No Recession on Love !

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When members of the Internet Dating Executive Alliance (IDEA) met last month at the Miami Internet Dating Conference (InternetDatingConference.com), the economy was a popular topic of discussion. Yet unlike the doom and gloom you might hear at conferences for any other industry, much of the talk centered on how numbers across the board are holding or are up for Internet dating sites– in spite of the economy.

When the stocks fall more people look for love online. At Match.com memberships grew 17% in December alone. eHarmony saw a 20% spike since September and Sam Yagan, the CEO of OKCupid.com said  “Around September when the economy really started to melt down, our members started to spend more time on the site and they started to get more serious about their search to find that special someone.”

Hitwise Competitive Intelligence reports that the Internet dating industry gained 12 percent more site visits in 2008 over 2007. The peak period for Internet dating sites is November through Valentine’s Day each year. Hitwise reports that the top 100 dating sites gained two percent more site visits for the three-month period of November 2007 to January 2008 versus November 2008 to January 2009. Free dating sites gained 55 percent more visits in the same period.