Match Information, Statistics, Facts and History

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Facts Summary for Match

Owner:: Match Group Inc. (which is owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC))
Headquarters:: Dallas, Texas, United States
Business Started:: 1995
Brands & Partnerships:: Yahoo
Employees:: 598 [2018 #5]
Main Service Areas:: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, International
Service Available Via:: Website, iOS and Android
Number of Languages:: 15 with the website and 8 with the app [2019 #1]

Match History Summary

Match.com was founded by Gary Kremen and Peng T. Ong in 1993 and went live early in 1995. Thanks to the dating service being profiled in Wired magazine in the same year, Match.com soon became a popular destination on the internet for singles. In 1999 Match.com was purchased by IAC (InterActiveCorp) and in 2014 was moved to Match Group a company created by IAC for their dating brands.

Match.com always has been a paid subscription service. It is free to create a profile and search but you must pay a subscription fee to communicate with other members. Match.com embraced mobile phones early and had launched matchMobile, a website for mobile phones in 2008. By 2009 Match.com had dedicated dating apps for the iPhone and Palm Pre phones. Dating apps for Android and Blackberry launched in 2010 (apps only exist now for Android and iPhone) and at this point it was estimated that Match.com had 35% of the online dating market. 2010 continued to be a big year for Match.com as they inked a deal and became the exclusive provider of their dating service for Yahoo! (who opted to close their existing service).

Match.com early on expand internationally. They quickly developed separate dating services for the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. By 2018 Match.com operated in over 24 countries and is available in 8 different languages.

Match.com was also one of the first dating services to offer a guarantee. In 2006 they launched the Make Love Happen Guarantee which offers 6 months of additional service if the member did not find a special someone in their first 6 months. This guarantee is still available today.

Late in 2018 Match did a major update to both their dating apps and website with a redesigned user interface and color pallet. Some features like Match Stories was also removed.

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Match Facts By Year

2023

General Information
- Match has launched a new feature called 72 Hours, aiming to get people off the app and into a real-life date by creating a time-limited online event. [1]
- Match has dissolved it's partnership with Garbo so will not be offering background checks until a new partner is found. [2]

References

2022

General Information
- Match has partnered with Candace Bushnell, the best-selling author who inspired the Sex and the City series, to help its members find love during dating’s high season. Through the first 2 weeks of January, Candace is overseeing matches for the “Expert Picks” feature. [1]
- Match subscriptions now include two free background checks on matches. The checks are provided by the security service Garbo which also provides this feature on other Match Group dating services. [2]
- Match has released their annual Singles in America study. [3]

References

2021

General Information
- Match is beta testing and plans to release the feature soon called “Matched By Us”. It provides recommendations like a matchmaking service based on more in-depth questions the users are prompted to answer. [1]
- Match's development team is also testing “human curation” of matches. [1]
- A new anti-ghosting feature offers prompts to nudge users when a conversation is about to expire because it’s been dormant. The feature allows users to unmatch, sending a more direct signal that they aren’t interested and providing more clarity to their matches. [1]
- Match will be offering soon a live human matchmaking service called Expert Picks to users for $4.99 per week. 50 dating coaches have been hired and trained. They will be selecting two matches per week for participating users. [2]
- Match has released the results for the 11th Singles In America Study. [3]

References

2020

General Information
- Match will be getting several new safety features this year. This includes a panic button for users to be used in emergencies, photo verification for profiles, the ability to detects inappropriate messages sent by users, and an updated in-app Safety Center. [1]
- The Match Guarantee was discontinued on April 4th, 2019. 6 month subscriptions purchased before that have one more chance to use the guarantee. [2]
- Match is the recipient of the 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Editor's Top Pick Paid Award. [3]
- Match is the recipient of the 2020 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Bronze Award. [4]
- Match adds a new feature called Date Check-In. It is a communication tool that allows users to keep selected friends and family members informed while they’re on a date. [5]
- Match plans to add 1 on 1 video chatting soon. [6]
- The Match App has added a new video chat feature called "Vibe Check". [7]
- The Match App has added a new communication feature called "Dates". It allows users to share their social distancing practices and what they feel comfortable with from video chats to meeting in person. [8]
- 66% of Match users have wrongly assumed another match’s interest level. [8]
- For a date, 96.5% of Match members are open to meeting in person, and 91% are open to wearing a mask on the date. On a date 92% of men are open to a hug hello, while only 71% of women are. [8]
- Match releases the 10th annual Singles in America study. It covers the past year in dating including the pandemic and video dating. [9]
- 50% of users who used video date feature fell in love. [9]
- 68% of users used video date to determine if they wanted to meet the person in real life. [9]
- Match now allows users to communicate for free with "Best Recommendations" matches without the need to subscribe. [10]
- Match has added a couple of new features including Conversation Starters and Virtual Events. [10]

