Jupiter predicts use of online dating sites to rise about 9 percent this year with revenues reaching $516 million from subscriptions alone, as well as additional revenue in the millions from advertising sales. That’s compared to 19 percent growth during 2004.
Adult dating sites were not included in the report.
“It took a while for [online dating] to gain traction, then we saw several years of explosive growth, and now it will slow down,” Jupiter analyst Nate Elliott said.
Elliott attributes the slowdown in part to the fact that so many people have now tried online dating. In short, there are fewer new customers, and the curiosity factor is waning. Plus, social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Friendster are taking market share from traditional dating sites.
For example, Match.com, the web’s No. 2 dating portal according to Comscore Media Matrix, saw only 2 percent growth from July 2004 to July 2005.
Comscore currently tracks more than 1,000 dating sites and said online dating makes up 1 percent of all Internet usage, but some sites are clearly doing a better job than others when it comes to attracting users. Date.com, for example, bucked the trend by increasing memberships by 26 percent during the study period.
