Online dater claims the popular site fabricates 90 percent of its subscribers.
By Kait Smith — Written on Aug 11, 2011
The powers that be behind Match.com make some hefty claims to entice would-be subscribers to lay down $40 a month for membership. They say 20,000 singles join the online dating community every day, and that hundreds of thousands of people find love on the site each year.
But one unsatisfied subscriber says these claims are false.
Jesse Kaposi of Novato, Calif., has filed a lawsuit in Federal Court alleging that Match.com knowingly deceives potential subscribers in order to entice them to pay the $40 monthly fee. He argues that more than 90 percent of the potential dates on Match are canceled subscribers, duplicates, phantoms or people who never actually subscribes. Will Match.com's Purchase Of OKCupid Change Online Dating?
According to the lawsuit, only 1.4 million of Match's potential dates are actual subscribers, which means they are able to send messages to other subscribers. Considering that Match claims to have 15 million members, it turns out that less than 10 percent of them pay for the service and enjoy the full benefits of subscription, which includes message sending. Those who do not pay have no access to the message feature, but paying members who attempt to contact these potential dates have no way of knowing that — so they get disappointed. The 12 Online Dating Mistakes You Keep Making Over And Over
Additionally, Kaposi claims that the website tells members when a potential match is "online now" or has been "active within one hour" even when the user is fake, or hasn't logged on in months.
Overall, the beef is that only a small fraction of the people on Match is reachable, and those in charge of the site knowingly conceal this information and cite misleading numbers when promoting the community to potential new members.
Match.com has yet to respond to these allegations.
What do you think of the lawsuit? Do you think online dating sites like Match.com "cook" their numbers?