84 Percent of Visitors to Personals Sites are Online Five or More Times a Week
NEW YORK, Nov. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nielsen//NetRatings, the
global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reports that
surfers are flocking to Friendster. Recent data reveals that since the
tracking of Friendster began in June 2003, the site's unique audience is up 74
percent. However, the top personals sites remain strong players with traffic
more than three times that of Friendster.
According to the most recent Nielsen//NetRatings NetView figures,
Friendster, a member community destination, attracted 927,000 visitors from
home and work in October 2003. Those logging on to Friendster spent an average
of one hour and fifty-one minutes on the site in October (see Table 1). By
comparison, the top personals site, Yahoo! Personals attracted 4.9 million
surfers from home and work in October 2003. Each surfer spent an average of 35
minutes during the month on Yahoo! Personals. Following closely was Match
garnering 3.9 million Internet users who spent more than 55 minutes on the
site in October. The third most popular site was AmericanSingles attracting
3.7 million individuals during the same period. Rounding out the top five
destinations was MSN Dating & Personals and Netscape Love & Personals, drawing
1.9 million and 1.5 million home and work visitors, respectively.
"The member community format is quickly becoming a popular social network
on the web," said Lauren Taub, Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.
"Friendster's growth is impressive, but it is too early to tell if its early
success is explained by unique functionality or the fact that it is currently
a free service."
Table 1. Nielsen//NetRatings Friendster vs. Top Five Online Personals
Destinations June 2003 to October 2003 (U.S., Home and Work)*
Unique Audience (000)
---------------------
Time Per Person
Brand (Member Community) Jun-03 Oct-03 Oct. 2003 (hh:mm:ss)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friendster 532 927 1:51:54
Unique Audience (000)
---------------------
Time Per Person
Brand (Personals) Jun-03 Oct-03 Oct. 2003 (hh:mm:ss)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Personals 4,110 4,923 0:35:07
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Match 4,327 3,916 0:55:40
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AmericanSingles 3,950 3,725 0:17:54
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
MSN Dating & Personals 3,381 1,946 0:01:46
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Netscape Love & Personals 1,221 1,470 0:04:29
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Please note that Friendster is categorized as a member community and is
not in the personals sub category
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings October 2003
"The Internet has become a widely popular forum for dating, becoming big
business, as evidenced by the significant increase of online ads for dating
sites in the past few years," said Taub. "Increased advertising, the relaxing
of many stigmas and an expanding tech savvy population are all contributing
factors to the continued success of online dating sites."
Nielsen//NetRatings found that the growing online community of personal
sites visitors consisted of Internet savvy adults. This report uncovered the
online habits of those surfers logging on to dating sites and found that 84
percent of visitors to dating services are online five or more times a week.
Additionally, 37 percent have been online for seven or more years. Those using
an online dating site access the Internet to send online invitations, search
for homes and apartments, download MP3s, look for restaurants and participate
in fantasy sports leagues. Online dating sites are keen to understand the
habits of users to maximize reach of online ad campaigns.
"Users of online dating services take full advantage of all the resources
the web offers," said Taub. "These individuals are online all the time, using
the web in every way imaginable, especially to organize events through e-vites
and read restaurants reviews."
Singles, divorcees and even a small group of married users accessed these
sites in the past 30 days. According to Nielsen//NetRatings @Plan Fall 2003,
divorcees are more than three times as likely to use a dating site than the
average Internet user and singles are more than twice as likely to do the
same. Of those acknowledging they accessed an online dating service yesterday,
11 percent were married individuals. Divorcees make up only eight percent of
the 18 plus Internet audience, yet they represent 27 percent of those using an
online dating site recently.
About Nielsen//NetRatings
Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience
measurement and analysis and is the industry's premier source for online
advertising intelligence with its NetView, AdRelevance, @Plan, WebRF, LemonAd,
MegaPanel and SiteCensus services. Covering 70 percent of the world's Internet
usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated Internet and digital
media research reports and custom-tailored data to help companies gain
valuable insight into their business. For more information, please visit
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com.
NetRatings, Inc. Max Heineman (212) 703-5953
Grace Kim (408) 941-2932
SOURCE Nielsen//NetRatings
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Related links:
http://www.netratings.com
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com
CONTACT:
Max Heineman, +1-212-703-5953, or Grace Kim,
+1-408-941-2932, both of NetRatings, Inc.
NOTE TO EDITORS: Please source all data to Nielsen//NetRatings.
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