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Even the most open-minded singles come to online dating with preconceived notions about who’s on the other side of the screen, but AYI.com is here to put those speculations to rest.

AYI collected data from some of its 50,000 active UK members to find out exactly who the average user is. Though technology might seem like a young person’s game, you may be surprised to learn that the average age of a male online dater is 44 and the average age of a female online dater is 42. Perhaps the younger generations have all migrated to Tinder and other mobile dating apps, preferring to search for love on-the-go on their smartphones.

Where appearance is concerned, there’s no shortage of online dating horror stories. But is it really as bad as it seems? Sure, not everyone is Ryan Gosling, but they’re not Gollum either. According to AYI’s research, the average height of a male online dater is 5’10”, while the average height of a female dater is 5’4”. Both men and women claim to be “about average” where body type is concerned. Admittedly, an “average body” is a completely subjective concept, but it’s also exactly what you’d expect if you’re trying to construct a profile of the “average online dater.”

There are also other ways in which average male daters and average female daters sync up. Both say they drink “socially,” exercise “once or twice per week,” never smoke, and have an average diet. See? The sexes aren’t so different after all.

Where some things are concerned, anyway. The average man and woman start to diverge when their personal history and family plans come into play. The average male online dater has never been married before, but the average female dater is searching for a new romance after going through a divorce. And because the average woman has already been married, she also typically has multiple children and says she isn’t interested in having any more. The average man, on the other hand, is not a parent and says he may consider having kids someday.

Career-wise, AYI members have plenty of options to choose from - from teacher, to civil servant, to retiree. But despite the wealth of options, most people select “other profession.” Which pretty much means one of three things: 1) They have an embarrassing profession, 2) They’re wealthy and don’t want to be judged by their money, or 3) They’re a super spy.

Personally, I’m going to be hoping for #3.

Judgment and dating go hand in hand. Even before online dating became so popular, singles would assess their dates based on a few traits they deemed important – like sense of humor, work ethic, kindness, or how hot they looked in a pair of jeans - to see whether or not they were worth a second date. But at least you could go on a first date knowing essentially nothing, hoping for the best. You had to deal with the element of surprise before you were allowed to judge.

Now, all of the mystery has been removed from dating. Dating websites like OkCupid allow you not only to see the profiles of potential dates and pick them apart, but you can also see ratings given by other people (that is, if you pay $10 for the premium service). If one of your matches gets two stars out of five, you’d be less likely to ask him/ her out. After all, aren’t we influenced by the opinions of others?

The more important question is: should we be so influenced, especially when it comes to meeting someone for the first time?

Dating apps like Lulu are focused solely on reviews. The app was intended to be a place where women could get feedback about potential dates before they decided to go out with them, kind of a girlfriend safety mechanism. But it is actually more like a Yelp for dating – where women rate guys according to their looks, how they behaved on a date, sense of humor, and other qualities. So if a guy receives a low score, women who check him out on Lulu would probably avoid dating him.

The problem with this rating system is two-fold. First, the numbers can be skewed. Sure, maybe the guy is a jerk and has twenty women who will agree with that assessment. Then his low rating makes sense, and other women would want to know before going out with him. However, if a guy only has a couple of reviews, and one of them is from a jilted ex, then it brings his overall score down. In fact, what’s to stop any woman from retaliation through Lulu’s rating system?

The second problem with Lulu’s system is that it disqualifies too many potential dates based on factors that might not be important to every woman. For instance, maybe a man’s sense of humor rates low because the women he’s been out with didn’t understand his quirky style. Does that mean you – his next potential date – shouldn’t go out with him? What if his sense of humor is exactly your type?

Rating systems serve a good purpose in dating as far as warning women of potentially bad dates. But if you base whether or not to take a chance on someone solely on a rating system, you are severely limiting your options. Because you never know who the right guy for you is until you actually meet him.

IAC is positioning itself to be the center of the online dating world. Its 150 brands are cornering the market, particularly Match.com, OkCupid, and popular dating app Tinder. Now, it’s added How About We to its roster. Neither IAC or How About We disclosed the purchase price.

How About We offers a unique twist in online dating – focusing on the offline part of the process. Members can create date ideas, post them to How About We, and see if anyone cares to join them on the date. This bypasses the typical process of scrolling through profiles and matches as you would do on other sites.

