We Just Clicked
Indian matchmaking site BharatMatrimony paired up the couple. Ten million people havesigned up for the site's service
Once a practice as provincial as it was personal, the art of pairing up people for marriage has become an increasingly international and technology-driven business. As young people all over the world move far from home for school and work, even those from traditionbound cultures can no longer rely solely on the resources of crafty aunties to find them suitable mates. Enter the Internet, where marriage and dating sites began to appear a decade ago and have multiplied rapidly over the past several years. In the U.S. alone, there are close to 1,000 such sites, led by Match.com eHarmony and Yahoo! Personals. The industry rang up $649 million in revenues in 2006, according to Jupiter Research, a market-research firm. With growth slowing in the U.S., Web matchmaking giants are eyeing fertile potential markets such as China and India. But an international match presents hurdles in business as in love: differing societal attitudes, wily competition and cultural quirks to bewilder the most sophisticated suitor. Love, it turns out, isn't the same in every language--not even close.
Love is, however, a lucrative and recession-proof business, and that makes translating it worth the effort. As far back as the Paleolithic era, arranged marriages served to forge networks between family groups, writes Stephanie Coontz in Marriage, a History. Families exchanged daughters and sons for labor, land, goods and status. These matches were so important that, in almost every society, a community member eventually set up shop in setting up unions; in northern India, it was the barber's wife, the nayan. "Be a matchmaker once," goes the Chinese saying, "and you can eat for three years."
In the U.S., matchmaking took off as an industry only in this decade, with the arrival of Internet dating sites. Suspicion and disdain eased into acceptance as more Americans found a partner--or at least a date and not a nut--on the sites. Of the 92 million unmarried Americans 18 and older counted by the Census last year, about 16 million have tried online dating, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In 2003 online daters increased 77%. With sites charging $35 a month on average, revenues popped accordingly. Growth has ebbed of late to about 10% a year, say analysts, partly because of the competing popularity of social-networking sites. You can flirt on Facebook too--and for free.
If a country with little tradition of matchmaking can embrace a version of it online, then it follows that cultures long used to a third party's hand in love affairs would do the same. That's what many Western companies seem to believe anyway, judging by their expansion strategies. Match.com the leading online dating site in the U.S., began exploiting first-mover advantage through international acquisitions in 2002. Now in 35 countries, the Dallas-based company says 30% of its 1.3 million members live outside the U.S., accounting for 30% of its $350 million 2007 revenues (the bulk of its 15 million members just browse for free).
But it has learned along the way that its model does not always translate. On Match, users post personal profiles and photos, attracting and perusing potential mates in what resembles a colossal bar scene. While many Americans like the freedom and convenience, single women in Japan felt threatened by the lack of privacy. Plus, parts of the profiles weren't culturally appropriate, as Match CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony learned over lunch in a Tokyo restaurant with his country manager. "He pointed to the women there and said, 'We really don't need to ask for hair color. We all have the same,'" says Enraght-Moony. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, the 2.2 million Web-savvy singles were long used to dating online. To differentiate itself from local competitors when it launched there in 2003, Match toned down its window-shopping aspect and played up the promise of long-term love. "The dream here is not to marry a millionaire prince," says Johan Siwers, vice president of Northern Europe. "The dream is to live a good life in the countryside and be happy." Match now rules the Scandinavian market, with 1.5 million members.
One way U.S. online matchmakers seek to set themselves apart from local competitors is science. Match hired Rutgers University anthropologist Helen Fisher to devise a compatibility test for a spin-off called Chemistry.com As Chemistry prepares to launch abroad, Fisher is confident that the test--56 questions that place users in four temperament categories--is applicable to any culture (see box, left). The societal trends that drive online matchmaking in the U.S. apply in much of the world, after all: women going to work, young people migrating far from home and, perhaps most important, a newly pervasive insistence on love as an essential ingredient of marriage. Fisher cites a study that asked 10,000 people of 36 cultures about their No. 1 criterion for marriage. "Everywhere, the answer was love," she says.
That bodes well for the international hopes of eHarmony, the leader among compatibility-focused sites in the U.S. Started in 2000 by Neil Clark Warren, the folksy clinical psychologist who starred in the company's ads, eHarmony poses 436 questions to users in order to find them the best match. It has since accrued 17 million members, 230 employees, $200 million in annual revenues and 30% yearly growth. That's not to mention marriages at a rate of 90 a day, unions that so far have produced 100,000 children (a disproportionate number of them named Harmony).
But rather than dive quickly into promising markets, eHarmony has remained devoted--some would say slavishly--to its research-based model. In China, that means commissioning researchers at Beijing University to find out whether its model--in which 29 "dimensions" such as humor and spirituality are mined for compatibility--applies to the culture. Kaiping Peng, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, who is assisting eHarmony, is unsure. "What is the best match might not be about matching exactly," he says. "Maybe it's complementary--like the yin and the yang." Americans are drawn to eHarmony's deeply probing questionnaires because as a culture we seek to know ourselves. "That probably is not necessarily the teachings of Asian philosophies and religions. Buddha used to talk about diminishing self--don't look at yourself, look at others for information and for guidance."
Perhaps those cultural differences explain why no Western company has yet won the Chinese single's hand. And what a hand: 46% of those 35 and younger are unmarried, according to a university study, and that percentage is increasing. Sixty million Internet users are of marrying age, according to Shanghai-based market-research company iResearch, a population that will grow about 20% a year, to 128 million in 2010. In Beijing alone, there are more than 2 million marriage-age singles. Local competition is rife. Chinese matchmaking sites had 14 million registered users in 2006, a number iResearch says will triple by 2010.
