If the claims of dating companies are to be believed, we are moving towards an age where meeting your significant other from behind a computer screen (or a mobile phone) is the norm rather than the exception! Facts and figures about the success of online dating services are not in short supply. For instance, EHarmony now claims credit for 5% percent of all new marriages in the US.

Their main competitor, Match.com, together with research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey conducted a study which indicated that one in six marriages (17%) over the past three years was between couples who met via a dating website.

Just to put that into perspective, the findings of the Match.com study showed that twice as many marriages in the US took place between people who met online, than in bars, clubs and social events combined. Meanwhile, the world’s largest free site, Plentyoffish claims on its home page that 20,000 new singles are joining the site every day.

But just how realistic are these statistics?

Dating companies clearly have a vested interest in advertising the success and popularity of online dating. So just how realistic are these claims? Independent estimates of the numbers of visitors to online dating sites certainly seem to confirm them. With several thousand online dating sites in operation in 2011, and over 200 million active personal profiles, this means that about 1 in 5 (20%) of today’s internet users have a dating profile (excluding social networking sites which can also be used for dating).

However people have different motivations for joining a dating site. Not all are looking for a committed relationship, as a significant proportion of dating profiles are posted on adult oriented sites. Others sign-up because knowing other people still find them desirable makes them feel good about themselves. Even taking these cases into account, the findings of the dating companies do seem to be entirely plausible.

While internet dating is clearly a popular and growing phenomenon, we’ll have to wait a few more years yet before we find out how successful online marriages are in the long-term.

taraNews & ViewsDating Business,eHarmony,Marriage,Match.com,PlentyOfFish.comIf the claims of dating companies are to be believed, we are moving towards an age where meeting your significant other from behind a computer screen (or a mobile phone) is the norm rather than the exception! Facts and figures about the success of online dating services are...Advice and Tips for Online Dating