Q: When you started here and how big your presence is?
A: We launched the site in November 2007. And now we are one of the largest online dating services in Australia. We have ~650,000 registrants.
A: eHarmony is all about long-term relationships. If you sign up you have to take a personality questionnaire which is 250 questions and really the aim of that is to basically understand people's personality. It's all about understanding someone's values, what their beliefs are, what are their character drivers, things like their humour, their passion and so forth because those kinds of things are much more a predictor of whether two people will have a successful and happy long lasting, long-term relationship.
A: Users only receive matches that are compatible with them.
Q: Are there instances where someone who's got a unique personality might go for a little while without getting any matches?
A: In Australia that's unlikely. We certainly have a very strong and healthy matching pool.
Q: Tell us a bit about the business model.
A: We're a subscription business so we're not free.
Q: In some ways you don't want to retain customers for too long because you hope they've found a terrific much, but if it doesn't quite work out for them I guess you want to keep them on the site. How do you get that balance right?
A: We're all about helping people to find a long-term relationship, hopefully to help them find "the one" as it were and it's like anything else, you know the more you put into eHarmony, the more you get out of it.
Q: What works from a customer acquisition point of view?
A: We're always testing new marketing channels, new techniques, new tactics and so forth. We use TV, we use radio, we use all sorts of online channels and so forth.
Q: Have you noticed any differences in the Australian market to some of the other places that you're in?
A: Australia is no different to other markets, English speaking or non-English speaking. There are certain differences in the media markets. There are also subtleties and differences between each market in each culture that have certain things that they tend to value more strongly than others. One of the interesting things that we have discovered through eHarmony Labs, is around Australian couples. When we've compared them to the US or the UK, overall Australia's married couples are the happiest with their marriages. They tend to put in more effort.
Q: Has the rise of social networking helped or hindered you guys?
A: I'm not sure that we have a clear answer on that. I'd say probably with the 25 to 30 age group, there is a greater comfort through finding potential dates through networks like Facebook and the like. But then again it's much more around the casual end of the spectrum rather than serious long-term relationships.
The full article was originally published at Smart Company, but is no longer available.