The company has gone through a lot of changes in the last couple of years, starting with broadening its reach to include curated dating services for couples (extending their user base and approach beyond just the singles market). More recently, the company purchased popular online dating site Nerve.com, and added three new content websites to the mix to offer editorial on dating advice, celebrities, sex, relationships, and other hot topics.

Did it spread itself too thin?

According to the New York Times, How About We co-founder Aaron Schildkrout (now the chief executive for This Life, Inc., the parent company of How About We) thinks this will only broaden their opportunities. “We spent the last five years building and scaling HowAboutWe; our unique ‘offline dating’ experience has been used by millions of people and has helped many, many people fall in love. Our new partnership with IAC will help us bring this dating experience to an even larger number of people than ever before.”

This contradicts his statements earlier this year, where he positioned the company to compete heavily with IAC. “The online dating business is completely monopolized — IAC owns online dating,” Schechter told Fortune in January. “So what we’re trying to do is build a media company whose sole focus is love. And we think that’s the way to beat IAC.”

The How About We dating service and media properties were sold to IAC, but a portion of the company remains independent: the couples service. Last month, employees were reportedly left in the dark about whether or not they would be fired in the wake of the acquisition, with some being promised they would stay only later to find that offer recanted.

According to the New York Times, some employees will be moving to IAC, others will be staying to work on the couples service, and some have been laid off.

The reach of IAC in online dating is enviable to its competition. The company owns Match.com, OkCupid, and has a majority stake in Tinder, and now they are looking to acquire a new company with a sizable chunk of the online dating market – How About We.

The buzz has already been growing about the possible acquisition, at least among the company’s employees. When there’s speculation about such a move, the first thing on employees’ minds is – will we still have a job after this acquisition happens?

According to a letter obtained by Business Insider, co-founder Brian Schechter addressed employees directly about the matter:

Indeed, we are still finalizing a deal and zero final decisions have been made. That a deal is even a possibility should remain completely confidential. I know this is a bumpy – and let’s face it – a weird moment but we should proceed in a manner that is really smart, graceful, and empowering for everyone.

It is a strange move considering the recent history of How About We. Earlier this year the company snatched up Nerve.com to compete with IAC. How About We wanted to build its brand in a different way – through its content and unique premise, including three new websites created in addition to Nerve.com. They also wanted to appeal to couples as well as singles, putting more marketing efforts into their How About We for couples date planning service. Most importantly, they wanted to distinguish themselves from the online dating giant IAC.

Despite the potentially lucrative news for co-founders Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkraut, things have not been going smoothly, at least as far as employee trust and loyalty.

According to Business Insider, to whom the original letter was leaked, one staffer claims many employees had individual meetings with Schechter and Schildkrout last week on Wednesday and Thursday in a glass-walled conference room. During those meetings, the staffer said they were notified they could be fired due to budgetary restrictions when the company transitions to IAC. The founders relayed that after Monday they would know "how many people can stay."

However, it was also reported that three employees were later texted that they would be able to keep their jobs. However, Schechter recanted the offer when one of those employees reminded him of a recent raise.

Regardless of what ends up happening with the acquisition, the handling of it has been anything but “smart, graceful or empowering.” Maybe it’s time for How About We to end the date and move on.

I just notice that both SinglesNet.com and Kiss.com have been closed. Both redirect to Match.com.

In 2008 SinglesNet was one of the most popular dating services. In February 2010 Match.com acquired SinglesNet for an undisclosed sum. Since then it has been a slow sinking ship. Match.com didn't change much when they purchased the dating site and it suffered for it. Last summer SinglesNet was relaunched as Kiss.com and it didn't fair any better since as of March 21, 2014 both were closed permanently.

On a related note I also notice that FriendFinder Networks also closed Indian FriendFinder sometime in the last few months.

There are many online dating sites and mobile apps competing for the same market of single men and women, looking for innovative ways to position themselves differently than “just another dating site/app.” But How About We continues to make innovative moves in this industry and buck the trends, including its initial hook – taking online dating offline for better results. Now they're also offering services to couples and getting into the digital content space.

Online Personals Watch recently interviewed CEO Aaron Schildkrout about the success and challenges of How About We, the choices he’s made, and what he wants to do next with the brand.

How About We is focusing on the couples space, since Schildkrout claims it will be "twenty times bigger" than the dating space will be. The fundamental problem with dating sites is that it works to their advantage for people to stay single and looking, so the focus is on gathering more subscribers, not necessarily making a product that helps customers meet their goals of finding partners. Shildkrout maintains that meeting up in the real world works better for singles, which is why they made it their focus.