THE WASHINGTON POST -- May 16 -- A name-calling catfight, complete with accusations and counter-accusations, has broken out between eHarmony.com (13 million registrants since 2000) and an offshoot of Match.com over a subject familiar to any luckless dater. Rejection. Chemistry's (2 million registrants since 2006) TV commercials and magazine ads feature young men and women wondering why their applications to join eHarmony were turned down. No fair, says eHarmony, concerned that its rival's ads suggest that eHarmony is being arbitrary or discriminatory in turning people away. It wants Chemistry.com's ads changed or dropped. eHarmony’s legal counsel, Lanny Davis (who spun the media for President Bill Clinton during his “relationship problems” with Monica Lewinsky), last week asked NBC and People magazine to stop running Chemistry.com's current ads, or at least insist on some fine-print qualifiers about what “1 million rejected” really means. (As of Friday, NBC hadn't responded to Davis; People magazine said that it wasn't taking sides in the feud and that it would continue running the ads.) eHarmony turns people away for controversial reasons. One is being gay. CEO, Greg Waldorf says eHarmony's matching system is based on psychological research about heterosexual relationships. Because it doesn't have similar data on gay people, he says, the company isn't confident that it can offer successful matches to same-sex couples. “I'm not saying anything precludes us from going into the same-sex market in the future,” he says, “but it's not a service we offer now.” Firing back, eHarmony accuses Chemistry's parent company of hypocrisy. It notes that IAC made formal overtures to buy eHarmony in 2004, but a deal never came off.
Mark Brooks: These days the best kind of advertising spawns press, word-of-mouth, and riles up the competition. Match.com has kicked off on every level with their campaign. This year we should surely see a free version of eharmony startup. Perhaps the fresh faced (new) Mary.com or LTR.com, or the current dominant free dating market leader PlentyofFish.com. Beyond that, MyPartnerPerfect.com is due to launch shortly as the quality, long term focused, personality profiling, all gay matchmaking site, headed by the young Patrick H.Perrine.
Maybe we could make a fortune by selling bumper stickers that read:
"My Relationship Psychologist Can Beat Up Your Relationship Psychologist!"
I find it ironic and a wee bit sad that the very people who should understand and foster good relationships more than other industries seem to have the worst track record for actually maintaining good relationships themselves (for its employees, its customers and its competitors).
Thanks,
James Houran, Ph.D.
Online Dating Magazine
Posted by: James | May 17, 2007 at 01:26 PM
Poetic justice, I say. See my 5/18/2007 blog posting copied below:
Chemistry.com Uses an eHarmony Weakness and eHarmony Gets Pissed...
Ha Ha! I love it when other folks start writing about what I have been writing about for some time—though when am I going to get the credit? See my blog postings (http://www.find-a-sweetheart.com/blog/C38/)“Has Janet Kornblum of USA Today Been Reading My Blog?", “Focus on the Family,” eHarmony, and Same Sex Couples", “EHarmony Again and “Focus on the Family” Connections", “I wish I could recommend eHarmony, True.com or PerfectMatch, but I can’t!".
(See the article http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/12/AR2007051201350.html from the Washington Post.)
I think it is FANTASTIC that Chemistry.com has noticed the edge it has over eHarmony (Chemistry accepts all comers, eHarmony routinely rejects about 15% of applicants) and is using it in an ad campaign. I’ve always thought and written that bad as it is to get rejected by a potential partner, to get rejected by a dating site? Oooeee! Now THAT’S nasty.
From Your Romance Coach, Kathryn Lord
Posted by: Kathryn Lord | May 18, 2007 at 09:01 AM