Are social networks the place to find love?
It used to be that websites were fairly static places: you look up a company and they present to you their product and services. Many still are static, but interaction is now the thing on the internet. That’s what the so-called Web 2.0 is all about – user interaction through websites.
In a limited way, this is what dating websites are all about too – they allow you to interact, not with the website owners but with other users of the site. But you can do that on Facebook, Bebo, Myspace and Twitter (and a plethora of others – there’s even a site where you are set up with an online chat session with another random user).
Can you use these social network sites for dating? Do you use these sites for dating? I was talking to a dating expert yesterday, and she says that Facebook is definitely being used by some to find a partner – she said that even she was hit on on Facebook. I tend to use Facebook for friends only, so accepting “friend” status with a stranger on Facebook seems a little wierd to me. But the expert tells me that many Facebook users want to have a huge friend list because it positively confirms that they are liked, and taking it one step further, receiving approaches from strangers online also confirms your attractiveness.
Twitter also is a very interesting place. Unlike Facebook you can “follow” someone, but it doesn’t need to be reciprocated, so there is no presupposition that you know each other, or even have anything particularly in common, other than perhaps that you might be interested in similar topics. I started writing about linguistical things on Twitter and suddenly found that I had a handful of followers, complete strangers, purely on the basis of one or two “tweets”.
So with all the social possibilities that these sites bring, do Dating websites still have a place?
All the benefits of anonymity are there – you don’t have to reveal your real name on sites like Twitter, and you don’t have to reveal your email address or even your location. So you can make “friends” with someone and let a relationship develop naturally, pretty much as you would meeting with people for real, but without the worry of bumping into them if it goes pear-shaped.
I wonder though, if the same rules for real life meeting also apply to these sites? i.e. if you’re shy, will it still be as difficult to take a friendship to romantic relationship? If you’re socially confident online/offline it’s probably all the same; you’ll easily develop romantic relationships.
One of the things I like about dating websites, is that it’s unambiguous. You know that you and others are there for the same reason. Perhaps you feel like you have enough friends, but you want a partner. A dating site lets you do that.
In the end, it’s all about niche. The reason you’re interesting in a Christian dating website, is because you don’t want to wade through profiles you have no interest at all. By using a niche site you make your search simpler, and it gives you more confidence because you know you’ll identify at some level with most if not all the people on the site.
So for me, I think there is still a place for dating websites, and especially Christian dating websites – they meet the need.
Will subscription-based dating websites survive?
Just last month an Economist article said that dating websites OkCupid and eHarmony were bucking the economic trend and were seeing more people using their services than ever before.
eHarmony told the Economist that the number of visitors to its site was greater when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by over 100 points! OKCupid says that back in September it was averaging 6,000 messages sent through its system per day, now it’s about 18,000.
Both companies say they link site usage with the recession. Perhaps it’s true, when there are problems in life, having someone to share it with can be a great help.
For me though, there’s a more interesting question: will subscription-based dating sites continue to grow in the long run?
eHarmony, like Match.com and some of the Christian sites, is a subscription based site. But with the availability of free online dating sites like OKCupid (and free Christian dating sites) will its business model continue to work? Perhaps for the time being, but clearly even the big companies are starting to wonder.
In January Match.com launched DownToEarth.com which is totally free (and only available in America at the moment). Clearly it is testing the waters. Perhaps it is hoping that users of DownToEarth will upgrade to Match.com.
I’m sure that despite the current market growth, all subscription-based sites are actually feeling the pinch. It’s not just the economy that’s putting pressure on subscription services, it’s the competition from free services, both free online dating sites, and free social networks that for some are replacing dating websites.
FriendsReunited started out charging people to use its service, but with the massive growth of Facebook, it had to make it free a year or so ago.
The big problem with providing a free service is making enough money to keep going and turn over a modest profit. Newspapers are suffering from readers migrating to free online sources, and subscription-based dating sites will see the same happen to them too.
The man who created perhaps the largest free online dating site, PlentyOfFish.com, has even started to wonder if he should create or buy a subscription-based site – so are free sites commercially viable? It’s a tough one – the bigger the site, the more expensive it is to run, but if no-one wants to pay for it, and advertisers aren’t advertising so much, how will they survive?
Conclusion
Free dating and social network sites will kill subscription-based sites. Free dating and social network sites are commerical suicide. Discuss.
