THE DAILY BEAST – Feb 14 – Different countries date differently. Cupid Plc burned a lot of money when it tried to expand its BeNaughty website with becoquin.fr in France and gibsmir.de in Germany. Match.com sold its entire European business to the French site Meetic.com. These companies were sometimes felled by practical idiosyncrasies such as offering credit cards as the sole payment method in Europe, not knowing that only 25% of Germans own them. Australians take a more relaxed approach to dating. “In Australia you can never really be sure if you are on a date or you are just hanging out as friends,” says Katrina, an Australian who spent a year in Texas. Taiwan offers a more conservative scene. Potential partners are mainly set up through friends, and romance must be found within one’s social circle. Mark Brooks, editor of Online Personals Watch, predicts that the Chinese online dating industry alone will generate $350M in revenue in 2014, and forecasts growth in developing markets such as Russia and Latin America. Gian Gonzaga, chief scientist for eHarmony, sent out thousands of questionnaires in countries including Brazil, Australia, and the U.S. “We found Brazilian couples value passion the most,” Gonzaga says. “The importance of similar levels of spirituality is highest in the States.” eHarmony then adjusted its websites’ algorithms to reflect Gonzaga’s findings.
by Ella Delany
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