With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, what better a time to talk about the ‘perfect substitute’ or the ‘perfect complement’ for all of us? Increasing demand for relationships from all the lonely singles out there has solicited tremendous growth in the on-line dating industry.
One particular dating service that had previously lost on-line subscriptions to racier social-networking sites has since become the largest online dating service in the United States. Here’s how Match.com did it. After a period of losing subscribers, Match.com revamped its focus audience such that it was geared towards people over 50 and divorcees. With older people getting “connected” more often, they’ve become an attractive target for a company that advocates “serious relationships.” By creating a new web-site designed towards usability, and by employing the psychological ‘talents’ of “Dr Phil” McGraw to create guides with advices on setting realistic relationship goals, Match.com has increased its online traffic to 4.3 million unique visitors per month; second only to Yahoo! Personals in terms of monthly visits to dating websites.
Match.com, owned by Barry Diller, incorporated the use of economies of scope to revamp the online dating market. Barry Diller also owns better known brands such as the loan exchange Lending Tree and the invitation service, eVite. As links and banners were cross-promoted on Diller’s broad range of media, more people were reached with each additional dollar spent.
Extremely high start-up costs in relation to advertising and technology restricted entry into the relatively small market for online dating (only eight major dating services), and thus the dating services that do exist have exhibited near monopolistic power in terms of the monthly fees and services that they charge. As the market structure and concentration remains the way it is, Match.com seems to be continually earning an increase in its quarterly revenue. Will other online services catch on to this market of old people?
http://coachingtip.blogs.com/so_baby_boomer/2007/01/boomers_and_onl.html
The Wall Stree Journal, How Match.com Found Love Among Boomers, January 27-28, 2006
Posted on behalf of Pamela Tsang, Thomas Li, and Chi Liu
2 comments:
I have to disagree with some of your analysis on the subject. First, Match.com and others relatively low start-up cause. Sites like Match.com, Facebook.com, and other social networking have relatively low startup costs. Most of these sites can and have been programmed by college students in there free time. After programming they can be hosted on server no more than $100 a month. So why haven’t more been sites popping up? They have and are all over the market. These sites focus on market niches like adults who want swing (adultfriendfinder.com) or those much older than us (seniorpeoplemeet.com). These sites are everywhere, and not even Match.com has monopolistic powers.
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