(Online Dating Industry Journal) Paul Chavez of the Associated Press has written an article delving further into the details surrounding the lawsuits against Match.com and Yahoo! Personals. The article quotes Trish McDermott, chief matchmaker at engage.com and a member of Match.com's startup team in 1995.
While McDermott denied that any of the unethical practices brought up in the lawsuit against Match went on while she was employed with Match, she admitted that, in her opinion, a majority of online dating sites employ a business model that fails its members. According to the article:
"The pay-to-respond model, in which a user must join a service to respond to an e-mail sent by a potential match, but not to post a profile, is lacking because it's not clear who is a member and who isn't, McDermott said.
If someone e-mails 100 people and gets only one response, they could conclude that most of the profiles are fake when actually the profiles show non-subscribers who can't respond to e-mail, McDermott said.
The self-written profiles also breed inauthentic communications that can lead to poor online dating experiences, she said."
For the full article, click here.
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