SAN MATEO, Calif., — February 14, 2005 — With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, customers and prospective customers of online dating Web sites are concerned about their prospects for finding a compatible match online, and as a result are looking for more functionality, guidance and information from those sites, according to a new study. The syndicated research study released today by Keynote Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, provides the first competitive benchmarking of leading online dating Web sites based on behavioral data.
According to the study, Yahoo! Personals and Match.com were the sites providing the best search functionality and dating information and, because of this, earned the industry’s highest customer experience rankings. Yahoo! Personals, American Singles and eHarmony earned the industry’s highest satisfaction rankings among prospective customers of online dating Web sites.
| Keynote Customer Experience Rankings Customers |
Keynote Customer Experience Rankings Prospective Customers |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yahoo! Personals | 1 | Yahoo! Personals |
| 2 | Match.com | 2 | American Singles |
| 3 | True | 3 | eHarmony |
The Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for the Online Dating Industry are based on research with 2,000 customers and 2,000 prospective customers as they interacted with 10 leading online dating Web sites. The American Singles, Black Planet, eHarmony, Friend Finder, Friendster, Lavalife, Match.com, PerfectMatch, Tickle, True, and Yahoo! Personals Web sites were evaluated as part of the study. In addition to traditional opinion data, Keynote’s proprietary research technology collects detailed qualitative and behavioral data as users performed tasks at each site. The sites topping the Keynote CE Rankings performed best, in aggregate, across all 250+ measured metrics and the indices compiled from these metrics.
Consumers Seeking Greater Satisfaction from Online Dating
Sites, Prospective Matches
“Consumer satisfaction with
online dating sites is considerably lower than satisfaction levels
seen with other online services. However, these diminished
satisfaction levels are driven primarily by the personal
expectations of the customer and their interaction with other
members,” said Dr. Bonny Brown, an expert in behavioral psychology
and director of research and public services for Keynote.
The most common frustration reported by customers in the study stemmed from a lack of trust or comfort in other members, 61% of customers are concerned that other members are misrepresenting themselves and as many as one in three (33%) express a lack of trust in other members. Specifically, customers felt other members often misrepresented themselves and that there were too few compatible members available on the site for them.
Customers also expressed concern about the lack of organization and poor search functionality on some sites. In these areas there was a marked difference between sites, with the best sites being well organized and easy to use, and the poorer sites being cluttered with ads or heavy text. The best sites also offered well-developed member search functionality with the ability to modify search criteria, whereas the poorer sites had more rudimentary search functions or no search function at all which made it more difficult to find compatible members.
“Online dating services face unique challenges not found in other online industries, but sites that meet these challenges by providing strong search functionality and provide dating guidance are rewarded with industry-leading customer loyalty and a positive impact on their brands,” said Brown.
The Search Starts with Search Engines
Because
of relatively weak brand development, just 14% of prospective
customers go directly to an online dating site when shopping for
online dating services. Rather, most (83%) start at a search engine,
with Google and Yahoo! being the leading destinations. This is a
clear advantage for Yahoo! Personals, as more than 40% of those who
searched for online dating information on the Yahoo! Search engine
ended up going directly to Yahoo! Personals. eHarmony was the most
common destination for those who started their search with
Google.
The member search function of online dating services also plays a critical role in customer satisfaction, and was ranked as the most important feature of online dating Web sites. Yahoo! Personals also excelled in this category, while less than half of all customers expressed satisfaction with the member search function at other online dating sites. Customers had a particularly hard time determining how to save a member search they would like to repeat in the future. Customers at Yahoo! Personals had a 95% success rate in this task, followed closely by Lavalife (87%) and Match.com (85%).
“Keynote’s study shows that the role of search functionality and search engines in the online dating industry is critical,” said Dr. Brown. “There are more than 100 million single people in America, and by some estimates up to 50% are members or considering membership on online dating Web sites.”
