As soon as I wrote about Match.com’s international expansion, I see that eHarmony is officially looking to move into the Chinese dating market.
EHarmony has been bolstered by a Beijing University study that shows its matching technology can be successfully adapted there.
“We found the models to be highly effective in that we can predict successful marriages in China,†said Galen Buckwalter, who leads a team of six Ph.D. psychology researchers at eHarmony.
A panel of psychologists, through focus groups in China, validated the translations of questionnaires and found that cultural differences matter little when it comes to measuring personality types and values.
I’m sure they will pick up a certain percentage of the market in China, but there are already other competitors who have enormous memberships that are not starting from scratch.
More at LA Business Journal.
To eHarmony, China is more lucrative than gays.
“There’s a real business issue here,†CEO Greg Waldorf said. “You’ve got to decide what market you’re going to put resources against. For example, we’ve decided that the Chinese market will be a big enough opportunity. We have a lot of things to go after and the gay community is not a market we’re going to pursue and that’s it.â€
I guess that’s the end of the story. Chemistry, MyPartner, Adam4Adam and the other gay sites can breath a sigh of relief.
Unofficial eHarmony Blog.
