US Dating sites reviewed: Online dating in Europe – Once a brainchild of the USA, now a world of its own
Europeans spend over 1 billion USD in 2012, but hardly any of it will find its way to the USA
LOS ANGELES, 26. November 2012 – The information portal DatingSitesReviewed.com has compared the world’s two largest singles dating services markets in a cross-border study for the first time. “The European Online Dating Industry 2012” has come to the conclusion: The USA is way ahead of Europe, but the old world is catching up on its own terms.
When it comes to turnover, the USA beats the whole of Europe hands down. America has by far the most advanced online dating industry in the world. Once again in 2011 it swept past the billion-dollar mark with ease, with an overall turnover approaching US$ 1.6 billion. But the annual turnover of all the European online dating sectors, totaling US$ 1.1 billion, brings it within reach of the US turnover for the first time. A comparison of the per capita turnover in the two regions also shows the EU trailing behind: In the USA the average citizen spends $ 5.30 looking for a partner online, in the EU the figure is only $ 2.80.
According to Robert Bailey of DatingSitesReviewed.com, the reason for America’s dominant position lies in the history and tradition of online dating. “Americans have just been completely at home with online personals and matchmaking sites for many years, simply because of the long physical distances often involved between two people. While looking for love on the Internet was for a long time a little embarrassing for many Europeans, in America it’s almost the done thing".
Without “Match.com”, “eHarmony” and “AdultFriendFinder” European singles would perhaps still be waiting in the shadows: The innovative US dating sites set the pace in the industry’s first decade and also dominated to a certain extent in Europe. But in the meantime the tables have turned: The majority of US companies are no longer quite so pleased with their European business, as the local players get the upper hand on their home markets. For example, the Canadian casual dating site “AshleyMadison.com” failed to take off in many European countries, while the German “C-Date.com” managed to establish “casual dating” all over Europe and capture 20 million erotic daters within 2 years.
“On the other hand no European dating site has really managed to cross over into the US market” according to Bailey. This means that in an otherwise extremely globalized world, two parallel universes have developed in online dating.
The compact study “The European Online Dating Industry 2012" is available as a PDF
http://www.datingsitesreviewed.com/press/online-dating-market-europe-2012-us.pdf
On www.datingsitesreviewed.com: "US Dating sites reviewed" is an independent observer of the American online dating industry. Anyone looking for a partner can get the results of leading singles portals and tips for flirting on the Internet. “datingsitesreviewed.com” is part of the German Metaflake network, which operates from Cologne in 12 different countries.
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