A Kiss-Off to Online Dating

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Traffic Patterns Confirm the Trend

Other sites that meld user-generated content with social networking to accomplish certain tasks can be even handier. Consider Yelp, where people write reviews of their favorite restaurants, bars, and other haunts, or Digg, where users vote and post comments on their favorite online stories. You can scope out Yelp or Digg users on their profile pages, which show pictures and list basic likes and dislikes. But you can really find out about them from the locations they Yelp about or stories they Digg. Both sites have features that even let you connect with fellow users based on shared traits. It's like a version of eHarmony you don't have to opt into. And while many online dating sites charge a fee, most new Web sites are free.

The trend away from traditional online dating shows up in traffic patterns too. According to comScore (SCOR), the number of people visiting online dating sites dropped 6% in September from a year earlier at a time when growth has soared among social networking and user-generated sites. Some of the most prominent sites suffered the biggest declines. Unique visitors to Yahoo Personals and eHarmony fell 21%, Match.com had a 16% drop, and True.com's visitors plummeted 46%. ComScore does show some names like Plentyoffish.com growing, but these are new sites with far smaller user bases. Many of them go at online dating in a new way. Plentyoffish, for example, allows you to browse profiles for free. I doubt they'll ever get to the size or valuation of a Match.com. The Web and the way people use it have just changed too much since then.

I was among the panelists at the TechCrunch40 conference. Among the startups that debuted at the conference was WooMe.com, owner of a slick, easy-to-use, video speed-dating site. It's backed by startup royalty Niklas Zennstrom, who co-founded Kazaa, Skype, and Joost. Everyone on the panel loved it except me. Smart idea; great looking site. But big business? Nah. In subsequent PR, the company has begun to emphasize that it's not just a dating site, but also a distributor of video-introduction software that can be also used to interview prospective nannies or travel companions. Smart move.

The cultural shift from online dating to social networking and its financial repercussions isn't that different from what happened with online job hunting. In the late 1990s, digital job boards gave people an easy way to find job listings, and it was revolutionary. But how many people do you know find great jobs through the classifieds, whether online or in print? In real life, the vast majority of people find jobs through friends and referrals. LinkedIn got that. And as soon as it built a large enough network of people's real-life relationships, it launched a smarter, more human way of searching for jobs and checking references. Revenues from that business alone have made LinkedIn one of the largest, fastest-growing, and most profitable Web 2.0 businesses to date (not to mention a solid initial public offering candidate for 2008).

The Web moves fast. And sorry online dating, but you just didn't keep up. In the parlance of the kids who won't use you, you got "pwned."

Sarah Lacy has been a business reporter for 10 years, most recently covering technology for BusinessWeek. Her book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, will be published by Gotham Books in May, 2008. She is also Silicon Valley host of Yahoo Finance's Tech Ticker.