(Online Dating Industry Journal) An article in the latest edition of Newsweek takes a stab at explaining the slowing growth of the online dating market. From the article:
"One reason for the slowdown is that the curiosity factor has worn off. When the online scene was new, millions of consumers hit on the sites just to see what was going on. But just like trendy singles bars, many customers get bored after a short honeymoon period and move on to the next thing, including free sites like craigslist.org, which now offers dating alongside classified car and real-estate ads. Big sites like eHarmony and Match.com still attract millions of browsers, but fewer and fewer of them sign on as paying customers. That suggests to many analysts that the problem is price, which can now run up to $50 a month for popular sites."
Some believe this slump is inevitable and will soon happen in Europe, where online dating is currently booming, while others believe that technological advancements and incentives will add fuel to the fire.
Kim's Comments:
I'm surprised that this article didn't touch on the fact that many people shy away from dating services due to lack of quality customer service and attention. Many online daters take a break from online dating when they either find a match or get frustrated because they can't find a match. Often, dating sites make it difficult to cancel a membership or get an actual person on the phone to discuss your issue and, when this happens, bad news of dating services spread. The member not only completely gives up on online dating but also spreads the word to others about some of the horrors of online dating customer service.
While this isn't the one and only contributing factor to the drop in industry growth, it is an important factor that needs to be addressed. You can have all the latest and greatest technology in the world, but if customer service is severely lacking, eventually members will leave in frustration and might never come back.
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