What are the oldest online dating sites?
Well, what’s the point of checking dating service age? A few fast ideas that come to my mind:
- Search engine trusted domains that result with better rankings
- Experienced industry players - know all online dating ins & outs
- Likely to have tested a few business models and currently use the most efficient for them
But you can do much more with this sort of information I am sure of that.
IMPORTANT: I have used the below tools to define the domain name age. It is not equal to the dating service age. That domain might be registered in years before someone grabbed it and developed the dating service as we know it today.
General dating services:
|
Dating service |
Archive.org |
Webconfs.com |
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 10y 5mo |
|
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 9y 7mo |
|
|
Online since undefined |
Online for undefined |
|
|
Online since 1996 |
Online for 11y 6mo |
|
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 9y 6mo |
|
|
Online since 2003 |
Online for 4y 11mo |
Religious dating services:
|
Dating service |
Archive.org |
Webconfs.com |
|
Online since 2001 |
Online for 6y 10mo |
|
|
Online since 2000 |
Online for 8y 4mo |
|
|
Online since 2003 |
Online for 5y 2mo |
|
|
Online since 1999 |
Online for 9y 2mo |
|
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 9y 7mo |
Ethnic dating services:
|
Dating service |
Archive.org |
Webconfs.com |
|
Online since undefined |
Online for undefined |
|
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 9y 7mo |
|
|
Online since 1996 |
Online for 11y 8mo |
|
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 9y 7mo |
Specialty dating services:
|
Dating service |
Archive.org |
Webconfs.com |
|
Online since 2003 |
Online for 5y 3mo |
|
|
Online since 1999 |
Online for 9y 2mo |
|
|
Online since 2003 |
Online for 5y 2mo |
|
|
Online since 2002 |
Online for 6y 3mo |
|
|
Online since 2002 |
Online for 5y 9mo |
Gay/ Lesbian dating services:
|
Dating service |
Archive.org |
Webconfs.com |
|
Online since 2001 |
Online for 7y 3mo |
|
|
Online since 1998 |
Online for 9y 7mo |
|
|
Online since 2000 |
Online for 8y 1mo |
|
|
Online since 1997 |
Online for 11y 5mo |
I guess we can track online dating industry evolution – the oldest domains are those of general dating services. Once that sector got too crowded – you can see how niche dating services evolved.
And though niche dating services are younger than general, but they are on average 8+ years old. Does not it look like all hot online dating spots are filled since the last century?
Most Trafficked Specialty Dating Services
It was fun to see what traffic dating sites in miscellaneous niches get: general, religious, ethnic dating.
In search of new markets and profits we witness new dating services launch that sometimes can surprise with their focus and niche targeting like: military dating, single parent dating, married dating, but that niche targeting does make sense with that industry competition. And in any case before the company develops a dating service site they do a proper niche research. One should be insane to develop a dating site with no clear idea of the targeted niche demand and traffic volume.
Nonetheless, it is fun to check what traffic levels those services get… And compare them to each other…
OK, we will look at a few below dating sites for our traffic research and comparison:
SPECIALTY DATING: Military dating vs. Single Parent Dating vs. Married dating vs. Wealth dating
As you can see - the narrower the niche –> the less traffic a dating service gets. No surprises here. Google reports no data for military dating and single parents services. That might be a glitch or those service really get negligible amount of daily traffic…
Certainly, we did not cover all that myriad of specialty or niche dating services available on the market or even reviewed at this website: big beautiful women, senior dating, mobile dating, etc.
But those comparisons in traffic volume give us a good idea of top industry players that show direction to other dating services.
It would be a great fun to check what traffic top 100% free dating services get. We have made one comparison of top free & free/ fee based – Match.com vs. Plenty Of Fish; to tell the truth, I expected some different result though those paid based services have budgets to market their services.
So, you see we get a dilemma here – start a 100% free dating service that should attract users (everyone looks for freebies online), but get no resources to market your dating site OR launch a combined free/ fee dating service and get funds to market your great site.
What 100% free services should we compare? Plenty Of Fish, OKCupid, True.com and some more…
p.s. Google has announced today that using its AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool one can get the approximate amount of queries for this or that keyword. In the past Google used toolbars to show the query volume, now it is available in numbers - Google makes more and more data available to public.
AmericanSingles Dating Service Review
AmericanSingles.com is one of the services that Spark Networks run. A few more niche dating services from this company:
Deaf Singles Connection
BlackSingles.com
ChristianMingle.com
CatholicMingle.com
Date.ca
SingleParentsMingle.com
JDate.com
BBW Personals Plus
Unlike above niche dating services AmericanSingles caters for more general audience. One of the service limitations – they accept US and Canadian members only.
Registration – free and fast (unlike with some services like Match.com that require days to complete the registration – but it is quite a different story: Match.com certainly knows what they do).
- Name
- Location
- Age
- Type of relationship you look for
- Smoking & drinking habits
- Ethnicity
- Religion
And you are a member of AmericanSingles.com
Free membership is limited and if you want to test all service features – make use of your credit card. Subscription plans include 1-month, 3-month and 6-month plans (lowest – 6-month Standard Plan subscription – $9.99 per month at the time of writing).
You are likely to enjoy their ‘Local Online Dating for Singles’ – by State & by City.
Want to hear 10 reasons why you should join this particular dating service or look through the entire list of free/ paid membership features? Just check this page
At the time of my reviewing the service there were about 7000 members online. Dating service packed with lots of active users – one of the most compelling reasons to join it and even become a paid subscriber.
But let’s make a quick comparison of AmericanSingles to a number of other general dating services traffic:
AmericanSingles.com vs PerfectMatch vs Chemistry
So, you have an idea about their traffic. You have idea about their rates. You have idea about their competitors. The choice is yours.