Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Online Dating
Online Dating
Online Dating
Table of Content
1. Executive Summary …………………………………………………………………..P.3
3. Business Opportunities………………………………………………………….…….P.5-6
7. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………..P.13
8. References……………………………………………………………………………...P14
9. Appendix……………………………………………………………………………...P15-16
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1. Executive Summary
Online dating is an online service that enables individuals or a group of people to meet
in the network and get known to each other. There are companies setting up websites and pro-
vide matchmaking services through the use of personal computers, the Internet, or even cell
phones. With the advanced technology and widespread of use of the Internet, people can eas-
ily meet and date others online, even across the borders.
In the following report, there will be a background of online dating and Match.com will
be used to illustrate the development of online dating. As this online business is so successful,
the reasons behind and business opportunities will be analysed. After discussing about the on-
line dating business in the U.S., the focus point will be moved back to Hong Kong. The fa-
By analysing some real true love stories happen online, it is believed that the online dat-
ing service can really match people across races, ages and distance. Though online dating
seems to be so successful, it is worthwhile to investigate how we, local students view this dat-
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http://freeonline-dating.net/images/free_online_dating_service/free_online_dating_service_250x251.jpg
the early-to-mid 20th century. It became popular in the 1960s and 1970s. During that time,
customers had to fill in some forms about their interests and preferences, then computers
Nowadays, online dating becomes a trend and many people start to meet with new people
on the Internet. In the U.S. alone, there are close to 1,000 such sites led by Yahoo! Personals,
To know more about how online dating develops, we’d better have a look at the leading
online dating service provider first-Match.com. Match.com is an online dating website that
has more than 15 million members and the website is serving more than 37 countries in dif-
ferent languages. Match.com is the first consumer-oriented matching site started from 1994.
In the early 1995, Match.com released a free beta version for the public. In 1996, Match.com
set up a subscription system, and this system had allowed the company to make a lot of
money.
However, the revenue of Match.com was decreasing in the recent years, this might imply
the online dating business was contracting in some of the regions. Although Match.com ‘s
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performance is not as good as the past, it is still making revenue. So, the market of online dat-
3. Business Opportunities
Online dating is a rapidly growing business and there is a lot of potential for it to succeed.
According to the statistic of Scientific American, online dating was only a $40-million busi-
ness in 2001. However, that figure is expected to break $600-million with more than 800
What makes this business so successful? This can be explained by the extension of mar-
1. Extension of market:
In 2007, many prominent studies showed that people aged from 44 to 62 were interested
in online dating and the number of users had soared. Meeting new friends or finding true love
online is no longer an activity for youngsters. The online dating population becomes larger
nowadays. In the U.S. alone, tens of millions of people are trying to find dates or spouses on-
Moreover, people value time beyond all the things nowadays. They prefer online dating
instead of face-to-face dating. As Internet provides them a pool of potential matches, they can
find their true love more easily and quickly. Therefore, more people are willing to pay the
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Besides the U.S. market, many matchmaking sites are now eyeing on China and India. As
there are millions of singles there and the income of those people generally increases. This
Although online dating provides lots of benefits, someone still afraid of people lying on-
line about their things. However, the development of Internet Dating 2.0 can tackle the prob-
Virtual dating takes care of the safety concerns that prevents many people from meet-
ing in person. Many companies like Omnidate allow users to go on virtual date. Users can
choose any animated figure to represent them and meet others in a virtual restaurant. They
Virtual dating is popular among users as it allows you to relax, have fun and really
creates a bond with a person before meeting in real life. By dating virtually, people can
understand each other and withdraw a relationship which is unsuitable. This can save
tem that takes the lies out of online. It has a database to check the personal information of
the users such as marital status and it can even show up at your house, snaps some profile
pictures to ensure the online profiles of users are reliable. This brand-new system is at-
tractive to users as they can find the right person with reliable online profiles. This is a
great business opportunities because it is still a new element in Hong Kong online dating
business.
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From http://www.virdating.com/
online dating websites among the local students, according to our survey. Actually, the popu-
larity of it cannot be observed only from the sector of teenagers, but can also be seen in other
sectors like the working class. The following will be the reasons why Yahoo! Personals can
The first reason is that Yahoo! Personals belongs to Yahoo! Hong Kong. As Yahoo!