References

2019

General Information
- Match dating apps are available in 25 countries and 8 languages. [1]
- Match UK launches the “Love With No Filter” campaign which is an initiative to champion a more honest view of the world of dating and relationships. [2]
- Match releases a major update to their dating apps and website which includes a new color scheme and user interface. A number of features like Match Stories was also removed. [3]
- Match is the recipient of the 2019 Dating Sites Reviews Editor's Top Pick Paid Award. [5]
- A new feature for Match called AskMatch, aims to help users navigate online dating by making a team of dedicated dating coaches available for one-on-one phone sessions. [7]
- Match releases the 9th annual Singles in America study which takes a special look at the #MeToo movement. [8]
- Biological Anthropologist Dr. Helen Fisher is Chief Science Advisor to Match. [8]
- In 1994, co-founder Gary Kremen used a $2,500 loan to create Match.com. [9]
- The origin story Of Match.com is set to become a TV series based on the book "The Players Ball" for TBS. [9]
- Match.com uses industry tools and AI that block 96% of bots and fake accounts from their service within a day. [11]
- Match catches 85% of potentially fraudulent accounts within the first four hours of their creation, often before the profiles are active on the site. [11]
Members
- 80% of members access match from their dating apps and 20% use the match.com website. [1]
- Match members age break down: 28% are 54 to 74, 36% are 39 to 53, and 31% are 24 to 38. [1]
- 91% of Match members have attended college. [1]
- 44% of Match members are single parents. [1]
- Income and "Want Kids" are the most important search criteria of Match members but they are also the criteria that are most often broken. [1]
- Match predicts a 69% increase in new singles signing on to the app on Sunday, January 6th, and that over 1.5 million messages will be sent. [4]
Finances
- Of all the dating apps in the App Store, Match earned the 3rd most revenue in quarter 1 of 2019 (it did not place in the top ten for Google Play). [6]
Legal
- The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it is suing Match.com for using fake notifications to trick users into paying for subscriptions. [10]
- Match responds to the FTC regarding the allegations and states that the FTC has misrepresented internal emails and relied on cherry-picked data to make outrageous claims. [11]

References

2018

General Information
- Match expects to see 42% increase in members, 50 million messages sent, and 1 million dates between Dec 26, 2017 and Feb 14, 2018. [1]
- Sunday January 7th, 2018 is predicted to be the busiest day for Match (specifically 8:55pm EST). [1]
- Match introduces First Date What Ifs, a skill designed to turn Alexa into a digital wingman. They quickly pulled it to consider improvements when users expressed concern over its flippant answers. [2]
- Match is the recipient of the Gold 2018 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award. [3]
- Match is working on more female friendly features to be introduced later in 2018. [4]
- According to LinkedIn, Match.com has 598 employees. This has remained steady over the last few years. [5]
- A bug has enabled an unknown number of deleted Match profiles, some from over 10 years ago. All revived accounts will be deleted when a new privacy policy gets rolled out. [6]
- Match Group said that a new privacy policy will roll out in the next few months to comply with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). [6]
- Lara Chatbot by Match UK: [7]
  - Match Lara Facebook chatbot can now speak to Match users through Android smartphones and smartwatches, Google Home smart speakers, and laptops equipped with Google Assistant.
  - Lara has driven a 30% increase in visitors to Match’s landing page in Europe and has also increased paid subscriptions.
  - Engineers continue to optimise Laura's vocabulary to make it more colloquial, and to improve her understanding and recommendations.
- Match (UK only) has added a new feature called the Super Match Badge which allows women to award men who check off all parts of Match’s profile and behavior requirements. The purpose of the badge is for women to immediately identify great candidates who they might want to meet. [8]
- Data from a Research Now survey in 2018 shows 1.6 million people in the UK met their partner on Match. [8]

References

2017

General Information
- Match is the recipient of 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Editor's Top Pick Over All Award. [1]
- Match is the recipient of the Gold 2016 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award. [2]
- Missed Connections is a new location-based feature for the Match dating app that allows users to see other members they have crossed paths with in real life. [3]
- Match UK launches Facebook Messenger chatbot named Laura that will help members find matches through a conversation. Expected soon to come to other countries. [4]
- Match has launched a new feature called Bucket List on their dating app that allows users to make their own list and compare it with others. [5]
- Match is launching a real-life bucket list event series this summer with over 600 events across the United States. [5]
- A new video feature called Match Stories is being launched for the Match app. It allows users to incorporate video and images into a 60-second story. [6]
Members
- Match Group’s market share is estimated to be 25.7%. No other competitor comes close to Match Group of sites (which includes Match, Tinder, POF, OkCupid, etc..). [7]
- Match Group which includes Match.com has 74% of the total unique monthly visitors to the top six online dating websites. [7]

