Local Internet businesses are fast catching on to a global phenomenon that is expected to generate over $300 million this year - online dating.
Described as "one of the few Internet businesses actually making money", online dating is estimated to have doubled its turnover year-on-year for the past three years. About 60 million people are expected to sign up for such services globally this year.
In line with this trend, local Web sites Ananzi.co.za and IOL.co.za are among several local businesses to launch online dating services recently.
Ananzi MD Mark Buwalda is enthusiastic about the role online dating can play. "It`s like using the Internet for old-fashioned courtship," he says. "Online dating is relatively safe because you take time to get to know a person before meeting. It`s a perfect service for single, busy professionals - a mature, effective marketing of yourself without it being sleazy."
Ananzi teamed up with online dating service Matchmaker.co.za last month and expects to sign up about 6 000 members in the next three to four months. The site, at www.ananzi.matchmaker.co.za, already boasts a number of "success stories" on its message board.
Independent Online (IOL.co.za) recently launched its online dating service in conjunction with uDate.com - a US-based online dating service boasting a database of about 2 million people. Over 2 000 South Africans have signed up for free trial membership on www.dating.iol.co.za so far, without any advertising campaigns.
"Online dating is one of the few online industries that actually makes money," says IOL sales and marketing director Leon Lategan.
The IOL/uDate online dating service charges $29 a month for membership, with special rates on long-term membership.
On uDate.com, members fill in an extensive profile questionnaire, after which they automatically see a list of the 180 members that most closely match their preferred profiles and regions. All photographs are vetted by the service before being published, and under-18s are catered for in a separate category.
Lategan says: "South Africans are a little more conservative than Internet users in the US or Europe, but they are catching on to the fact that this is an effective and relatively safe way to meet people."
Unlike singles bars, chat rooms and personal ads, online dating offers singles the opportunity to "size up the market" and meet the kind of people they are interested in.
Other online dating services offer free membership to people posting their profiles and charge visitors to the site when they seek contact with the members. The sites keep contact details of their members private, and most have rules governing obscenity. MSN dating also offers a system whereby members can pay a fee to make their profiles available for free to browsers.
What sort of people use online dating services? ITWeb browsed the local sites and discovered all ages, professions and types posted online, although US analyst Taglich Brothers reports that most paying members are typically over 25 and earn more than $60 000 per year.
Local industry analyst Vinny Lingham says he has been meeting people online since the early chat sites of the mid-1990s and met his girlfriend of two-and-a-half years online. "I think the Internet is a really good way to get to know people," says Lingham. "It`s pretty safe - as long as people take care about how and when they meet."
He points out that online dating figures have a tendency to snowball - the bigger a service`s database, the more members are likely to sign up. "It`s a strong business model based on performance and critical mass. While other online industries are slowing down, online dating is definitely booming."
[ITWeb LITE is interested in hearing about the experiences of people who have been on online dates - both the success stories and the horror ones. Identities will be kept confidential. Please send such stories to colin@itweb.co.za with 'online date` in the message field.]
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