I am liking the Compete blog’s posts on the online dating market. December’s numbers are of interest, look at the difference between visitors and active members. This is exactly the type of metrics we need to be looking at when evaluating the overall success of dating sites.
Mate1.com and True.com both do a terrific job of driving visitors to their sites, but this traffic simply doesn’t convert. Members represent 13% and 24% of total visitors (respectively).
While the represent major dating services in terms of total visitors, both True.com and Mate1.com look like they compete more with Niche site BlackPeopleMeet when compared on the basis of member visits. Aggressive acquisition and sales tactics (such as requiring a subscription for any type of user-to-user communication) are prime factors in their equally low repeat visitation (around 5 times per month per user).
Interesting observations, indeed. Look at the numbers from February 2007 for comparison.
