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MARCH 10, 2003 NEWS ANALYSIS In the Emode for Love By collecting and parsing data on human interactions, this Web site claims to offer the lovelorn a better chance of finding romance
Until 2003, San Francisco-based Emode remained a bit player in e-commerce, selling its tests paired with detailed analysis for $14.95 a pop and by taking advertising on the site. But in January, Currier unveiled Emode's secret weapon and key business initiative -- an online dating service that he claims is science-based and far more accurate than any of its competitors on the Web. Unlike other dating sites, Emode offers specific guidance by rating the compatibility potential of each possible couple on a percentage scale of 1 to 100. "CLEANER, SIMPLER". The ratings come from special algorithms built by Emode's statisticians and psychologists to interpret human compatibility studies and apply them to online matchmaking. The screens take into account shared preferences for such things as music and activities that might indicate superficial compatibility. But they also go much deeper and try to pair people based on inherent traits, such as level of patience, mood volatility, and life goals. While people using the service are hardly guaranteed to meet the perfect match, Currier believes their chances are much better by using his process. "It takes a really distracted and imprecise, scary process and makes it cleaner, simpler, deeper, and more entertaining," says Currier. Other companies are following suit. In early March, the leading online dating company, Match.com, rolled out an online attraction-profiling tool built by WeAttract, a PhD-heavy Dallas startup that likewise aims to apply scientific principles to hooking up. And Match.com CEO Tim Sullivan says his site will start offering science-based matchmaking services similar to Emode's within a few months, after enough people take the test to work the bugs out and build the larger information pool needed to optimize results. "We're fascinated by the opportunity to leverage real science and real research to provide a better mousetrap," says Sullivan. HUGE DATA POOL. If these approaches prove effective, scientific matchmaking could further supercharge the already scorching online dating business. In the wake of the dot-com bust, online dating has proven one of the most popular paid Internet services. People are increasingly comfortable with the Internet, and any stigma attached to looking for a partner on the Web is diminishing. Revenues for the top 17 online dating sites climbed to $386 million in 2002, from $100 million in 2001. Currier expects the industry will maintain its triple-digit growth rate for the foreseeable future. Match.com has 750,000 subscribers who pay a monthly fee of $24.95 to gain the right to message other Match.com members, but 3 million people have registered at the site. What's more, the study of human psychology might get a huge boost as researchers gain access to previously unattainable sample sizes. "When you get data from 25 million people from across the world, you have a diverse sample. You can clarify and better understand a lot about human personality that up until this point we have never been able to do," says Randy Colvin, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University in Boston and a consultant to Emode. CYBER-FAD? Currier says Emode is gaining 5,000 new subscribers to its matchmaking service every day. That's about half the daily sign-ups tallied by Match.com. But Emode has spent nothing on marketing and relies solely on word of mouth. Both Match.com and Yahoo! Personals, the No. 2 player, spend tens of millions on marketing each year. Currier claims that 8% to 12% of the new registrants to Emode's matchmaking business end up paying either to send messages and e-mail to other members, or for more detailed analyses of their test results and profiles. He declines to estimate revenues for 2003, but he's optimistic that Emode will turn profitable in the near future. Critics wonder whether this is just a new wrinkle on the "computer-matched" dating fad that flared then fizzled in the 1960s and 1970s. Colvin and Stephen Kossyln, a professor of psychology at Harvard and also a consultant to Emode, say the new versions are in fact a far better analytic tool due to the much larger sample sizes, which ensure higher levels of accuracy. Further, they add that the new breed of online tests fall in the same category as respected psychological tests used by big corporations and health-care institutions rather than mere pop-psychology quizzes. Should science prove up to the task, lonely hearts will have a new and welcome path of least resistance to quickly finding a compatible significant other. And the study of human interaction could benefit in the process.  By Alex Salkever, Technology editor for BusinessWeek Online Edited by Patricia O'Connell Get BusinessWeek directly on your desktop with our RSS feeds.  Add BusinessWeek news to your Web site with our headline feed. Click to buy an e-print or reprint of a BusinessWeek or BusinessWeek Online story or video. To subscribe online to BusinessWeek magazine, please click here. Learn more, go to the BusinessWeekOnline home page  | | MARCH [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
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