Designing and Managing Services: Online Dating

Match.com: The Love Algorithm

Matchmaking has a long and venerable history, and now it has a new partner, the Internet. Online dating brings in more revenue than any other legitimate Web content, beating out both digital music and business and investment advice. It has come a long way since 1995, when industry pioneer Match.com got under way. Still the leader, Match accounts for about 55 percent of the industry's approximately $300 million in revenue and has brought online dating a long way from the slightly seedy desperation once associated with personal ads in the print media. Match ventured into new territory, determined to remake the dating business from a marketing niche tainted with social stigma into a smart new way for time-challenged singles to connect with compatible people. "We decided early on that we would introduce the category and not just Match.com," explains the company's vice president of romance.

To prove that being single is no longer something to be ashamed of, the company took the word "single" off its home page and has introduced a continuous flow of improvements and innovations in service. Nothing remains new in this highly competitive business for long, however; good ideas are very quickly copied on the dozens of rival sites that have sprung up. And the market is big enough now for companies to begin targeting subgroups, defining singles by age, interests, religious beliefs, ethnic group, and even pets. Like its competitors which include AmericanSingles.com, Friendster, Spring Street Networks, Yahoo! Personals, and specialized sites eHarmony, 8minuteDating, LatinSingles.com, and the personals pages at trendy magazine Web site Salon.com.

Match charges users about $25 a month to subscribe. Though it can't verify any of the information subscribers post in their profiles, Match does screen all messages for code words like "discreet," which is often used to signal an affair as opposed to a dating relationship. Members can post their pictures and view those of others; search for dates by using criteria like age, income, and hobbies; and contact each other through chat features, e-mail, or instant messaging.

What happens after that is up to the individuals, of course, but Match is working hard to try to refine members' ability to find a good match beyond these fairly rough criteria. Disappointments are still common. One Match member who is gay was recently matched with his own profile, for example. What everyone in the business would like to find is the so-called killer app, that elusive programming algorithm that could more or less guarantee that matched couples would click in person. Personality tests seem to offer the highest potential, but creating one that's quick, easy, and fun but also works has proven difficult. Match boasts a 10-minute questionnaire that purports to divine the respondent's strongest traits, such as "You have an insatiable curiosity" or "You can get so caught up in a conversation that you talk more than most." According to Match management, more than a million people have already taken the quiz, despite the fact that it is not yet sophisticated enough to match respondents up with one another based on the results.

But Match is betting that since online dating has become more than acceptable as a way of meeting people, things can only get better. In the near future, "it'll feel very universal," says President Tim Sullivan. "It will be quite a natural thing to be using Match in some way." The company has already given away untold baseball caps and matchbooks as wedding favors for couples who met on the site and went on to marry. Those couples represent a minority, but Match's consultant Mark Thomson says, "Maybe we won't be really good at predicting who to marry, but this is a good way to get you to date the right people."

Source: Match.com

CASE 3: Questions for Critical Thinking (Total: 56 points)

Based on the case, identify the main issues. State each question and answer the question , with one or more paragraphs. You may cite primary and secondary information as examples to better explain your answers. Your goals or recommendations must be logical, attainable, and legal.

1. Match.com admits that about 140,000 members left the site in one recent year, but the reason was that "they found the person they were seeking there." Can an online dating service suffer from too much success? Why or why not? Explain (14 points)
2. How can Match.com ensure a flow of new members to replace those who no longer need its services? Explain (14 points)
3. Industry observers have noted that postings to online dating sites can offer a great deal of information about a potential date.According to a recent Nielsen/NetRatings study, about 10 percent of 'Internet personals' users are not single,How much responsibility should a site like Match.com accept for the validity of the content its members provide to one another?Explain(14 points)
4. What types of safeguards should Match.com incorporate in its online services?Explain(14 points)