On Niche Dating Sites, Many More Women

NY TIMES -- Feb 26 -- During the week of Feb. 5, SeniorPeopleMeet, had 81% women, BBW Datefinder 76% and Catholic Match 72%, according to Hitwise. Greg Waldorf, the CEO of eHarmony (69% women visitors) said, "If you asked me would I rather have more women or men, I'd rather have more women. If you have a good healthy population of women, I think men are attracted to that." FULL ARTICLE @ NY TIMES

Comments

[Shimrit Elisar]

The article above claims that eHarmony has more men than women. I wonder which one is true?

I must say I agree with Greg Waldorf. We have a whole site based on the concept that if you attract the women, the men will be sure to follow. It's one of our best performing sites.

Shimrit Elisar
Allegran Limited, UK

[Kathryn Lord]

"If you asked me would I rather have more women or men, I'd rather have more women. If you have a good healthy population of women, I think men are attracted to that." Well, duh! Yes, it's good news for dating sites who want to increase their memberships, and great for guys who want easier pickings. But it is disaster for women, particularly those in the older age ranges, when the numbers are skewed enough as it is.

It's so important that this kind of information (the gender ratios on sites) becomes available. Sites like eHarmony and Chemistry appeal to women because the are more "passive," in that the site does the work of the matching and women do not need to put themselves so much on the line. What women don't understand is that the numbers are so bad for them.

Openness and transparency (big buzz words nowadays) would go a long ways with Internet dating. Keeping women happy and on dating sites will be key to success. If all singles understood the gender ratios and the paid vs. unpaid numbers, then they could pick sites that would be most likely to work for them. The gender ratios would balance out, singles would get more responses to their emails, more matches would be made, customers would be happier, which would be great advertising, and dating sites would get more business. What could be better?

Kathryn Lord

[Sugar Daddy Dating Site]

I run an online dating community in the niche dating market and our ratio is regularly around 68% female membership. It is noticable that a higher percentage of female members take the time to complete a profile.