BUSINESS WEEK — Feb 8 — Online dating, virtually unknown on the Continent five years ago, is taking off in a big way, even as the phenomenon seems to be slowing on the other side of the Atlantic. Revenues of the leading European dating Web sites will more than double over the next five years, from $200 million to $450 million, predicts Paris-based analyst Olivier Beauvillain, Jupiter Research. Sales in the U.S. are expected to grow only 9% this year, to $515 million. The region's biggest online dating service is Meetic.com, a private company launched three years ago by Web entrepreneur Marc Simoncini. The site is set to hit 10 million members around St. Single's Day and will book around $55 million in sales this year.
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Mark Brooks: See you in Prague Both myself and Mark from iDate interviewed with the journalist for this article.