SURFERS flock to member sites
Nielsen//NetRatings reports that surfers are flocking to dating
sites. Recent data reveals that since the tracking of Friendster began
in June 2003, the site's unique audience is up 74 percent. However,
the top personals sites remain strong players with traffic more than
three times that of Friendster.
According to the most recent Nielsen//NetRatings NetView figures,
Friendster, a member community destination, attracted 927,000 visitors
from home and work in October 2003. Those logging on to Friendster
spent an average of one hour and fifty-one minutes on the site in
October (see Table 1). By comparison, the top personals site, Yahoo!
Personals attracted 4.9 million surfers from home and work in October
2003. Each surfer spent an average of 35 minutes during the month
on Yahoo! Personals. Following closely was Match garnering 3.9 million
Internet users who spent more than 55 minutes on the site in October.
The third most popular site was AmericanSingles attracting 3.7 million
individuals during the same period. Rounding out the top five destinations
was MSN Dating & Personals and Netscape Love & Personals,
drawing 1.9 million and 1.5 million home and work visitors, respectively.
"The member community format is quickly becoming a popular social
network on the web," said Lauren Taub, Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.
"Friendster's growth is impressive, but it is too early to tell
if its early success is explained by unique functionality or the fact
that it is currently a free service."
"The Internet has become a widely popular forum for dating,
becoming big business, as evidenced by the significant increase of
online ads for dating sites in the past few years," said Taub.
"Increased advertising, the relaxing of many stigmas and an expanding
tech savvy population are all contributing factors to the continued
success of online dating sites."
Nielsen//NetRatings found that the growing online community of personal
sites visitors consisted of Internet savvy adults. This report uncovered
the online habits of those surfers logging on to dating sites and
found that 84 percent of visitors to dating services are online five
or more times a week. Additionally, 37 percent have been online for
seven or more years. Those using an online dating site access the
Internet to send online invitations, search for homes and apartments,
download MP3s, look for restaurants and participate in fantasy sports
leagues. Online dating sites are keen to understand the habits of
users to maximize reach of online ad campaigns.
"Users of online dating services take full advantage of all
the resources the web offers," said Taub. "These individuals
are online all the time, using the web in every way imaginable, especially
to organize events through e-vites and read restaurants reviews."
Singles, divorcees and even a small group of married users accessed
these sites in the past 30 days. According to Nielsen//NetRatings
@Plan Fall 2003, divorcees are more than three times as likely to
use a dating site than the average Internet user and singles are more
than twice as likely to do the same. Of those acknowledging they accessed
an online dating service yesterday, 11 percent were married individuals.
Divorcees make up only eight percent of the 18 plus Internet audience,
yet they represent 27 percent of those using an online dating site
recently.
