Dating Industry Quick Links for July 14-20, 2008
- We have published an entire series of dating service traffic estimations based on Google Trends Tool.
Hitwise has released their own rankings with top three dating sites in traffic – Singlesnet, Plenty of Fish, Yahoo! Personals. Find more rankings here
- Another valuable piece of Hitwise info published this week – top dating terms in June 2008:
1. match.com 4.67%
2. plentyoffish 3.40%
3. plenty of fish 2.63%
4. singlesnet.com 2.48%
5. singlesnet 2.18%
6. adam4adam 1.79%
7. eharmony 1.41%
8. plentyoffish.com 1.37%
9. www.plentyoffish.com 1.21%
10. datehookup 1.09%
It is fun to compare them with the same list dated 2006
- Yahoo! Personals is a great dating service, but they are also a cool source of dating tips: A Dating Guide for Women: “Man Talk” Translation published this week.
- Teenagers market is a great place for dating sites as it is really huge, but there are lots of issues teenager dating services run into like paedophiles. BBC covers story of MyLOL.net
Most Trafficked 100% Free Dating Services
100% free dating services – are they real? Yes, they are just samples of what most online users accepted as standard for Internet in the past. People wanted to get all info & services & even goods (those websites listing all kinds of crap freebies are still abundant in the Internet) FREE.
Number of 100% free dating sites is also overwhelming, but most are short of user base – they are missing the key online dating service asset – users. And it is really hard and expensive to build up a database of active users even for 100% free dating sites.
But there are exceptions to the rule in dating industry. Plenty of Fish, True.com, OKCupid – just to name a few most trafficked and popular from this category of dating sites. How did they get there? I think there is a number of reasons for that, and proper timing to start 100% free online dating service is on top of the list.
Let’s have a look at their traffic volume and compare to top matchmaking services that offer both – basic free and paid membership.
100% FREE DATING: Plenty of Fish vs. True.com vs. OKCupid
And the winner is…Plenty of FishWith 1000 online dating service officially running in the US, it is hard to get that volume of visitors. And those who attempt to launch a new matchmaking service at this time should be aware. There was much noise with Engage.com service launch – now they close their CJ affiliate program. I do not consider this as a sign of failure, but other dating services run their affiliate programs through a number of channels for years… And the service concept was quite attractive to combine traditional dating service with popular social site approach.
But what is really great about online businesses is their scaling potential. ONE person can build it from scratch into a big business - when your costs are next to nothing like with Plenty of Fish owner who has just recently hired his first employee.
Trafficked Dating Sites vs. Popular Social Networks: Comparison
Yes, it is accepted – social networks are the enemy of traditional online dating services. Some consider them killers to the traditional online dating industry as we knew it 3-5 years ago.
What are those social networks – MySpace, Facebook, to name a few Though social networks did not pursue the idea to take online dating service place in the market, both service types have many common traits – as a result, their audience activity overlaps. Just compare two definitions:
A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, kinship, dislike, conflict or trade. The resulting structures are often very complex.
Now let’s check the definition of online dating:
Online dating or Internet dating is an example of a dating system and allows individuals, couples and groups to meet online and possibly develop a romantic or sexual relationship. Net dating services provide un-moderated matchmaking through the use of personal computers, the Internet, or even cell phones.
There are certain words that we run into looking through both definitions: relationships, friendship – it makes them interrelated.
As we have reviewed the age of some dating services we are aware that many have been started in the 90-s. And MySpace was launched in 2003. But the rise of social networks is so powerful that they easily overcome time gap that separated them from the dating services.
Let’s compare traffic of top dating sites & social networks:
MySpace vs. Match.com vs. Facebook vs. Singlesnet.com
How could social networks so easily and fast beat those weathered dating services? A few reasons that we should mention:
- They are 100% free and there are no popular fee based social networks so far (as we have mentioned ALL loves freebies)
- Feature rich interface packed with all recent hot stuff
- Appeal to teenagers and youth (unlike dating services)
- Appeal with broader coverage - they cater for miscellaneous interests (not just relationships, marriage or sex like the case with dating services)
Will social networks grow with their popularity and cover more and more age groups? In that case online dating services are destined…