People Flocking To Dating Services Amid Recession
Millions of singles are suddenly jumping on the online dating bandwagon, despite the fact they may not be able to afford to go on as many actual dates these days – or expensive ones, anyway. Online matchmaking services – even those requiring fees to join – have seen an unprecedented increase in memberships in the past three months.
Some of the increase is due to the annual rituals of making New Year’s resolutions and thinking about Valentine’s Day, but experts are attributing most of the rise to the recession itself. People seek companionship during times of crisis, and stress is more bearable when there’s a special someone in your life. Some people may even be thinking that it’s easier to pay the bills when there are two people footing them.
Match.com, which now boasts 15 million members, recently had the best fourth-quarter earnings in its 14-year history, said Mandy Ginsberg, senior vice president. In December alone, member registration jumped 22 percent, which she described as an unusually large increase. Match isn’t the only love company thriving: In November, eHarmony saw a 20 percent increase in users, the biggest spike in its history.
“People are anxious. They’re not going out as much. They’re not spending as much money out on bars [and] restaurants,” she said. “So they want someone to find to kind of help them weather the storm.”
Photo by froskarino.
TwitterBirds Team on March 10th, 2009 5:32 pm
When you’re alone, you often spend money trying to occupy yourself. I can definitely see why a dating website can be something worth spending time on! At TwitterBirds.com we bring together people who use Twitter for social networking – and we’ll be starting a virtual speed dating night soon!
Jaclyn on March 11th, 2009 11:29 am
It is tough to be alone for a prolonged period of time…it eventually begins to get to everyone at some point. and i think the rise in matchmaking services is due to people not having money to go out and hang out at dating places to meet someone, but also because the more year’s that go by, the harder dating get’s and the harder it is to spot the “not right” people for yourself. matchmaking services seem to cut out a lot of red tape for most people and make it a lot more of a comfortable experience for them.
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