References

2016

General Information
- Match.com predicts that Sunday, January 3, at 8:52 pm EST is when the most users in all of 2016 will be logging on to their site. [1]
- Match usually sees a 60 percent leap in new members signing up between December 25 and February 14. 50 million messages are also sent during this time frame. [1]
- Match is the recipient of the Gold 2015 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award. [2]
Members
- 38% of Match members said they’d had a relationship that began on the site that lasted longer than 1 month. The highest for any dating service in the study. [3]
- 33% of Match users reported having relationships that lasted longer than 6 months. [3]

References

2015

General Information
- The most common term used in a Match.com profile is "Travel" with over 1 million instances. [1]
- "Down to earth" is used 232 thousand times by members of Match.com in their profiles and is the most common phrase. [1]
- Match.com is the recipient of Dating Sites Reviews Editor's Top Pick - Dating App Award. [2]
- Match.com is the recipient of Dating Sites Reviews Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award. [3]
- Match is the recipient of the Gold 2014 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award. [4]
- The busiest day for Match.com tends to be January 4th. The busiest time of that day is around 7:52 PM CST. [5]
- Match.com will be 20 years old in 2015. [6]
- Match.com helped create 517,000 relationships. 92,000 marriages, and 1 million babies. [6]
- There is roughly a 109 percent increase in the number of people who use only the Match.com app to log in to their account every month. [7]
- Match has launched a wearable app for the Apple Watch. [8]
- Usernames have been removed from Match.com profiles. You will now login with your email address and be identified by your actual name. [10]
- Guys named Mike (61%), Dave (60%) and Steve (59%) are the most likely to get messaged by a woman on Match, while men are more likely to contact Sarah (62%), Michelle (60%), and Lisa (59%). [10]
- Match.com's users are the most likely to talk about them on Facebook. More than 9,000 messages were posted to Match's wall between January and October. [11]
Members
- The average age of men who join during the busy season is 35. [5]
- During the busy season this year Match saw an increase of certain groups joining. Some of these groups include Single Parents (up 45%), Singles who work in Education (up 46%), Curvy Single Women (up 50%), and Singles Quitting Smoking (up 45%). [5]
- The biggest user group at Match.com is the age range of 25-44. [6]
- Members sent more than 415 million emails last year. [6]
- The Match Group (all of IAC's dating sites) claims to have 59 million users which 4.7 million pay for the dating service. [12]
Finances
- Match.com is part of a IAC subsidiary called The Match Group. The Match Group plans to file for an IPO soon. [9]
- Match Group filed for an IPO of common stock with U.S. regulators on October 16 with an offering amount of $100 million. Their ticker symbol will be "MTCH" on NASDAQ. [12]
- After acquiring POF, the Match Group portfolio of dating services (including Match.com) now has over 59 million monthly active users and 4.7 million paying users. [13]

References

2014

General Information
- IAC plans to spin it's dating site holdings into a separate company called Match Group in 2014. [2]
- 50% of all communication for Match.com US is sent from mobile devices. [3]
- Match.com teamed up with Major League Baseball to create team fan pages so singles can connect. [4]
- The dating app Match 3.0 was released for the iPhone with a brand new interface. New features include Mixer and Stream. [5]
- MatchMade Scholarship contest is announced. It is a $50,000 program open to kids of parents who met on Match. [6]
- According to Match.com over one million babies have been born because of matches that were generated by their service. [6]
- Match.com partners with Three Day Rule to offer facial recognition matching. It will cost $5,000 for a 6 month membership. [8]
- Match.com partners with American Mensa to provide daters with high IQs matches. [9]
- Match.com Dating apps will soon be compatible with Android Wearables. [9]
- The group of sites owned by IAC (Match.com, OkCupid, How About We, ...) have 30 million active members which 3.4 million are paying subscribers. [10]
Members
- In 2010, only 8% of North American users accessed Match.com products via mobile. In 2014, it's 81%. [11]
- On average women upload 3.6 photos and men upload 2.8 photos. Lesbian women and Gay men on average upload 2.3 photos. [12]
- Miami Match.com subscribers sent the most messages but New York logged in the most. [12]
- 4.8 million photos were added to Match.com in 2014. [12]
Legal
- Match.com is being sued by a Florida mom because of fake profiles using her photo. [1]
Finances
- Match.com is running 14 different TV ads this year. So far they have spent $71 million on airing these advertisements. [7]

