(Online Dating Industry Journal) While reading Dave Evans excellent recap of iDate 2009, I came across a video from Blackbox Republic giving their view of iDate 2009:
Here's a direct quote from the video:
"Internet Dating has come and gone. It is over. It has jumped the shark. The pay to view another profile model is antiquated at best."
Somewhere along the line, I must have missed the memo. I'm not seeing the mass exodus from dating sites that she talks about. In fact, last I checked, the major Internet Dating sites have all seen growth this year over last year. Is that truly a sign that Internet Dating has come and gone? That it is over?
The simple fact is that Internet Dating is far from gone. Companies that remain stale, don't advertise, and don't listen to feedback (i.e. American Singles) will be a thing of the past, but as a whole the industry is still growing and Internet Dating will grow with it. LavaLife has shown that it wants to keep tuning its model (i.e. adding a Speed Dating option), but it still remains a "pay to use" service and it is seeing a lot of growth. Match.com is growing. eHarmony is growing. PerfectMatch is growing. This is hardly a sign of the industry being dead and having jumped the shark. But then again, maybe it's like the stock market and it will get so big that it just explodes.
I don't think so. What do you think?
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