Compatible Partners

Late in 2018 eHarmony was acquired by the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1 (Parship Elite Group). Since then they have been busy working on a large update to eHarmony which went live on November 4^th, 2019. With this update came the closure of Compatible Partners which now redirects to eHarmony with the following message:

A fresh experience is waiting for you. Log in with your existing credentials or register now to discover what‘s new.

So, it looks like current members have nothing to worry about as all active member accounts have been moved over to eHarmony so all you need to do is log in with your existing information.

Love is in the air for ProSiebenSat.1 and eHarmony. The German broadcaster has purchased the LA-based dating service through its newly formed e-commerce division, NuCom Group. The company plans to merge eHarmony (along with Compatible Partners, an eHarmony owned same sex dating service) with its own online dating platform, Parship. The parties agreed not to disclose the details of the transaction.

“Creating growth and leveraging synergies are key elements of our strategy. This acquisition is an excellent fit. Bringing these two strong brands together will immediately create a world leading online matchmaking company,” ProSiebenSat.1 CEO Max Conze said in a statement.

Parship is one of the most popular dating platforms in the German-speaking and Benelux regions. NuCom Group has developed the company into one of the most successful properties in its portfolio since acquiring a majority stake for €100 million in 2016. Like eHarmony, Parship is focused on long-term relationships and uses a compatibility algorithm based on a comprehensive questionnaire to match users in its database. Parship and sister brand ElitePartner is expected to have 2 million new registrations this year while eHarmony expects 2.8 million.

In honor of Pride month, Compatible Partners is running a special promotion on memberships. If you enter the following coupon code when you signup for a 6 month subscription:

GAYPRIDE

You will receive 83% off of the standard 6 month subscription price. This works out to $9.95 per month. This offer is valid unit the end of the month, June 30th, 2015.

Please check our Compatible Partners review for more information on this gay dating service.

One of eHarmony's senior research scientist is psychologist Gian Gonzaga. He holds a doctorate in personality / social psychology from UC Berkeley. KansasCity.com has a short interview with him where he describes briefly what the core qualities partners need to share to have a successful relationship.

The big ones — some of the most powerful ones — are personality traits. Things like how agreeable of a person you are, how open you are to experience. Are you extroverted? So are you looking for a lot of interactions in the social world? Or are you introverted?

Dr. Gonzaga also talks about why it matters that couples share these types of traits.

Because if you are similar to someone, it’s a lot easier to understand what it is they’re thinking. ... They like to believe that what they think is true, and one of the ways that we do that is to look to other people who have the same interests and beliefs and values. So when we see that in a partner, we feel validated in our sense of self, which makes us feel better and makes us like that person.

He further explains that opposites may attract but, these type of relationships really don't last. If you are really different from your partner, negotiating the way you see things from how your partner does over and over again, as each new conflict situation arises, is extremely difficult to do. Over the long run these type of relationships just fizzle out.

Dr. Gonzaga mentions Compatible Partners as well. This is eHarmony's new dating site for gay and lesbian relationships. He was asked a question about if gay relationships share the same characteristics as a heterosexual relationship:

We think so. The existing literature on same-sex couples indicates that a lot of the same theoretical basis of sharing the same deep values is going to predict better relationships over the long haul. So right now we’re moving on the assumption that the same kinds of models are going to apply well, and then over time we’ll work on that model to tailor it as best as possible.

This is the first time that I know of were eHarmony has said they are going to spend some research money to see if gay relationships actually do differ from heterosexual relationships.

For more information on this popular personality matchmaking site, read our eHarmony review.

Well, eHarmony finally launched its dating website for same-sex matches yesterday, called Compatible Partners (a day before they were required too). This was part of a settlement agreement with the New Jersey Attorney General that involved a discrimination case against the company.

Compatible Partners Snap Shot

The actual Compatible Partners works pretty much the same as eHarmony and, that might be a problem. Compatible Partners uses the same Patented Compatibility Matching System. As stated on the homepage:

The Company's patented Compatibility Matching System was developed on the basis of research involving married heterosexual couples. The Company has not conducted similar research on same-sex relationships.

While I have not finished our review yet, I can tell you the Compatible Partners questionnaire is pretty much the same as the one on eHarmony. One would tend to think that what makes a heterosexual relationship a success would differ somewhat from a gay relationship. eHarmony does run eHarmony labs which is where the research is done for their matching system. It has a $3 million a year budget. I wonder if they currently have set aside any of these funds for researching what makes a successful gay relationship?

At least what Compatible Partners does bring to the table is a gay and lesbian dating site for establishing long term relationships that is not driven by sex, as a lot of other popular same-sex dating sites seem to be.

If you are looking for a same-sex relationship, visit eHarmony's new dating site CompatiblePartners.net. For a limited time they are offering a free 6 month membership (for the first 10,000 registered members).

Update: Our new review of Compatible Partners is now online.

eHarmony never wanted to open Compatible Partners but as specified in the terms of a settlement in November 2008, they must open a dating site for gay people by the end of this month. We have been told that the site will work like eHarmony's current site which involves a long profile questionnaire to help in the matching process. At eHarmony you do not search for other singles. All matches are given to you by the dating site. As far as we know there have been no plans to update eHarmony's matching algorithm to take into account the differences in a gay relationship for Compatible Partners.

It will be interesting to see how popular the new dating site will get. It has gotten a lot of media attention but delivering a product for this type of niche never was a goal for eHarmony. I don't see why a gay single would want to join?

When Compatible Partners goes live, we do plan on doing a review, so stay tune.

Update: Check our our new review of Compatible Partners.