The $520 million online dating industry may be slowing, with sales up 9% in 2005 compared with 20% in 2004. But a group of niche sites has become the industry's fastest-growing segment. Check out a few SUPER-NICHE INTEREST WEB DATING below:
http://www.datemypet.com
For $10 a month, pet owners post photos of themselves and their four-legged friends. The site grew 250% last year, and with links to pet products and animal-care articles, the focus is more on pets than people.
http://www.meetsinglerunners.com/
Focused on active daters, this site's 1,500 monthly visitors are mostly in the Southwest (look for a national ad campaign this year). Search for a mate based on weekly mileage and average pace, sifting, say, marathoners from morning joggers.
http://www.farmersonly.com/
Farmers do it best. This site has 10,000 singles in categories ranging from organic farmers to alpaca breeders. It also recently upgraded from 1 server to 5 and is forecasting 100,000 users by the end of 2006.
http://www.millionairematch.com/
Why not skip the pretense and get straight to what you're looking for - a mate who's paid-in-full!
According to the site, "the busy lifestyle of a millionaire leaves little free time to meet and make friends." Awww. Millionaires (or those making $100K or more) are invited to join and get matched, while the golddiggers are given entre to a playland of Richie Riches looking for a little TLC. Though I'd imagine one should take many claims on this site with a big grain of salt...consider just how many adults are on MySpace claiming to be 17 and just looking to be your friend...
http://www.gorgeousgrandma.com/
Don't laugh at the Gorgeous Grandmas - expect the senior dating segment to just explode in the coming years as the Boomers reach 60 this year, and many are headed into both second careers and second (and third and fourth) relationships.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Trend: Mass Interactive: Web Dating
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3 comments:
I just read an article in Atlantic Monthly about the science behind some of the larger sites--eharmony has the infamous 436 question personality survey--to ensure compatibility. The interesting thing is that these sites are focused on finding soulmates based on special algorithms, but my poking around leads me to believe that (maybe just the people in my demographic) are looking for something much less perminant. Like maybe not even lasting til sunrise. Anybody want to refute?
Well, true love is hard to find. Sometimes you think you have true love and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego and a couple of nude people jump out of your bathroom blindfolded like a goddamn magic show ready to double team your girlfriend... So with that, I must say that sites seem like a better place to find the latter (peeps ready to get nude) than the former (true love). Though, Kip was able to find his soulmate Lafawnduh by chatting online, so maybe I need to reconsider.
ah ha! someone else has caught on--here's an article on WSJ today about new sites cropping up that are just for casual hook-ups.
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114113606338885286-kKdCK_sy2Ly87GC5blGHGGrYq1s_20070301.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
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