The Business of Dating
Move over gold-diggers and call girls, you are no longer the only ones
making money from dating. From online dating services to boutique
matchmaking agencies to reality dating shows, dating is big business
and everyone is cashing in.
Many people are familiar with the online dating services Match.com and
Chemistry.com. No matter if you’ve actually utilized their services or not,
you have undoubtedly seen their commercials as both brand themselves
as pioneers in the industry. What you may not know about these dotcoms
is that they are both owned by the same parent-company, InterActive Corp
(sneaky devils). When you consider that each site’s average membership is
about $40/month and then multiply that by the 15-20 million members each
site boosts to have AND THEN multiply that by two to account for each site, you
can only assume that IAC is rolling in the dough. Better yet, let’s not assume.
To be exact, IAC posted revenue for fiscal year 2009 of $1.37 billion! This is
actually down from the $1.45 billion they posted in FY 2008.
(You can check this and other financial out in the Investor Relations
section of IAC’s website.)
Click Here to Read More!!!
While online dating sites cater to the masses (and reap the financial benefits of doing so) boutique matchmaking agencies are also lucrative business. OneDegreeFrom.me is a Washington, D.C. based agency in the business of matchmaking and relationship coaching. While it does provide inexpensive and convenient online services, it also employs certified professionals to give personal attention that a website can’t offer. Agencies like this are very profitable because the more personalized attention they give, the more it’ll cost you. OneDegreeFrom.me offers private relationship coaching starting at $225 and matchmaking search plans starting at $3500. I know some of you are thinking “well damn” but there are a lot of lonely millionaires willing to spend it (hence the success of Patti Stinger, The Millionaire Matchmaker).
And while we are on the topic of lonely millionaires, we have to talk about reality dating shows. I’ll admit I’ve never really been into the ones that the major networks offer, like The Bachelor, but have been suckered into a season or two of Flavor of Love and the many VH1 adaptations thereafter. We know the networks receive ad revenue from these shows (let’s keep it real, these type of shows totally revived and now sustain VH1) and the celebs (and I use that term loosely) that star in them get a big fat check in addition to publicity for their often waning careers.
I personally would never audition for a reality dating show but when I heard that one-half of “My Perfect Guy”, Chad Ocho Cinco, was getting a show, I had to check it out. (In case you are wondering, the other half of “My Perfect Guy” is Marc Lamont Hill but I digress.) The press release for Chad’s show The Tournament states that the participants will be paid $100/day for each day they appear on the show. So it looks like a Win-Win for everyone involved. In the dating business, everyone gets PAID!
