online dating - market trends
 

I am doing some research on the online dating market and am looking for some hard metrics on that market.

*How fast is the online dating business expanding?

*What were the trends in online dating in 2007?

Any solid data are much appreciated!!

A lot of ppl will probably tell you that some sites have lost a lot of popularity and are not doing as well as they had been but that is not so true. Sure, some maybe a little off compared to past years, however, a lot have gained market share even though their tactics to do so may not be too kosher.

Tube sites make their money from promoting dating and their is a lot of traffic pushed from tube sites to dating sites. So much, in fact, that some dating sites have been looking the other way while taking the traffic hand over fist.

Honestly, are you writing an article for business 2.0 or what?

Why are you doing such research? To be able to promote dating sites, you don't need to do such broad research on them.

But to answer these questions, I don't think the market is expanding, I'd rather estimate that it is shrinking, since social networking sites are replacing the paid dating sites to a certain extent.

Web 2.0 is influencing online dating marketing. Here's a tip: Social networking sites like Twitter.com, Facebook.com, hi5.com, etc are great for marketing filter pages for dating sites. Of course, if you're too obvious, you get banned.

The key is to filter the mass of traffic to an easy to segment/easy to analyze (and market to) reliable stream of traffic.

Another trend is to use microblogging and localize niche keywords to give your localized marketing efforts an extra KICK. Remember: less, but higher quality traffic, means more bucks for you.

Anyway, best of luck to you.

The market is still expanding, albeit to a lower degree than before.

Social networking is, without a doubt, harming the online dating industry, especially among the younger demographic. Among the older demographic, however, social networking is less often used as a dating tool, so its effects on the dating industry are much smaller there.

Also, dating sites are obviously still the tool of choice for those who are actively looking for relationships, rather than just open to the possibility of dates. After all, merely knowing a person is on a dating site makes it quite a bit easier to approach them.


There are three major current trends in dating.

The first is specialization. Perhaps the best example of this is geographic specialization, whether it be "true" specialization (with a site specifically catering to a limited area) or superficial specialization (where national or global dating sites advertise and market to audiences using things such as geo-ip targeting to create the suggestion of relevance to the customer's specific area, both in advertising and on the site). Other examples are specialization with regards to specific age groups, education levels, interests, etc.

The second trend is, unfortunately, for sites to become free. With competition from the free social networking sites, as well as from free dating sites, traditional paid dating sites are facing an uphill struggle. That is why many are resorting to things such as deceptive advertising, the inclusion of fake profiles, and even fake correspondence.

Finally, the third trend is for dating sites to (finally) move to unique selling points. Closely related to the first and second trends, this includes such things as matching personality tests, aiming at very narrow but highly visible groups, and other novelty concepts. Especially paid sites need to display an obvious added value over basic free dating sites and social networking sites.

All in all, expect to see new sites without the benefit of a large, established user base to justify costs either move to business models involving free access, coming up with innovative new advertising and business concepts, or going under.

Thanks for the input so far.

I am looking for some estimates of the dollar size of the online dating market in dollars. Is it a billion dollar industry yet? How much did it grow in 2007?

every year new singles, desparate and lonely will find their way to online dating. don't expect social sites to completely supplant them, not everyone wants to let their relatives know they a so lonely they'd do nuts in the ass on the first date :)

but like all things online, if you miss the initial huge adoption boon, or got in late, expect your earnings to be different, and scaled in a different manner than the whales you seek to emulate. slow and steady builds rebills too, something that won't ever change. patience and determination make for great profits, even with some dating sites at a high brand awareness level.