony's lead PH.D. psychology researcher, Galen Bucjwalter is quoted:

“We found the models to be highly effective in that we can predict successful marriages in China,”

With 4 times the population of the United States, and with China's average income levels for the middle class increasing every year, there is a huge potential for revenue if a dating service is well received by the public.

Another interesting point in the article was the fact that eHarmony spends about $3 million a year in research to find out what makes couples compatible and stay in a long term relationship. This dollar amount includes the salaries of 6 full time PH.D. researchers.

For more information about eHarmony, take a look at our review.