China should be a natural haven for online matchmaking. Up until a century ago, marriage-registration forms required the seal of an "introducer." Young, educated professionals seem open-minded. Even today, the off-line matchmaking business remains robust; there are a reported 20,000 agencies, many run by local governments and bearing such dreamy names as the Beijing Military and Civilian Matchmaking Service and the Tianjin Municipal Trade Union Matchmakers' Association. The imbalance of genders brought on by the single-child rule (many parents opted to keep only a male baby) has also led to a desperate demand for matchmakers among rural men, opening the door to unscrupulous brokers who con women into unions.
Western online matchmakers, however, do face challenges in gaining a foothold in the Chinese matchmaking market. Of the 14 million Chinese Internet daters, only 500,000 pay subscription fees; thus industry revenues are estimated at just $24 million, according to iResearch. Paying users are expected to rocket to 3 million by 2010, generating sales of at least $160 million. But fees are minimal compared with the $59 per month charged by the likes of eHarmony. "In China, if you charge money, you'll die fast," says Gong Haiyan, CEO and founder of the leading Web dating site, Jiayuan (formerly Love21cn). Chinese sites rely instead on online advertising and ticket sales from events such as speed-dating mixers that charge about $13 for admission (parents who tag along have to pay too). Another popular dating site, 915915.com.cn-- in Chinese, the numbers sound like "only want me"--set up a "love cruise" in 2006 on the Huangpu River near Shanghai to introduce men worth at least 2 million yuan ($274,000) to attractive women. Edward Chiu, CEO of ChinaLoveLinks, says his free websites steer users to his 30 off-line matchmaking offices, where they can pay fees totaling up to $6,000. Both eHarmony and Match say they have yet to decide how to adjust their subscription-based models to the market.
Like China, India has a long history of and cultural comfort with matchmaking; as many as 90% of weddings are arranged, says Patricia Oberoi, a Delhi-based sociologist. There are 60 million singles ages 20 to 34, and 71% believe arranged marriages are more successful than "love" marriages. But with so many moving to cities or even abroad--up to a third of the population, according to the latest census--the Internet is proving preferable to the services of the village nayan. So-called matrimonial sites first appeared 10 years ago and today make up half the world's matchmaking sites. Like U.S. sites, they offer free viewing but charge about $40 to subscribe for three months. BharatMatrimony, a leading site, claims 10 million members and, in its 10 years, a million marriages. Another, named Shaadi, boasts 800,000 matches. Industry growth in India could be even more explosive than in China; users have doubled every year. Sales are growing 50% annually and reached $30 million in 2006. "Online matrimony has become a mainstream activity, like checking e-mail," says Uday Zokarkar, business head of BharatMatrimony.
Partly because India's matrimonial sites have already succeeded in wooing the nation, Western companies have hesitated at the door. "India is a very different business, and we just haven't got there yet," says Match's Enraght-Moony. For instance, sites there make matches on the basis of factors unfamiliar to outsiders, including caste, language and "character"--a euphemism for chastity. About 15% of profiles are filled in not by the prospective bride or groom but by their parents. And now Indian sites are challenging Western matchmaking companies on their own turf. Shaadi CEO Vibhas Mehta says 30% of its business comes from the U.S., Europe, Australia and the Middle East. Perhaps love needs no translation after all.
With reporting by Ling Woo Liu/ Hong Kong, Madhur Singh/ Delhi
Reference: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704691-1,00.html
John Chan
November 8, 2008 - 9:49AM
An Armadale man has been defrauded of more than $130,000 by several women on an internet dating website who professed their undying love to him.
Police spokesman Sergeant Greg Lambert said that the man was approached by West African women on the dating site.
He said that over an 18-month period, the man had sent over $130,000 by money transfer to the women. He will attempt to get his money back.
"The victim became involved in the romance scams after being approached through the website by women who were professing their love," Sergeant Lambert said.
"He has parted with the money after being told a variety of hard luck stories."
Police have issued a warning for people to heed the warnings posted on these dating websites about such scams.
Anyone who believes themselves to be a victim of an internet scam, they can contact Scam Net on the WA Government website or the police computer crime squad.
Reference: http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/armadale-man-loses-130000-in-computer-dating-scam-20081107-5jli.html
Reflective essay:
The first article above says that the number of online dating and matchmaking sites is multiplying rapidly and has become a very successful and effective business, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue. So just how successful is the Internet as an agent of socializing with people? According to the article, it has been estimated that 16 million Americans have tried online dating. Hundreds of thousands of relationships have been formed and approximately a marriage rate 90 a day, unions that so far have produced 100,000 children.
However, online dating has its implications on the society and state as well. Such implications are such as failed marriages which causes the increase rate of divorce. Failure of marriages may be caused by dishonesty whereby some people may be lying and giving false information to their partners during the process of knowing each other. Another implication which has may raise the concern of the state is the increased number of cybercrimes. Online dating fraud or scam occurs when a con artist tend to take advantage over the people who use the Internet. In my view, it is still unclear just how successful online dating is for meeting people, or more importantly, in meeting the ‘right’ person, to form long term relationship and successful marriage. I think it is important to consider the aspect of ‘luck’ in internet dating just as we would in traditional way of dating.
1 comment:
To Get a Boyfriend
To Find a Boyfriend
How to Get a Guy
Get my Boyfriend
Post a Comment