The Summer Of Mobile Matchmaking
Traffic to dating sites on mobile phones have nearly doubled since the beginning of summer, putting a fun, new twist on the definition of “the Summer of Smartphone Love.” Mobile Research firm Ground Truth said there’s been a steady increase in visits to dating sites with traffic jumping 92 percent between the first week of June and the last week of July.
Ground Truth said the category leader on mobile is Flirtomatic, which accounted for 65 percent of the traffic for the week ended Aug. 8. Other popular sites, typically visited from a computer, such as Match.com and eHarmony, were visited less frequently, ranking at 7 and 17, respectively. Users are spending an average of 12 minutes and 44 seconds a week on the sites, but each session is short and only lasts for 49 seconds.
The increase in matchmaking on mobile likely has to do with better weather and people stepping away from their computers for longer periods of time. The summer of smartphone love does not actually refer to dating, but rather the large number of devices coming to market.
* Location awareness is for fun dating: for flirting, for entertainment purposes, for instant gratification, not for serious dating. Moreover women do not like that proposal at all (location awareness for dating purposes) because they think they are being hunt by men.
* As for Mobile Dating: I think mobile applications may be good for markets such as Korea and Japan, but I believe a ceiling has already been reached in North America and Europe.
Perhaps by 2014, the mobile concept will be diluted (or disappear) for dating purposes with the majority of subscribers using netbooks/iPads with mobile broadband modems, or WiFi, rather than smartphones.
I am featured in the Latest Mobile Social Web 2.0 Forecasts, Challenges & Regulations 2010-2014 from Juniper Research.
http://onlinedatingsoundbarrier.blogspot.com/2010/05/featured-in-mobile-juniper-research.html
Fernando Ardenghi.
Buenos Aires.
Argentina.
ardenghifer@gmail.com