REUTERS — July 8 — Online entertainment has increasingly moved to the mobile handset. According to the trade association Mobile Entertainment Forum, the global mobile entertainment industry is now worth $32 billion. The industry also remains confident that it can continue to grow strongly despite the current economic challenges, predicting average revenue growth of 28 % for 2010. CCS Insight analyst Paolo Pescatore believes the most popular sites such as Facebook might struggle to charge on mobile as users would still expect the service to be free. Other services that could prove to be successful will be those which offer a core aspect for free and then charge a small fee for premium content. One online and mobile service that has followed this route is Flirtomatic, a fun dating social network that allows users to post their profiles and rank each other from "freak" to "off the radar." Over 1m profiles have been posted so far. FULL ARTICLE @ REUTERS
Category: All Internet Dating Statistics
South African Market Is Growing
WLD BLOG — June 5 – Many of our (White Label Dating) partners have realized the great untouched potential in South Africa. In three months the number of members in South Africa has gone up 83.43%. Revenue growth has gone up 456.16% in five months. Bad Dating Behaviour
PRESS RELEASE — May 29 — 8m singles in the UK are looking for love, and they’ll go on 18m first dates this year – but at least 6m of those will end in disaster, and even fewer will lead to something special. Of the 1,300 singles polled by PARSHIP.co.uk 40% admitted to turning up late for a first date – or not showing at all; 28% talked about their ex and past sexual experiences, 14% confessed to over-indulging in alcohol, and 6% said they’d been chaperoned by a friend, their mother — or even a pet. 14% of women surveyed admitted to drinking so much on a first date that they felt out of control.
Online Dating Takes An Upward Turn As The Recession Bites
NEW MEDIA AGE — Apr 23 — Since the onset of the recession in September 2008, online dating sites have been attracting new users like they were going out of style. In the UK, traffic to online dating sites grew 13% between September 2008 and February 2009, to attract just shy of 5m visitors and a reach of 13% of the total UK online population. The appetite for love apparently has been re-ignited from the ashes of consumer-capitalism, and continued site growth is expected into 2009. The most popular online dating property is currently Meetic, which attracted an unduplicated 1.4m visitors in February in combination with newly acquired Match.com.
The full article was originally published at New Media Age, but is no longer available.
Online Matchmaking A Paying Proposition
REDNET.CN — Apr 8 – According to a recent poll taken by the Matchmaking Committee of the China Association of Social Workers, almost one third of 154k respondents said they met their current mates online. "Introduced by a friend" was a distant second at 13%. The number of people using online dating services has more than doubled in three years – from 46m in 2005 to 100m last year – and is expected to reach 185m in 2010, according to the iResearch. Revenue in 2008 was $95.6m, and is expected to reach $176m next year.
The full article was originally published at Rednet CN, but is no longer available.
Kids And Internet Usage
FAMILY EDUCATION — Mar 15 — According to the Center for Media Research, most parents in the U.S. estimate that their children spend about two hours a month on the Internet. In reality, kids and teens are spending upwards of 20 hours a month surfing the Web. ~41% of U.S. teens claim their parents have no idea what they are looking at online. The most popular online activities are online dating (23%), social networking (50%), and playing games (72%).
The full article was originally published at Epoch Times, but is no longer available.
Hitwise U.S.A. Internet Dating Rankings Update
OPW — Mar 5 — The February Hitwise U.S. dating rankings are out. PlentyofFish beats Singlesnet and is now #1. Yahoo!Personals moves ahead of Match.com to take the #3 position. Date Hookup maintains it's 5th position. eHarmony dropped from #6 to #7 moving Adam4Adam up to #6. Manhunt.net, BlackPeopleMeet and TRUE.com remained at #8, #9, #10 respectively.
Can A Recession Seriously Boost Online Dating?
MARKET WATCH — Feb 19 — Zoosk targets 20 and 30 somethings, a demographic that spends a lot of time on social networking sites. Zoosk's founders say their site is among the first to incorporate social networking into online dating. Zoosk has received $4.5 million in funding and has 16.5m users. Not all dating sites are growing like Zoosk. Spark Networks saw sales drop to $14m vs. $15.8m a year ago, while Match.com's revenue grew 5% to $93.5m. While jobless people may be also lonely, many will find paying $25 to $35 a month for a dating service a luxury when they have no income and will use Zoosk or free sites like PlentyofFish. FULL ARTICLE @ MARKET WATCH
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eHarmony Spends $93.3 Million In Advertising In 9 Months
EHARMONY BLOG — Feb 11 —
Rank Site Jan 07 to Sep 07 Jan 08 to Sep 08
1 eHarmony 79,019.631 93,255.171
2 Match.com 51,170.580 47,607.049
3 Chemistry.com 12,125.655 28,282.073
4 Cupid.com 1,067.142 847.231
5 Nocheatersdate.com 0.000 822.042
6 Blacksingles.com 272.964 510.251
7 AdultFriendFinder.com 0.000 243.553
8 AshleyMadison.com 59.977 243.420
9 Ciaorossano.com 0.000 212.750
10 ChristianMingle.com 0.000 201.213
Source: The Nielsen Company (2009)
The full article was originally published at eHarmony blog, but is no longer available.
Divorce Numbers Fall Off, Dating On The Rise
UNION TRIBUNE — Feb 14 – Struggling couples are are staying together for love and money while singles are looking for romance and half the rent. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 37% of its members said they see a decrease divorce cases during national economic downturns. At eHarmony, registrations from Sep '08 to Jan '09 have increased 20% from the same period a year ago. Perfectmatch's revenue increased 42% from the previous quarter. FULL ARTICLE @ UNION TRIBUNE