Online Dating

The market for online dating is enormous with online dating generating more revenue and than any other type of online content. Online dating has become an increasingly popular way for people to meet as a high percentage of younger internet users now use the internet and date online. Some dating websites now allow users to score other site users by attractiveness, free of charge. Research has shown that the significant factors in online success, that is the number of first contact e-mails received, are attractiveness, income, education, and occupation, with attractiveness being the most important single factor, and income also being important, although more so for men than women. Many people now search for partners via the Internet.

Only a proportion of people can use internet dating- those with internet access. Internet dating involves using website(s) that list potential partners with a charge usually being made for contact information. It is a form of social networking but unlike many of the social networking sites, online dating agencies and websites usually charge fees to site users for this contact information. In the early days of the internet, users would meet for free in chat rooms. Finding love is important and that is what internet daters are looking for. The internet dating business is massive, and in the early 2000’s it was shown that one in four singles in the USA had used Internet dating services in their search for a potential partner. Dating on the internet was already a $1 billion industry by 2008 and is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 10 percent. As the internet speeds up with faster and more accessible services, and web users in general become more familiar with internet technology and as internet dating is becoming more and more the social norm, the numbers of people using internet dating services will only continue to grow.

Apart from digital internet access, the availability of webcams and digital cameras make posting images and video clips from mobile phones and other mobile devices so much easier for internet daters. Valkenburg and Peter in the Journal Cyberpsychology and Behaviour 2007 in an article entitled 'Who Visits Online Dating Sites? Exploring Some Characteristics of Online Daters' surveyed 367 single Dutch internet users aged between 18 and 60 and found that their use of online dating was unrelated to income and educational level. 30 to 50 yearolds were the most active online daters. Those that were less anxious about online dating were the most active online daters