Looking for Your Type?

Filed in archive Dating Sites on March 7, 2006

LOS ANGELES TIMES -- Mar 4 -- As novel as Datemypet.com seems, the year-and-a-half-old site is part of a larger niche site trend: truckerpassions.com, tallfriends.com, friendslikeme.org, gothicloveonline.com, conservativematch.com, hiphopmatchmaker.com, rightstuffdating.com, grapedates.com, sugardaddie.com, veggiedate.com. There wasn't a market for most niches until online dating as a whole had reached a critical mass of users and acceptability, and that's only happened within the last few years. According to JupiterResearch, 14% of American Internet users browsed personal ads in 2005. In 2006, that figure is expected to increase to 16%. Match.com, Yahoo! Personals and eHarmony are the top three players in the market and account for 50%+ of all online dating traffic. Mark Brooks: Community Connect (Blackplanet.com, Asianavenue.com, Migente.com), Friendfinder, and Spark are the niche dating leaders in terms of overall revenues.