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Personality matching had it’s day in the sun. Eharmony and Chemistry are winning that battle, game over. It was difficult to the industry to get excited about personality matching because nobody understands it except for a few experts, consumers don’t necessarily like filling out forms and the tests are difficult to integrate with existing dating sites.
Now it seems it’s time to move on to mobile dating. Again.
It’s interesting to watch various people in the dating industry attempt to build up interest in mobile dating. Mark Brooks has launched a whole blog dedicated to mobile dating and iDate had a mobile dating conference last year. Network carriers are lukewarm about the potential for a revenue stream that justifies putting much effort into dealing with dating sites. They are all about SMS and games and movies, that’s where the real revenue is.
Enpocket has been delivering mobile dating solutions for several years. Their product for Match has had flat growth, remaining near 100k subs last time I checked. Webdate does mobile, but who’s on Webdate and where are they making money off of it?
I scratch my head when I see people talking about looking at profiles on a tiny phone screen. These services are targeted towards 20-somethings, exactly the kind of service they will not pay for since most are getting raked over the coals with their current data plans. Where is the revenue? What other dating sites charge for mobile phone access?
Mobile dating will succeed when people figure out that it’s not only about browsing, it’s about listening to audio profiles. Entice people to leave audio profiles and I think you’ve got something worthwhile. I can listen to them while driving, commuting, waiting for dentist or hanging out in a cafe.
The problem is that not many sites offer audio profiles or blogs and consumers have expressed low interest, as seen by Match’s failed audio introductions. Match failed because they have not been successful at market their own services to existing members. The wholesale moving of people over to Chemistry may prove me wrong, and good for them if they do.
Do you really think it will pull the dating industry out of it’s current slack tide?
Technorati Tags: enpocket, mobile+dating
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
game over.”
My bet:
eHarmony will collapse
and
Chemistry will peak and decay!
Why?
eHarmony, Chemistry and other sites with proprietary tests or models have low successful matching rates, because their proprietary tests or models have great precision in measuring different psychological variables but their matching algorithms have low precision when comparing one psycho_pattern to others.
The whole precision is less than you could achieve searching by your own!!!
This problem arises because they use multiple regression equations in their matching algorithms to predict relationship compatibility!
If you talk about a FAT WOMAN, it is because you can measure her WEIGHT,
about a TALL WOMAN, you can measure her HEIGHT,
about a OLD WOMAN, you can measure her AGE,
about an INTELLIGENT WOMAN, you can measure her IQ Intelligence Quotient,
about an RICH WOMAN, you can measure her ANNUAL INCOME,
about a PRETTY WOMAN, you can evaluate her Waist_to_Hip_Ratio and the Symmetry of her face!
AND you can compare all those variables with the AVERAGE & STANDARD_DEVIATION for women within a
population.
One is continuously comparing several variables with the ones of an ideal_prospective_mate.
You can spend the whole rest of your life searching for the person you want to date (or you believe you want to date) but … take into account IF that “person you want to date” really WANTS to also date you!!!
From the essay at
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/0000000CAFF0.htm
“Love versus Freedom?
Romance versus Realism?
Pure_Relationships versus Real_Life
……
the reluctance to ’settle down’ with one partner for fear that a better option might come along;
the fear that ‘loving too much’ represents a risk too far;
the idea that love is good as long as it is ‘good for you’, but bad when its obligations encroach upon your own desires and sense of self;
all these trends are played out in the modern relationship, and contribute to its weakening.
……..”
There are more than 900 “Online Dating & Social Networking Sites” at the United States and
Canada, but top 10 Online Dating sites have 80%/85% of actual market (estimated). If you add net paid subscribers of all U.S. dating sites, perhaps the total is less than 5 million!!!
Although it is from NOV 2003, there is an interesting PPT presentation about how the U.S. MARKET OPPORTUNITY REMAINS ENORMOUS. (page 6)
http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/irol/11/111999/presentations/IAC_Personals.pdf
What dating sites are doing / will do to court the other U.S. 80 million singles not seriously dating online?
They need to offer GREAT INNOVATIONS, but …. they will definitively come from new discoveries on Theories of Romantic Relationships Development.
- The Online Dating Industry and Dating Sites manage huge databases, they URGENTLY need more power calculation and more precise/reliable matching techniques, like: “here you have a list of 48 persons most compatible in a 10 million prospects database”.
Dating on the mobile is about having fun (easy to use and provide instant gratification!) rather than developing long term relationships.
Studies into usability have proven that users do not want a simple replication of the online dating experience on their phone but will demand complementary capabilities that utilise the unique capabilities of mobile devices. (e.g. always_on and locationally aware).
Carriers will receive the main portion of the revenue.
Which is the size of the U.S. mobile Dating market?
Only USD 2 million for more than 20 players!
Kindest Regards,
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com
I do have a dating site on my site if your intrested in going that way. Also im working on a chat room.
http://www.bluegem7000.com