eHarmony: Heart and Soul

USA TODAY -- May 19 -- "He's like the grandpa who wants to set you up," says Nate Elliott, an online media analyst with Jupiter Research.  He really does want to set you up - but only if you're emotionally healthy, heterosexual and want to get married.  A psychologist with a divinity degree, Warren has emerged from the Christian community - three of his 10 books on love and dating were published by conservative Focus on the Family - to become one of the Internet's most unlikely entrepreneurs.  Nothing in Warren's TV or radio ads ($50 million spent last year, $80 million projected this year) hints at his Christian background. The Web site doesn't play it up, either.  eHarmony increasingly is seeking out secular audiences through online partnerships, including promotions on USATODAY.com and other news sites owned by USA TODAY's parent company, Gannett. As part of that effort, Warren is trying to distance himself from Focus on the Family and its founder James Dobson, a longtime friend.  Of the leading dating sites, eHarmony is the most expensive, starting at $49.95 a month. Match begins at $29.99, Yahoo at $19.95. Spark Network's largest site, American Singles, starts at $34.95. But at least 7.5 million people have registered to take eHarmony's test, which is free. Users must pay to get contact information for matches. Some also criticize eHarmony's decision to refuse to provide matches for gays and lesbians - a policy that differs from Yahoo, Match.com and many other sites.  It "calls for some very careful thinking. Very careful research." He adds that same-sex marriage is illegal in most states. "We don't really want to participate in something that's illegal." Warren says he rejects 16% of those who take his patented personality test because they're poor marriage prospects. Weed-outs include people under eHarmony's 21-year-old age limit and those whom the site decides are lying on the test. It also removes those believed to have certain types of emotional instability, such as obstreperousness (they just can't be pleased) and depression, because "depression is pretty highly correlated with emotional problems," Warren says.

Mark Brooks: Watch this space.  Next week OPW will feature an interview with Duane Dahl, CEO of eHarmony's #1 competitor, Perfect Match.

Comments

[Anita Spooner]

I was just curious about the last thing that you said, where it says that Perfect Match is eHarmony's number one competitor. Because right next to where you say that, there is the "Online Personals Ranking". According to that list, eHarmony is number three and PerfectMatch is number 10. How is Perfect Match eHarmony's number one competitor?

[Mark Brooks]

Perfect Match requires all users to take the personality profile. So does eHarmony. They are the only two top tier sites that require users to take their personality profiles. They are in a category unto themselves for this reason. Other sites offer personality profiling but I doubt they get more than 20% of their userbase to take them, which negates a lot of their usefulness.

[Anita Spooner]

Thank you clearing that up - even if I didn't say so right away! I wondered if you were planning to post anything about another story I read about eHarmony on Salon.com. It was very good I think.

Anita