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Ask HN: Online Dating ROI?

9 points by bbobb ↗ HN
I just recently graduated from college, and my two partners and I have been working out of our apartment on our internet startup. When I graduated, I was single and I thought I would just bide my time, devote myself entirely to the company in the near term and hopefully meet someone down the line. I guess I underestimated how isolating it can be to work all day out of your apartment and I've been thinking about using online dating sites, but like many other entrepreneurs, I want to invest my time wisely.

I recently read in Super Crunchers, that eHarmony only creates marriages for approximately 1% of it's user base in a given year. Granted, I'm not necessarily interested in getting married just yet, but that statistic says to me that anyone who values their time shouldn't invest it in online dating (to speak nothing of the dollar cost of paid sites).

Does anyone on hacker news know the relative return on investment for other online dating services (Match.com, okaycupid.com, etc)? Ideally I'd like to get not just the rate of user marriages but also dating outcomes (where users end up dating someone they found online, say, for more than a month). And as a corollary, it might be interesting to know what dating methods work best. For instance, the most efficient investment of my time might be to join a local book club.

3 comments

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yummyfajitas
It can work, but it's not for everyone.

I know a short bald guy in his 50's who currently has three 30-ish girlfriends (russian golddiggers, I think) he found over the internet. However, I think his entire life (outside of work) consists of chasing women over the internet. He also claims great skill at writing seductive emails. The internet works for weird people seeking compatibly weird wives also.

On the other hand, for me, internet == FAIL. It would have filtered out 2 of my 3 serious relationships.

Last, you are probably too young for internet dating to work. I get the impression it's more for the 30+ crowd who didn't get tied down when they were younger.

physcab
I've been interested in this as well. I've joined Plenty Of Fish because it was free and I have nothing to lose (except my dignity maybe?).

I'm a big proponent for joining things outside your comfort zone. Take an internship, join Habitat for Humanity, get into a running club, or do some type of intramural sport...whatever you're interested in. Dating takes a lot of work, and if you expect something to come to you, it probably won't happen. You kinda have to throw yourself into the situation to see some success.

omnivore
It's difficult everywhere for different reasons. If you're in a city, the 'quality' folks aren't generally using it and you'll waste a lot of time, money and silly dates to get anywhere. Especially now. Six years ago, you could make great friends in Boston on craigslist, for instance. Now? Enjoy that healthy dose of spam.

Out west, where it's not as populated or where it's long distances to find new folks, you can successfully find weird people or who have diverse (so there, considered strange) interests, but you're simply going to still waste a lot of time.