Is Love Blooming Online?
Opinion Poll Surveys the State of Online Dating
Market research report finds nearly 50% participation in online dating: many looking, some leaping.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (May 21, 2007) – Vizu Corporation, the company democratizing market research, and OkCupid, America's fastest growing free online dating company, today co-released a benchmark survey of current online dating attitudes and behaviors. Results showed that roughly half of all Internet users have partaken of an online dating Web site in one form or another. (See full market research report)
Of the 49 percent of survey respondents who claimed to have interacted with an online dating Web site, more than 20 percent were committed users, either by paying for a subscription or using a free service. Another 29 percent admit to at least browsing profiles, even if they don’t take that final step of signing up and making a connection. Those who do commit tend to stick around – 62 percent trying their luck for two months or longer.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents prefer services that provide personality questionnaires, analyze compatibility and offer matchmaking recommendations. And users want that service for free, too. Free sites are preferred over subscription services at a ratio of five-to-one.
Despite the reach of the now ten-plus-year-old industry, 72 percent still feel there is a social stigma to online dating. Yet that perception appears attached to those who are less involved in the experience. Once daters embrace the online path and actually meet their match, they become more comfortable. Nearly two-thirds will admit that, upon meeting their significant other online, they would tell the truth if asked about how they met.
Finally, the report shows online daters to be highly selective. Most (58 percent) rely primarily on photographs to quickly filter their field of prospective matches. Deal breakers that tend to cause prospects to be rejected include smoking (23 percent say no) and having children (32 percent arenbt interested). As for physical characteristics, 45 percent will reject someone because of his/her weight, and another 33 percent will disqualify those outside their age range.
Polling for the report was conducted via the Vizu Answers online market research network from April 18 - 22, 2007.
The Online Dating Report is available for free on the Vizu Answers site. The report is one of a series of market research surveys Vizu Corporation conducts on various issues of public interest.
About Vizu
Vizu provides services that make online opinion polling and market research easy, accessible, and affordable to everyone. The company’s premiere service, Vizu Answers (www.VizuAnswers.com), combines an innovative market research technology with a vast network of relevant web sites, offering highly targeted audiences to answer a wide variety of questions. Vizu Answers’ clients have included entrepreneurial smaller firms and individuals as well as larger consumer-oriented companies like Sephora and Orbitz and financial institutions like Cowen & Co. and WR Hambrecht.
About OkCupid
OkCupid (www.okcupid.com) is the fastest growing free, online dating company in the United States with more than two million monthly unique users and 500,000 active daters. Launched in 2004, OkCupid members take entertaining personality quizzes and answer compatibility questions to create their own customized matching algorithm. Unlike any other personals site, OkCupid’s proprietary matching system uses these answers and advanced mathematical algorithms to recommend compatible users. To date, more than 150 million compatibility questions have been answered by OkCupid users and more than 100,000 new member accounts are created every month. For additional information or to join OkCupid, please visit http://www.okcupid.com
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