Top Five U.S. Dating Sites by Market Share
According to Hitwise, the top five dating sites in the U.S., ending the week of February 9, 2008, are:
- SinglesNet, with 14.45% of all U.S. visits in the Dating category;
- Plenty Of Fish, with 10.64%;
- eHarmony, with 6.07%;
- TRUE, with 6.02%; and
- Yahoo! Personals, with 5.70%.
All in all, visits to sites in the Dating category rose more than 26% this year, as compared to the same week in 2007. Which if nothing else, goes to show that there isn't a downturn in the U.S. online dating market as many experts have claimed recently. Or at least not yet.
I'll admit that I was surprised by the results of Hitwise's press release, whose sample size was significant at 10 million users. SinglesNet is the most popular dating site in the U.S. right now? Strange, considering I've ranked it poorly in the dating service reviews here at About.com (mind you that's based on personal experience and not popularity). Yet readers have also repeatedly voted it insignificant in polls posted on this site.
So, I'm asking my readers again. What do you think?
Comments
I think most people in the industry know that Singlesnet is purely buying it’s traffic. This is not something that can be sustainable in the long run. Without positive customer experience, no business can succeed.
Yes I agree the dating equasion is a difficult one, them stats are mighty impressive too, content is still king ! http://www.plentyoffish.com are the best in my opiion becuase they really do offer free dating and lots of great features.
:O)
Singlesnet is akin to window shopping as the search feature makes selection only by zip code or area. I think the fact that they allow free members to communicate with ‘premier members’ has aided them.
I had an account but their profile presentation doesn’t allow anyone to seem all that interesting. Plus I din’t get much interest. For me, I have found niche sites more beneficial, even if they have fewer members than the large sites. BBPeoplemeet is pretty good as is BlackPeopleMeet. But that is me.
I found SinglesNet to be a waste of time since I was a free user. Plenty of fish was much better.
Joe, I think I agree with you. I’m not aware of them buying traffic, but it would explain a lot. Then again, I see more ads online for PlentyOfFish than anything else, and eHarmony is really hitting the airwaves hard this month. I’ve even run into a couple of Yahoo! ads, but I have yet to see one for SinglesNet.
Ashley, I’m more a fan of the niche sites myself - unless a major site can do something different to both attract a large number of users AND provide a great user experience. But unfortunately these sites don’t make the top 5 for popularity, because by definition they only pertain to a certain number of people.
Megan, I completely agree with you. Plenty of Fish is much easier to navigate than SinglesNet.
yeah, they are all great dating sites.
I use PlentyofFish, but I heard some of the complaints about them is that the women on there do you not like guys that are not 5′11 & up. And I’m 5′7. I still get contacts from Match, Yahoo, & American Singles, so those sites I’ll most likely use.
Interesting point Franklin. I don’t think it’s intentional though. I just went to look and saw that the default search is 5′11 on POF; that’s something I normally wouldn’t look at personally. But I will admit I’ve spoken to some women who feel that height is a non-negotiable, so it could be something else.
To be honest, I get as many complaints about POF as I do kudos, so its a mixed bag - which I find to be true of all of the freebie dating sites.
I’ve used and reviewed Yahoo and Match, but haven’t yet gone to American Singles to check it out. How do you find their services?
To be honest Bonny, I’m not so sure, it was long time ago when I found it. It is a good site.
I have tried both Singlesnet and POF. In the end, I prefer Nerve. A lot more artsy types that are in the Manhattan area rather than from New Jersey. I have nothing against Jersey, but I am not into long distant relationships.
Ah yes. Thanks for reminding me I need to write a review for Nerve.com. I’ve never noticed it on a top 10 list for popularity, but it might just ruin the feel if it were, I think. Its always been an artsy, geeky yet, well nervy community.
I’m not a fan of singlesnet, they offer very limited features and I can never seem to locate or find any in my area. I am constantly getting e-mails from them stating a new match, but when I log in they have been removed already.
I’m 40 years old, why do i keep getting 21 year old matches and then they are removed. seems fishy. my favorite for the area i live in is http://www.ncwsingles.com
They have the features i like and easy to navigate throughout the website, although they are not very nationwide.
I’ll agree with Franklin that height is a big factor on POF. I think that has more to do with the type of people that use POF than anything else. Lot of tire kickers there … looking for the long shot … just not that motivated.
I’m tall enough but I can change the response rate drastically simply by lowering the height a little.
POF is OK. Personally I find selective paid sites to be more effective, but I only tried one and that was a friends account.
Anyway, the upswing in dating site use is only until the majority of people who wouldn’t normally consider paying for it, dry up.
Read some stats on POF. For most guys the average stay is 3 months. The success rate is pretty low.
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