Hong Kong is one of the most commonly-used search engines which provide a variety of ser-
vices like auction and e-mail services, it makes use of this advantage to promote Yahoo! Per-
sonals by increasing exposure of Yahoo! Personals in its home page. There are often banners
in the home page of Yahoo! Hong Kong, promoting Yahoo! Personals. The image of Yahoo!
Personals will gradually be positioned in the mind of the HongKongers. Thus, Yahoo! Per-
What’s more, Yahoo! Personals targets Hong Kong users. By targeting Hong Kong
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users, Yahoo! Personals can formulate specific promotion strategies that appeal to Hong
Kong users. For example, knowing that many Hong Kong teenagers still do not believe in on-
line dating (which is shown in our questionnaire results), Yahoo! Personals emphasizes its
measures to ensure the photos uploaded by users are taken by the users themselves. Yahoo!
Personals also invites renowned celebrities in Hong Kong to share some tips for online dat-
ing. The celebrities include local singers and DJs, who are popular among Hong Kong
teenagers. All these measures make Yahoo! Personals more tailor-made for HongKongers and
Furthermore, Yahoo! Personals often organizes gatherings for users. These gatherings
are held 4-5 times a year and provide a platform for users to know one another. Many users
appreciate these gatherings and there is always positive response from users. One example of
the gatherings is that Yahoo! Personals once cooperated with the Ocean Park to organize a
These are the factors that make Yahoo! Personals become the most popular online dat-
ing web sites in Hong Kong. It is believed that Yahoo! Personals, which is going to celebrate
its 6th anniversary this year, will continue to develop rapidly in future.
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countries
Scenario: HK (Yahoo! Personals)
In the following cases, some real examples are shown that how users date online by using Ya-
“I saw Mickey’s advertisement last year and was deeply attracted by her beauty and
grace. From that day on, watching her advertisement and sending her e-mails had become my
daily habits… Through mutual understanding, we fell in love on the date of the Christmas
Eve. Until February of this year, my courage made me propose marriage to her. Thank God,
she promised me! We would get married on October 4 this year. Hence, I would like to share
with you the joy and unreserved thanks to Yahoo! Personals which gave me a good wife, and
“I don’t mind my friends knowing my husband and I were met on Yahoo! Personals. The
reason is that it is such an amazing memory for both of us. It is unbelievable that I can find
my beloved on Yahoo! Personals. My husband also said his own heart had waited for me for
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ten years. Although I have met a lot of people on Yahoo! Personals to make my life more in-
teresting, the ultimate fate is that I choose him. I remembered that our first conversation in
phone had lasted for two hours. Afterwards, on Chinese Valentine’s Day, his special arrange-
ment created an enjoyable night for me. After that night, He always sent SMS to me, so I de-
cided to be with him. I remembered my statement on Yahoo! Personals was “I don’t believe
love is at the first sight, however, love is out of your control. ” Thanks to this platform, I can
meet my love here fortunately. I would like to take this opportunity to give the first Valen-
tine’ s Day present to my husband, ‘I DO. Holding your hands till death’.” said Shirley.
Analysis: Yahoo! Personals is so successful because it goes hand in hand with Yahoo! Mes-
senger. Once you have found a suitable person, and if you don’t want to contact with your
target directly by phone, you can chat with him/her through Yahoo! messenger which is so
convenient.
Christopher Lytle remembered a perfect first date with his wife, Elizabeth Adams: a Sys-
tem of a Down concert, followed by drinks and a walk on the beach. The couple’s relation-
The pair met in 2005 through matchMobile, an extension of the popular dating site
Match.com. Although they had been exchanging messages for several weeks, their first
meeting was spontaneous; Adams suddenly found herself with an extra ticket.
