Costlier Operations: Dating or Social Networking Sites?

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Are dating site operational costs higher than social networks? Markus at PlentyOfFish says “operational costs of a dating site significantly higher then social networking sites.� I doubt that 100%. Come on Markus, enough with the hype, or at least back up your assertions. You know your numbers but sometimes they appear a bit too “bendy� to support your world domination claims.
“With the number of free sites exploding.� Where?

Prediction, OkCupid is going to be a much better dating site than PlentyOfFish in a few months, which will start to decline, despite the hype. I didn’t say larger or more pageviews or cheaper technical budget (daters could care less about these things). I said better, as in better profiles, features, look & feel and overall user experience. Wait and see.

That said, the forums on PoF are a pretty incredible resource for singles.

The Comscore numbers that Friender get 6 billion pageviews a month are outrageous. Pageviews mean nothing except to advertisers. Well designed sites log much less page views, often because the navigation is better thought out and it doesn’t take 5 clicks to do something that with AJAX-style programming only takes one.