References

2013

General Information
- Match.com was the top most searched paid dating site in 2012 according to Google Zeitgeist. [1]
- Match.com Stir events held more than 1,600 events where 150,000 people attended. [2]
- Stir Events are held in over 80 cities in the United States. [2]
- Match.com won our Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award for 2012. [3]
- Match.com won the Gold Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award for 2012. [5]
- Match.com won our Editor's Top Pick - Over All Award for 2012. [6]
- Matching members is done first by hard filters (age, location, etc.), then by dealbreakers (smoking, children, etc.), and finally an analysis done by the matching algorithm (which take interests, etc. into account). [7]
- Match.com Stir events (May 2012 - July, 2013) held more than 2,850 events where 225,000 people attended. [10]
- Match has added more games to their Stir Events. These games are 1 to 5 minutes long. [10]
- Stir events are now being held in Canada as of August, 2013. The first events are located in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton. [11]
- Match.com was the most searched online dating site in 2013 on Google. Chemistry.com came in second place. [12]
Members
- January 2nd is Match.com's busiest day of the year with 55% increase in new members. [4]
- The week after Valentines Day sees a 20% increase in new members when compared to previous weeks. [4]
- Match.com Age Ranages:18-29=25%, 30-49=48.5%, 50+=26.5%. [6]
- 74% of Match members have a college education. [6]
- 45.3% of Match.com members have children. 23.6% of members are living with their children. [6]
- Martha Stewart's dating profile received 20,000 page views in the first few days on Match.com. [8]
- From the hit TV show True Blood, star Deborah Ann Woll found love on Match.com back in 2007 before her big break. [9]

References

2012

General Information
- Match.com introduces The Stir which is a service that will host free and paid events for members all over the United States. These events are designed to match similar people together. [1]
- matchTalk is renamed to matchPhone. [1]

References

Match.com Takes Singles Offline to Meet

2011

General Information
- Match.com introduces a new feature called DateSpark to select markets. [1]

References

Match.com Introduces DateSpark

2010

General Information
- Match.com launches a Dating App for the Blackberry and confirms one is on the way for Android. [1]
- Mobile dating members grew 250 percent from 2008 to 2009. [2]
- The Match.com dating App for Android mobile phones is now available to download for free on the Google Android Market. [3]
- Match.com partners with Australia's Yahoo!7 and New Zealand's Yahoo!Xtra to become the exclusive provider of online dating for both websites. [4]
- Match.com counted for 30 percent of all marriages of people who met on dating sites. [5]
- 35 percent of Match.com members had a relationship of 3 months or more. [5]
- Match.com launches an official company blog featuring posts from the CEO, GM, Dr. Helen Fisher and Whitney Casey. [6]
- Match.com partners with Yahoo! Personals to create Match.com on Yahoo. They are now the official dating site of Yahoo. [7]
- Glamour Magazine and Match.com enter a partnership deal for 2 years to create Glamour Matchmaker. [8]
- Match.com.au launched in April 2002 after Match.com took over Soulmates Technology. [9]
- On Match.com Australia over 80,000 profiles are viewed everyday and over 16,000 communication messages get sent (= 6.5 million a year). [9]
- matchMobile usage has doubled in the last 6 months (May-Oct) thanks to the new mobile dating applications (iPhone, Android, etc.). [14]
- Match.com launches a dating app specifically for the Apple iPad on November 12th, 2010. [15]
Finances
- It is estimated that in 2010, Match.com holds over 35% of the dating market. [11]
Matching System
- Match.com employs a team of 8 statisticians to create mathematical matching formulas for their dating site. [2]
- Matching is based on profile information as well as user activity. [2]
Members
- 67% of Australian singles on Match.com have never been married. 59% are looking for a non-smoker and 90% are okay with someone who drinks. [9]
- 39% of males are single Dads. Single Dads have a 46% better success rate than men without children. [10]
- 44% of single Fathers are between 35 and 45. 30% are between 45 and 55. [10]
- 6% of Match.com members are 60 years old or older and 22% are 50 years old or older. [12]
- For June and July, Match.com members sent 33% more winks and emails than last year (the best in their 15 year history). [13]
- At Match.com, memberships of those aged 50-65 has increased 89% in the last five years. [16]
- 71% of members 50+ at Match.com are divorced and 11% are widowed. [16]
- For the last 5 years, from December to the end of February, Match.com membership enrolment increases by an average of 23 percent. [17]

