By Chris Morrison

Updated on: April 28, 2010 / 1:21 PM / MoneyWatch

Alas, the internet dating industry isn’t all flowers and moonlit walks. For organizations that offer dating services, it is a competitive globe where each major business needs to one-up the other inside their claims — exactly how many users get communications, just how many of these communications result in times, and exactly how numerous marriages emerge from those unions. A letter simply delivered by Match.com to just competitor Plentyoffish reveals just how really these businesses use the figures.

The page isn’t very long — shortly, this is certainly, apart from a bullet-pointed a number of 18 stats from Plentyoffish’s advertising materials, which Match.com challenges its competitor to substantiate. Record includes claims that Plentyoffish creates over 500,000 relationships that are new 18 million times every year, and 20,000 brand new signups daily. “According to my familiarity with the industry,” writes Match general counsel Marshall Dye, “these claims can not be supported and tend to be deceptive and/or false.”

These kinds of letters are most likely fairly typical; what is unusual is seeing them provided. But Plentyoffish creator Markus Frind not merely posted the letter, he additionally replied it with a blog post entering their own suspicions of exaggeration by Match. (The ellipses are my personal):

Week this letter is beyond ironic considering match’s history of bogus claims, like this one from last. Match claims that 42% of times from internet dating sites are as results of match.com And 30% of marriages are a total result of match.com Whatever they don’t aim out is the fact that match has existed for 15 years and a lot of for the internet sites placed in the study scarcely existed five years ago.

When we really glance at what match.com claims it enters the ridiculous. Final 12 months they reported 12 marriages each day. Eharmony claims 236 marriages per day Now per year later match.com claims twice the quantity of marriages as eharmony in this study around 472 marriages per time or 994 people engaged and getting married per day. On match.com you cannot speak to a user if you do not spend. therefore does anybody actually genuinely believe that every time 944 away from 3000 brand new having to pay users of match.com are certain to get hitched fundamentally due to whom they came across on match.com? Do 1 in 3 having to pay readers of match.com also head out on a romantic date.

As Frind points down, Match attempted to compete by starting a niche site year that is last DowntoEarth.com, but did not find any development (just like eBayClassifieds.com flopped). So Match now seems to have managed to move on to Arrange B: threatening action that is legal.

The issue is that, as Frind’s flippant publishing programs, it is not prone to get terribly far. Together with free internet sites are making a serious instance that|case that is serious} there is no requirement for Match or other compensated online dating sites. A couple weeks back OKCupid, another free website, posted its very own long, stats-heavy assault on Match and eHarmony:

Yes, only 1/30th of the “20 million usersyou can actually talk to” they[eHarmony] advertise is someone. This is the paradox: the greater amount of they power up their account totals to convince you to definitely join, the even worse they appear.

As you care able to see through the movement chart, the only method they do not earn money is always to show readers with other members. Oahu is the thing that is worst they are able to do with regards to their company, since thereis no possibility of new revenue development here. Keep in mind: the typical account size is merely 6 months, and folks join for big obstructs of the time at the same time, therefore getting a unique client aboard is way better for them than eking another couple of months away from a subscriber that is current.

Okay, Match is double counting to get “12 partners”, since a couple of that gets hitched additionally gets involved. A year so we have 6 couples per day getting married on the site, or 4,380 people. Let us locate to 5,000, to keep things easy. My very first observation is the fact that Match.com made $342,600,000 year that is last . That is $137,000 in individual charges per wedding.

As it happens you’re 12.4 times more prone to get hitched this if you never sign up to Match.com 12 months.

But by the end of a single day, Match is not at severe chance of being overcome in the future by Plentyoffish, or just about any other site that is free. Match has existed for more than 10 years, and also its rivals acknowledge it will continue to attract customers.

As constantly when you look at the technology the planet, the risk that is biggest may lie in a spot that no body is viewing. My very own guess: the blind spot for all the above online dating sites is Twitter. Not just is Twitter free, however it comes minus the stigma that online dating services still carry, which is currently an automobile for a lot of effective intimate hook-ups.

When it comes to minute, Twitter appears like a non-rival; the few dating organizations that have attempted to start on Facebook have by and big failed. The major dating sites have ignored Facebook for their part. That is a mistake, though — the factor that is social crucial, along with the casual dynamic on Facebook. And there is one or more dating website proving that it could leverage Facebook: Zoosk.com, which includes a prominent Facebook application and, as you can plainly see through the Compete graph below, has unexpectedly started to develop quickly.

First published on April 28, 2010 / 1:21 PM>

В© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.