Demand For Personality Tests, Background
Checks
One-third (33%) of customers directly expressed a
desire for additional guidance and information from their online
dating Web site. Customers expressed the greatest interest in tests
that help determine compatibility and features that ensure safety
with 50% of customers expressing interest in personality tests and
an equal number (50%) interested in some type of physical attraction
test. A surprisingly large number (45%) of customers expressed a
desire to have access to background checks on other members.
Married Persons Make Up Significant Percentage of Online
Dating Community
The surprising demand for background
checks may, in part, be related to the unexpectedly large number of
married persons or those in a committed relationship using online
dating services. Keynote found that upwards of 30% of online dating
service customers in the study were married or living with a
significant other/partner. Interestingly, customers that are married
or in a committed relationship had the highest satisfaction levels
with online dating sites.
Tickle is ‘Fun,’ True is ‘Safe’
When
selecting attributes to describe different online dating sites,
Tickle is considered the ‘fun’ site with 73% of customers describing
the site that way. Yahoo! Personals is considered the ‘friendly’
site (76%), and True is considered the ‘safe’ site (69%). Ratings
for each site based on an array of such characteristics are provided
in the full Keynote report. Prospective customers sign up for online
dating services primarily to meet a wider array of people, with 70%
of prospective customers citing this as a reason. Screening dates to
see if they had the values and traits desired was cited by 63% of
prospective customers. Just 19% of prospective customers said they
were considering online dating because they were not happy with
traditional dating options.
The entire report, Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings for the Online Dating Industry, is a 100+ page examination of the online dating industry containing hundreds of additional data points and a detailed analysis of the findings. For information about purchasing the full report, visit http://www.keynote.com/syndicated.html.
Keynote Customer Experience Research
Keynote
is the leading provider of customer experience research services,
offering both syndicated and custom research examining consumer
behavior on the Web. Keynote’s research provides critical business
insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and
competitive Web strategies for a variety of vertical industries. In
addition to traditional opinion data, Keynote’s proprietary research
technology and access to a panel of 160,000+ consumers allows for
the collection of detailed qualitative and behavioral data that
inform its reports.
Keynote’s syndicated research includes two distinct types of reports: the Keynote Customer Experience (CE) Rankings, which provide competitive benchmarking and rankings of the leading Web sites in a specific industry; and Open Web Research (OWR), which takes a broader look at the customer’s experience across the entire Web when performing specific tasks, such as booking business travel.
Keynote CE (CE) Rankings are available for a number of industries including the retail, banking and credit card industries, as well as several travel verticals, including the lodging, cruise and rental car industries. The Keynote CE Rankings are the successor to the Vividence CE Rankings following Keynote’s acquisition of Vividence in September 2004.
To learn more about Keynote’s syndicated research offerings and for a list of the various vertical industry reports that are available, visit: http://www.keynote.com/solutions/cem_syndicated_research.html
About Keynote
Founded in 1995, Keynote
Systems (Nasdaq “KEYN”), The Internet Performance Authority®, is the
worldwide leader in e-business performance management services. Over
2,100 corporate IT departments and 16,000 individual subscribers
rely on Keynote’s growing range of measurement and monitoring,
service level and customer experience management services to improve
e-business performance by reducing costs, improving customer
satisfaction and increasing profitability.
Keynote is viewed as The Internet Performance Authority due to the company’s global infrastructure of over 1,600 measurement computers in more than 50 cities worldwide that capture and store on a daily basis over 40 million Internet performance measurements, frequent media citations quoting Keynote's Web performance data and analysis, the company’s market-leading Web performance indices for vertical markets and leading customer research that provides critical business insight into online customer experiences, industry trends and competitive Web strategies.
Keynote Systems, Inc. is headquartered in San Mateo, California and can be reached at http://www.keynote.com/ or by phone in the U.S. at 650-403-2400.
Keynote, The Internet Performance Authority and Perspective are registered trademarks of Keynote Systems, Inc. Other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
©2005 Keynote Systems, Inc.
Media Relations Contact:
Dan Berkowitz,
Keynote, (650) 403-3305, dberkowitz@keynote.com
Investor Relations Contact:
Dan Cahill,
Roaring PR (for Keynote), (415) 552-3999, dcahill@roaringcommunications.com
