The Business of Online Dating.
Sure, there’s always a reason behind most businesses: making money.
According to IAC (InterActive Corporation), the parent company of Match, the site was launched in 1995 (IAC also manages citysearch, ticketmaster, evite, bloglines and shoebuy to name a few).
Match.com has a revenue of $349 million. When compared to eHarmony.com (the competition!) match still comes out on top, as eHarmony reported $4.1 million in revenue for 2007.
Match.com claims that an average of 75,000 people sign up each day for the service. Add in the monthly subscription charge, and that’s some good money. Immediately, I thought of the advertising opportunities that match has the capability for. It’s like facebook- people are logging in often, and actively reading and navigating through the site. On IAC’s advertising page, the demographics are displayed:
The demos show that it’s almost split evenly between men and women. Shows that both genders are looking for love… corny but I had to say it, haha.
The distribution is nearly normal in regards to the age range. As a 22 year old female, I fall into a small percentage of the overall distribution.
It’s interesting. Signing up isn’t the only way to spend money on the site. You can also pay for additional “options” including…
- Match Mobile: $4.99 a month to send and receive emails on your cell phone. I tried to get around this system, but they block it unless you pay. punks.
- Email Read Receipts: $3.99 a month to see if someone actually read your message.
- Fancy colors: I forget how much it is but you pay extra to have a colored box around your picture. Yes, I am going to click on your name because it is a prettier color. Actually, it makes me feel like I wouldn’t want to click, knowing that you paid extra for a lame box.
- Monthly fee: About $15 to sign up. That’s just as much as netflix!
According to this article in Forbes, Match.com is working on strategic partnerships with Facebook and MySpace, in addition to current partnerships with AOL and Yahoo.
Making Money With A Subscription Based Business Model:
We’re [match.com] about 95% in subscription revenues. Last year, we did $349 million in revenue and $78 million in profit, which is up about 24% over the prior year. When I look at the subscription model, three things matter–How many people register everyday, how much they pay us and how long they’re staying?
Everyday we have about 75,000 people sign up for the service here in the U.S. It’s $35 a month, and people spend on average four, four and a half months.
-Match.com Chief Executive Thomas Enraght-Moony.
In the end, if you can figure out a way to reinvent something that we do in the physical world and make it digital, you’ve got yourself an idea. How’s dating any different?