Business Opportunities Weblog

December 7, 2007 by Rich Whittle | 1 Comment

marketwire:

Daters of all religious backgrounds, races, ages, and sizes turn to specialized dating Web sites such as JDate.com, ChristianMingle.com, BlackSingles.com, PrimeSingles.net, and BBWPersonalsPlus.com to find love, according to a trend report released by Spark Networks, Inc., the leading online personals provider with online communities.

A majority of users believe their use of personals sites helps them to find a better match. Some 31 percent of American adults say they know someone who has used a dating website and 15 percent of American adults — about 30 million people — say they know someone who has been in a long-term relationship or married someone he or she met online.

“People know what they’re looking for in a significant other. Sites targeted toward specific affinity groups provide an ideal forum for singles looking to meet like-minded individuals,” says Greg Liberman, president and chief operating officer of Spark Networks, Inc. “We expect to see continued segmentation of this market to satisfy the varied and ever-changing tastes of today’s daters.”

In fact, 58 percent of JDate members polled say the most important criteria for a life partner is to have similar lifestyle preferences and values, while 35 percent cite physical chemistry, four percent declare shared goals, and only three percent admit professional stability.

Another online dating trend of 2007 was an increased subscriber base of single parents. On any given day in the United States, about 397,000 people who are the single parent of a child in their household have used online dating within the last 30 days. This statistic, coupled with the fact that single parents represent more than 44 percent of ChristianMingle’s member base, spurred Spark Networks, Inc. to create SingleParentsMingle.com, a site exclusively dedicated to this emerging demographic.

Looking ahead to 2008, online daters can expect to get luckier in love by further personalizing their profiles, video blogging and podcasting, using mobile dating applications on their cell phones, and taking advantage of community-building features, according to a recent 2008 forecast report released by Spark Networks.

Photo by rayhue.

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Tags: Internet, Niche, Social Network