Six Reasons to Rethink Your Online Dating Site

STARTUP PROFESSIONALS – May 26 –  Online dating sites usually fail. The simple reason is that everyone expects quick results. Online Dating is a tough and oversaturated market to enter at this stage. Here are six key reasons, from a business perspective:

   1. Direct competition is huge.
   2. No longer a growth market.
   3. Entry cost is very high. 
   4. Intellectual property is tough. It’s hard to invent and patent more “scientific” methods on how to match people.
   5. Social networks. “Social networking” is really the new term for dating, with mega-sites like Facebook, and the hyperlocal site Foursquare. 
   6. Sophisticated search engines. Singles will soon be able to search cyberspace for their ideal partner, without the need to join any dating site.

If you expect to get any traction in this market, you need some real innovation.

by Martin Zwilling
The full article was originally published at Startup Professionals, but is no longer available.

Comment from Sam Moorcroft from ChristianCafe.com:
"I agree. The vast majority of entrepreneurs in this business lose their shirts and bail. Few existing dating sites actually make profit for their owners. They should become affiliates of those of us who have made it, as they'd stand a better chance of making money that way. Many of them have enough traffic to be affiliates."