We Just Clicked

TIME MAGAZINE -- Jan 18 --  In the U.S., there are close to 1,000 dating sites, led by Match.com, eHarmony and Yahoo! Personals. The industry rang up $649 million in revenues in 2006, according to Jupiter Research. Of the 92 million unmarried Americans, about 16 million have tried online dating, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In 2003 online daters increased 77%. Match.com is now in 35 countries, 30% of its 1.3 million members live outside the U.S. eHarmony, which started in 2000, has accrued 17 million members, $200 million in annual revenues and 30% yearly growth. Western online matchmakers face challenges in the Chinese matchmaking market. Of the 14 million Chinese Internet daters, only 500,000 pay subscription fees; thus industry revenues are estimated at just $24 million, according to iResearch. Paying users are expected to rocket to 3 million by 2010, generating sales of at least $160 million. FULL ARTICLE @ TIME MAGAZINE