Recession is good for free dating

January 12, 2008 – 10:20 pm

Now before you start scratching your head on this one let me explain.
A recession is coming, and it’s is not question of if, only when.

So why is this a good thing? Well it won’t be a good thing for some
people, but it will be a good thing for the FREE online dating business.

When the next recession hits, people will likely cut out
entertainment spending before anything else. Sites like match or
eharmony are likely to be some of the first expenses on the chopping
block, and things like Starbucks will be a close second.

Services like ours, and plentyoffish will stand to not only survive,
but I would argue prosper from a weak economy. The argument against
this is that these types of sites make a profit from ads, which in a
weak economy slows down. That may be true, but with an increase in
users and page views from defecting users from paid sites, the difference will most likely offset the
decline in getting less money per click.

Now plentyoffish is not near the quality of a site like match, or
Eharmony, but many people will give up “good” for “good enough” in these troubled times.

Since it seems I’m talking about POF a lot in this post I want to give
Markus some free advice. Markus, on your blog I’m constantly reading
about all the ad opportunities on POF. Why not come up with, and
promote new services and give them free ad space on POF. With those
kind of page views why not build a conglomerate of sites so if your
online dating site dies, you have a choice of other sites and services
to move onto, not to mention adding value if you ever need to sell. Think IAC, but on a much smaller level.

  1. One Response to “Recession is good for free dating”

  2. Andy, you are forgetting a key fact and that is that romance is a biological imperative. So, while a Starbucks coffee may go (or be cut back), romance won’t (as in, online dating). Instead of spending a ton on an exotic vacation or a new set of wheels (or even a haircut), singles will focus on what matter to them: meeting someone special.

    So, contrary to your assertion that “free” dating will benefit from a recession, my take is that dating sites in general will prosper - but only those that are already established, whether generic ones like Match.com or Yahoo Personals, or specialized ones, like eHarmony or ChristianCafe.com.

    Time will tell. But, if I was a betting man, I would put my money on sits like ours.

    By Sam Moorcroft, ChristianCafe.com on Jan 24, 2008

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