Another Year of Explosive Growth for Online Dating in South Africa

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Black Online Dating Users Increased by 64% in 2005

The number of Black users of online dating services increased to 18% of total users in 2005, up from 11% in 2004. This represents a 64% year-on-year increase and is one of the key findings from a new research report, The NETucation Report – Online Dating in South Africa 2006, released today. “New partnerships by market leader DatingBuzz with media companies like Metro FM and Sowetan has allowed the online dating market to tap into new sources for potential new users,” says Ramon Thomas, Managing Director of NETucation, the leading internet research company in South Africa.

“The key indicator of growth in this industry is the number of new competitors. There are 10 new online dating websites that launched during last year,” Thomas explains.

This new study is the result of a survey conducted in August 2005. 5024 respondents completed a 33-page questionnaire on how the Internet is impacting on their sexual behavior. Most of these users are actively meeting and dating men and women found on more then 30 Internet and Web/ SMS-based dating services.

“The total number of profiles across all websites has exploded to 362 675 at the end of 2005,” says Thomas. “However, the actual number of unique users are 230 000 because of an overlap of users. Many people are hedging their bets by signing up to multiple websites, sometimes as many as three.”

Some of the key findings form this survey include:

Men younger than 30 outnumber women in the same age group; however, in the age group 30-60 women outnumber men
More women than men are signing up for online dating
Homosexual users have up to six times more internet-sourced sexual encounters then heterosexuals users.
On average, male users have three times as many internet-sourced sexual encounters then women users.

The Top 10 Online Dating Websites, based on use by South Africans respondents, are as follows:

MEDIA CONTACTS

Ramon Thomas, Managing Director, NETucation

MEDIA CONTACTS

Published by Ramon Thomas