FINANCIAL TIMES -- May 24 -- Toyboywarehouse.com is aimed at strong independent women who don't want a pipe and slippers man", said its founder Julia Macmillan. She came up with the idea for a more targeted site after seeing how many friends were dating or marrying younger men. The site, launched 18 months ago and has 10,000 registered members. Julia is keen to expand internationally, starting with a US launch in the autumn. Mark Brooks, a US-based dating consultant and blogger with Onlinepersonalswatch.com says this part of the market may have been overlooked: "There is not too much in the way of competition in the so-called cougar niche. There are few niches left in the online dating industry and this is one of them. It should do well." Hitwise says there are 1,368 UK dating sites, up from 1,123 a year ago, of which the top 5 (Plentyoffish.com, SexintheUK.com, Gaydar.co.uk, DatingDirect.com and Match.com) account for 37% of visitors. Mr Brooks says: "You'd have thought the big sites would be trouncing the niches but they're just not."
The full article was originally published at Financial Times, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: You would think that biggest is best, when if comes to internet dating sites. But many singles have a particular 'thing' that is extremely important for them. They might want to just date a christian, or an Asian, or someone who has kids, or someone who is into bondage. Internet dating sites have enabled singles to explore and discover and develop more specific preferences. There's a niche out there for most preferences these days. Many singles want to choose from more specialized pools of singles.
