Do Sites Like MySpace Threaten Matchmaking Websites?

Posted on February 20, 2006

eMarketer has an article called "Online Dating Gets Tough" (link no longer available) which covers the shrinking revenue growth at online matchmaking websites like Match.com and Yahoo Personals. The article also says rising competition from free sites like MySpace.com, Facebook, Friendster and Xanga may be a threat to the fee-based personals business.

eMarketer senior analyst James Belcher says, "The fact is that online dating is a mature market. Sites now specialize in matching people of specific races, religions, interests and professions, and there are multiple sites competing in each of these niches. Some sites now facilitate webcam-based dates, video-blogging, and other technological marvels."

It does seem obvious that these sites pose a risk to fee-based personals websites. Anytime a competitor offers something for free that you are charging for it does suggest a potential threat to your business model and existence. The existing personals models already have a large database of singles and everyone there is supposed to be "available" for dating -- so much so that they are willing to pay the fees to use the service. On social networks like MySpace and Friendster it takes a little more effort to find out which people are looking for dates. However, they do have a "singles field" and browse and search features that let you crunch through the millions of people profiles to view only the profiles of singles. It is not clear if this will be enough for them to compete with sites focused solely on providing dating services. For example, just because someone has a single status does not mean they open to dating.