Although most of the popular dating sites launched mobile apps around five years ago,
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Analysis: Metropolitans usually have busy and hustle daily life, they need to use the phones
all day. Would they be willing to keep talking at night? Probably not. Therefore, they may try
another way of communication, such as text messages on MSN. Moreover, they can use their
mobile phones to visit websites any place they like. They can date through web-enabled
Cinthia is an articulate environmental auditor from Brazil. She was 29 when she met
Craig, a 27-year-old American aerospace engineer, through Christian Cafe, an online dating
service. Craig was 27 and had dated a lot in search of the right person; Cinthia had an active
“Craig and I met by a fluke really,”Cinthia recalled. She matched all the categories Craig
was looking for-except geographic. He was looking for a woman in his state of Colorado but
forgot to type that in the day we hooked up. He told me that when he saw my profile and my
response to the standardized questions, he said to himself, “If I could pick a wife, this is how
After two months of frequent e-mails and phone calls, they found they had much com-
mon on the important issues of life, like faith, values and long-term goals. After that, Craig
flew to Brazil where the pair spent four days getting to know each other. Seven visits and one
year later, in September 2003, Craig and Cinthia married and now they live near Denver.
Analysis: This is a case which proves that online dating can flatten the world. Boundaries are
no longer a problem. Even though you are living in different countries; you can still chat with
your beloved through various online communication softwares. Anyone can look for a suit-
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able person in your home country as well as other countries which means you have a greater
From the former part, it can be seen that online dating has achieved a great success in
the US. So, is this business achieving the same result among teenagers in Hong Kong? To
find out the answer of it, an online survey has been carried out. (See Appendix for the de-
The survey is targeted on local youngsters and it can be seen that most of them are fa-
miliar with online dating but just a few of them have tried browsing those websites. One of
the reasons behind is that they are not familiar with those websites which provide this service.
This shows that Hong Kong companies are not spending enough to develop this profitable
market. Another important one is that they do not trust those websites. This might due to the
many cases of fraud found regarding the use of Internet to make friends. These cases drove
away many of the potential users of the online dating. So it is believed that the companies in
Hong Kong may learn from their counterparts in the U.S. to improve the service to make it
more reliable. Finally, the general impression of the interviewees towards online dating is
quite neutral. This is because most of them are not familiar with this business and just few of
them have tried using this service. So their comments on it are quite neutral.
But it can be observed from the questionnaire result that Yahoo! Personals is the most
popular among the local youngsters. It shows that Yahoo! has successfully launched its adver-
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7. Conclusion
To conclude, the online dating websites have been successful in the past years, especially
Match.com and Yahoo! Personals. They have put much effort in advertisement and attracted
certain amount of users. With the large market size and improvement in technology, it is be-
lieved that more people in China and India will be using them in the future. Especially in
China, the single-child rule has led to a desperate demand for matchmakers among rural men.
However, there will be some challenges when those websites entering China or India.
The first one is cultural difference. While people in the U.S. will put their profile pictures but
some women in Asia will not be willing to do so as the threat of privacy. Also, there are some
psychologists tests on the websites but they may not be suitable for Chinese as Western and
Chinese have different personalities and the result shown may not be accurate.
Another challenge is the revenue gaining problem. Of the 14 million Chinese Internet
daters, only 500,000 pay subscription fees. Thus, the revenue gained by the company is just a
small amount. The reason behind is that users find that paying fees is complicated and they
Only if those websites adapt to the culture of the targeted market and adjust their sub-
scription-based models, the company can then make huge revenue and be successful. In the
future, it can be foreseen that more and more people will use online dating as a means to date
partners and find their beloved, no matter in the U.S., Hong Kong or other countries.
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8. References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_dating
3. Online dating tips. Lovetoknow. Retrieved 25, March, 2008 from http://online.lovetoknow.-
com/wiki/Online_Dating_Tips
culture.org.au/index.php/Online_Dating_-_Evolution/history
http://www.choice.com.au
6. Online dating moves to your cell phone. Laptop. Retrieved 28, March, 2008 from
http://www.laptopmag.com/mobile-life/Online-Dating-Moves-To-Your-Cell-Phone.aspx
7. Josie Newman. Looking for Love Online. Charisma Magazine. Retrieved 2, April, 2008
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From http://www.my3q.com/home2/216/napoleontsang/69433.phtml
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