INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE -- Feb 6 -- Worldwide, 97 million people visited Web sites devoted to matchmaking in December, according to figures from ComScore. That number is a 10% drop from a year earlier, perhaps a sign that free sites like Facebook, Bebo, MySpace and others - where socializing, rather than romance, is the stated priority - are having an impact. Match.com, is renewing its vows to stay competitive in places where it is already the front-runner, like Japan and the United States, and in individual markets where it lags, like France and Germany. Match.com operates in 18 languages in 37 markets. "The U.S. has 92 million single people, and only 3 million now pay for an online dating service - and the U.S. is the most advanced market. In Japan, it's one-tenth of that penetration. So there is room to grow", said Thomas Enraght-Moony, chief executive of Match.com. Whether social-networking sites hurt business for dating services in the long run is yet to be known. But Enraght-Moony says he believes that they are no threat for now.
The full article was originally published at IHT, but is no longer available.
