Who's Using Online Dating Services
Online dating services have never been so popular. Online dating has definitely gone mainstream. Online dating services are advertised on prime time network television, and online dating has been the subject of at least one movies: You've Got Mail, featuring America's sweethearts, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.
Eighteen million people visited online dating sites last year. Who are all those people, and are all going out with dream dates they met through online dating services?
Wired and Wealthy
Virtually all online dating service subscribers have high-quality technology and money to burn. Online daters need sophisticated computer equipment and high-speed Internet connections to get the most out of their online dating service subscriptions. They have camera phones so they can post pictures of themselves and webcams so they can participate in the latest trend in online dating, webcam chats. Online singles need all these gadgets, not to mention a high speed internet connection, to keep up with the technology of online dating.
Online daters also have plenty of money-at least $25 a month of completely disposable income. Granted, if you meet your dream mate right away, or even a few months after you subscribe, $25 a month is a small price to pay. But 57% of online dating service users never go on a date with someone they met online, and if those people are paying for subscriptions, they're throwing their money away. But are they paying? That question brings us to the next category of online dating service customer, the window shopper.
Window Shoppers
Some of the 18 million online dating site visitors are window shoppers - people who browse personal ads for entertainment but have no intention of ever contacting another member for a date. One out of every five men who spend time online admits to window shopping as part of their online routine.
Online dating service providers consider these window shoppers to be free riders, because they never use the sites' for-pay features. Window shoppers can subscribe to the site for free, paying a fee only if they want to contact another member. But the window shopper doesn't want to make contact, he just wants to look.
Marriage-Minded Singles
Most online dating service customers use the service for its intended purpose: to find dates and marry mates. America's most advertised online dating service boasts that its members marry each other 75 times every month.
Online dating services are commonly accepted today as just another way for like-minded singles to find each other, with no stigma attached. And that's what online dating is all about.
