Wednesday, Mar 31, 2010    Text size: 

Pornographers take note: if you find that opportunities in adult are harder to come by, then you might want to start working on that mobile dating site for Chinese consumers...

"We use the Internet for a lot of things... paying the bills, reading the news, keeping in touch with old friends, but a growing trend is finding your mate online," says the report by OnlineSchools.org. "More people than ever are utilizing dating services and many are finding success."

Key findings include a valuation of online dating being worth $1.049 billion per year — along with a claim that online dating is "a bigger industry than porn" — although no adult industry revenue figure is mentioned for comparison, with the exception of a statement that "the porn industry blames its recent $74 million decline on dating sites."

The report also calls mobile dating a $550 million dollar industry, projected to reach $1.3 billion by 2013.

It also says that 40 million Americans and 15 million Indians reportedly engage in online dating — as do a whopping 140 million Chinese.

Adult operators might find the $239 average ticket price and a retention rate that sees only 10 percent of members leaving after the first three months to be quite appealing. Stickiness is also a factor, with average dating site visits listed at 22 minutes, 27 seconds.

Other interesting findings include an average U.S. user age of 48, and the fact that by age 48, men have twice as many online dating suitors as do women of that age — a reversal of the 26-year-old age group — where twice as many women as men are being pursued.