|
|
Online Dating - Business Models
The fundamental business model is the shopkeeper model, where the location up of a store attracts possible customers by displaying a product or service. However, business models of service firms are more complex than just manufacturers and resellers.
Online dating is seen as a gainful business initiative, with many dating and relationship-oriented websites which are flattering businesses supporting the new online dating marketplace, concurrently generating revenue.
Dating sites are rising not only in the area of buyer usage, but also in terms of the industry’s sequence toward providing both online communication and the business models to hold up online communities. The online portion of the dating services business in the US makes up a third of the total revenues (LC, 2003). In November, Florida-based Market Data Research affirmed that the business in the US was worth $917 million (Gardiner, 2003). It has been establish out that practically one in five men who go online for any reasons say that they check out the dating sites at least once a month. For additional evidence of this rising trend, top personals Website Match.com boasts of 600,000 customers forking over $25 a month for membership, suggestive of a booming business opportunity. Another online dating site, uDate.com, raked in around $1.5 million in June 2001. (Aronow, 2002)
3G dating services that was launched in the UK is the new plan in the online dating industry. It marks the start of what could be a frenzied battle for market share in this potentially profitable area is gradually developing. One such service is the 3G Dating Agency; a confidential company that has gained the backing of mobile phone developed giant Samsung, as well as other networking organizations such as Vodafone, Virgin Mobile and 3. (The 3G Dating Agency)
Competitors are continually finding new and innovative ways to persist to look for the one factor that distinguishes them from the others in the packed market, while at the same time persuasive users that their services are worth paying for. With the increasing number of customers who access online personal sites, only a handful of them who are eager to pay for it. Hence, most dating sites present both free and paid services. These companies are finding that in spite of conventional thinking, single individuals are now eager to pay to be part of an online society that helps them find a mate while show out the predators, as there is a whole dating society on the computer and people online date for exacting reasons such as expediency, efficiency, and options.
Revenues for all online dating companies typically stem from advertising in the first stage and association fees in a later stage. Costs are mainly advertising (up to 50%) - in order to grab the soak share - as well as HR & IT. (Loïc Le Meur, 2003). The progression of new technologies will help in the progression of the online dating manufacturing by providing better alternatives for patrons to interact as new business models take shape.