Online Dating Industry Overview

According to Wikipedia United States residents spent $469.5 million on online dating and personals in 2004, and over $500 million in 2005, the largest segment of paid content on the web other than adult sites, according to a study conducted by the Online Publishers Association (OPA) and comScore Networks. The U.S. online dating market is expected to increase spending to $932 million in 2011. Worldwide online dating industry is expected to increase to $4 billion. Below is a list of few more interesting facts about online dating: 

  • In 2010 it is estimated that Craigslist will earn $122 million with $88 to $99 million being profit. The Adult Services listings make up 30 percent of the revenue. 
  • In the last year 17% of couples who married met on a dating site. 
  • Married couples who met online have an average courtship period of 18.5 months.
  • Married couples who met offline courtship period last on average 42 months. 
  • The Better Business Bureau in the US said in 2009 they received 2,660 complaints about dating services. In 2005 they received 824 and only 126 in 2004. 
  • 1 in 5 singles have dated someone they met on a dating site. 
  • 1 in 5 singles are currently in a committed relationship with someone they met on a dating site. 
  • There is an estimated 22.6 million single Catholics in the U.S. 
  • The top 3 religions where both the man and the woman in a married couple are from the same religion are: Hindus (90%), Mormons (83%), and Catholics (78%).
  • In 1960, 88% of men aged 35-44 were married, for women it was 87%. By 2007 this percentage had fallen to 69% for men and 72% for women. 
  • According to mobile research group Ground Truth, mobile dating saw a 92% increase in users since the summer began. 
  • The average user of a mobile phone spends 12 minutes and 44 seconds on mobile dating sites per week. 
  • According to Ground Truth, Flirtomatic was the #1 visited dating site this summer through a mobile phone. Match.com was ranked 7th and e-Harmony was 17th. 
  • In the United States there are 51 million smartphone subscribers. 
  • On the mobile phone, application use and surfing the internet increased by over 110% in 2009. 
  • Texting generated $80 billion of revenue in 2009 and is projected to generate $126 billion by 2014. 
  • New York State passes an Internet Dating Safety Act. It is the second state to do so.
  • Traffic to dating sites in the U.S. rose over 13 percent in 12 months, ending in July.
  • Internet use only increased by 9%.
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