As Online Dating Sites Novelty Wears Off, Offline Dating Becomes More Profitable And Popular

There are 90 million singles in America, and online personals Web sites such as Match.com, Yahoo! Personals and eHarmony have brought matchmaking into the mainstream since 2001. However, we are now seeing the first wave of divorces of people that found their soulmates online and consumers are not happy with the accuracy of online profiles. State lawmakers are not happy either. There are bills proposed or pending in IL, TX, FL and VA, to require dating services to state whether they perform background checks. This has become a controversial battle. The novelty of online dating has worn off and revenue growth for the 850+ websites operating has slowed drastically—to only 4.5 percent last year, versus 47 percent in 2003.