References

2009

General Information
- On February 19th, Greg Blatt was named Chief Executive Officer of Match.com. [1]
- Spent $45 million on TV ads in first 3 quarters of 2008. This makes Match.com the second highest spender in the dating industry. [4]
- Now accepts payment by Paypal. [5]
- Launches a iPhone dating application for the U.S. and Canada. Includes location based searching. [8]
- Launches a Palm Pre dating application for the United States. Includes location based searching. [9]
- In the first 3 months of 2009, Match grew by 20%. [11]
- For matchTalk phone service, Match.com uses JaJah VoIP Calling. [12]
- Match.com spent about £6m on advertising in the United Kingdom in 2008 (TV, Internet, Radio and Print). [15]
Members
- Match.com UK memberships grew 26% in January (compared to previous year). Overall traffic grew 17%. [3]
- In February Match.com UK saw more than 1 million visitors. [6]
- On average a member views 30 pages per day and spends 60 minutes per month on Match.com. [1]
- Over 132 million winks and 56 million first emails are sent out every year. [11]
- On average 12 couples (or 24 members) get married or engaged every day. [11]
- 52% of Match.com members are female and 48% are male with 48% falling into the 25 to 44 age range. [11]
- It appears to look like Match.com had 2.8 million total subscribers last year (the wording of the document seems to suggest this fact). [11]
- Every day 1,000 members leave Match.com because they found someone. [14]
- 17% of women and 16% of men on Match.com are 50 or older. [16]
- We estimate that Match.com European Operation had 291,000 paid subscribers in quarter 2 2009. [13]
Legal
- Match.com is sued by Sean McGinn for $5 million. He alleges Match.com deceives members by not showing which ones have paid or not in the search results. May turn into a class action suit. [10]
Finances
- Sold 100% of European Operations to Meetic. [2]
  - For the deal IAC received a 27 percent share in Meetic and a 5 million euro note. Additional terms have not been released.
  - Match.com will go from having operations in 40 countries down to 24.
  - IAC completes the transaction with Meetic on June 5th, 2009. [7]
- It appears that about 13% of Match.com's revenue came from their European Operations. [13]

References

2008

Interesting Facts
- Site redesigned and the Daily 5 and Smart Search features added (December). [1]
- 400 members let Match.com know about an engagement or marriage every month. [2]
- More than 86 million searches are conducted on Match.com each month in the United States. [3]
- More than 1 Billion emails and 1 Billion winks have been sent through Match.com. [4]
  - 735,000 winks are sent worldwide everyday. [5]
- (2008-12-05) Match.com International launched their personality test. [6]
  - The personality test is identical to the one from Chemistry. [6]
  - The test is currently free, but there will eventually be a charge for it. [6]
  - (2008-12-28) Since launch, more than 1.3 million people have completed it. [7]
Members
- 20 Million active members. I believe an active member is someone who has used their membership within a year but I could not find a link to back this point up. [6]
  - Update - Conflicting information found. This number could be 15 million as per parent company (IAC) information. They define members as registered users and paying subscribers. [3]
- More than 60,000 new people register on Match.com every day. [3]
  - Update #1 - Conflicting information found. This number could be 25,000 [8]
  - Update #2 - (2008-12-03) Match.com homepage (for North America) is advertising that 20,000 people join everyday. Maybe the 60,000 mentioned above is for Match.com International? [1]
  - Update #3 - (2008-12-22) Match.com's fact sheet at IAC is now reporting 71,000 new member registrations everyday. [9]
- More than 100 million people have joined Match.com since 2000. [3]
- Match.com China has more than 8 million registered members since launch (2006). [10]

References

2007

Finances
- A total of $145.5 million spent on Advertising in 2007. [1]

References

How Much did Dating Sites Spend on Ads in 2007?

2006

General Information
- Match.com China (cn.Match.com) launches. [1]
- Match.com offers a guarantee called the "Make Love Happen" which gives members 6 months free if they have not met someone special in the first 6 months of their existing subscription. [4]
Finances
- Match.com International saw a loss of £2.19m ($3.4 million US). [2]
Members
- 25% increase in subscribers over 2005. [3]

References

2005

General Information
- Number of employees is 275. [1]

References

Hoovers

2004

General Information
- First dating site to run TV commercials. [1]
Members
- Over 42 million registered members since 1995, a Guinness World Records holder. [2]

References

2001

General Information
- Launched their United Kingdom dating site. [1]

References

We learn a bit more about Match.com

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