Statistics

A press release from PlentyOfFish.com takes a look at some of their membership numbers and how more women now seem to be looking for intimate encounters. Currently members on Plenty of Fish looking for long term relationships have a male to female ratio of 55:46. Women looking for a casual dating experience when compared to men is 5 to 1. While men still out number woman, the situation is much better than in 2004 were the male to female ratio was 10 to 1. The release also predicts within a decade the ratio of men to women looking for intimate encounters online will reach 1 to 1.

For more reviews on dating sites that offer casual dating, check our our Sexy Singles Dating Category.

For the last number of years eHarmony has been playing up the fact that a large number of people get married everyday who originally met each other on their dating site (current published average is 118). JDate appears to be copying this market tactic. They are currently advertising:

Each day over 60 people tell us they found their soul mates on JDate.

Finding a soul mate is not the same thing as being married but it does lead people to believe it is something more than love. It makes it appear as if the relationship may be leading to marriage. 60 is a fairly large number for a dating site which serves a specific niche. I wonder if we will see other popular dating services following suit and start advertising similar facts.

See our JDate Review for more information on this Jewish matchmaking service.

According to Reuters, Matchmakers in Singapore are seeing business slowing down due to the current economy problems. One Matchmaking company reported a 10% decrease in business.

These Matchmakers are different from most online dating sites. They offer a more one on one customer relationship and can charge men thousands of dollars a month to help them find a wife. Looking at some popular dating sites in North America, (the September statistics where just released) it looks like on average, online dating experienced a minor increase in visitors for the month of September.

How much do you plan to spend during October / November, when compared to the summer? Take our poll to share your answer:

There are a few new things mentioned in a press release on Market Watch from eHarmony. They are reporting 93 percent of Brits do not believe a scientific formula can match them successfully, eHarmony hopes to change this thinking. The release also mentions there are currently 150,000 singles living in the United Kingdom registered on the U.S. version of eHarmony. Lastly, the press release mentions a few key differences in the U.S. and U.K. matching algorithm:

The OII research revealed that while the UK had many similarities in what determines a successful relationship, there were also some interesting differences between US and UK couples.

For example, married people in the United Kingdom consistently express greater satisfaction with the amount of consensus they experience in their marriage, such as the time spent together, how they get along with family and in-laws, and their sexual relationship.

Those from the United States, on the other hand, show more satisfaction with interpersonal aspects of the relationship, such as laughing together more frequently, exchanging ideas, and kissing more often.

Reuters mentions that eHarmony will reject members who are currently married (which we knew) or who have been married more than 3 times. Also, members who "are emotionally unfit to enter a relationship, such as the severely clinically depressed" will not be granted a membership. eHarmony also restated the fact that they would consider started a dating site for homosexuals but, do not currently have plans to do so.

It seems the eHarmony Cracked blog will not be updated for the next little while. The writer of the blog, Scott, needs to concentrate on some other aspects in his life. We wish him well and hope he can return to blogging soon.

As always you can find our more about eHarmony by reading our review.

Online Dating Insider recently had A Conversation with Match.com GM Mandy Ginsberg. I noticed a few points which I would like to share. First off, Chemistry.com's growth is up 11%. I believe David is referring to membership numbers but this could be revenue growth. I would hope membership numbers are up as Chemistry has been spending a lot of money lately on TV advertising.

The other point I noticed is the article mentions Match.com gets 25,000 new members a day. This is a large number but not nearly as large as what we have reported on are Online Dating Statistics & Facts page. According to our research, Match.com sees more than 60,000 new members a day. Why the difference? Let's look at the different scenarios:

Could David have mixed up his numbers (I doubt it) or did the GM of Match.com give him the wrong information?

Could they be talking about new paid members and are number refers to all register members?

Maybe 25,000 is the right number and IAC needs to update their Match.com information page. If this is true, this means Match.com now receives less than half of new member registrations than they use too. Now, that can't be good news for Match.

View our review of Match.com and Chemistry for more information in these dating sites.

The company Avalanche, which owns Date.com, Matchmaker.com and Amor.com, released a press release which reviews how these dating sites are performing this year. Avalanche's revenue grew 17% in the first two quarters of 2008 when compared to the same period last year. The release also points out increased activity on the dating sites with members logging in more often and staying online longer. This activity has been increasing by at least 3% per month since the start of Avalanche's fiscal year. In total this means a 26% increase in member activity. New subscriber numbers have also risen but no percentages where released.

With many dating sites appearing to be reaching a plateau this year thanks to in part the recent economic conditions, the Avalanche suite of dating services have been performing well. While revenue increases don't help singles directly (unless used to help improve the site) the increase in member activity does. I just wish Avalanche had released their new subscribers numbers so we had a better idea on how things look.

For more information on these dating sites read the following reviews:

• Amor.com Review
• Date.com Review
• Matchmaker.com Review