Stay Up to Date: Introducing the Official Match.com Blog

Hi everyone. I’m Greg Blatt, the CEO of Match, and I’m excited to kick off Match’s new blog on all things dating and romance (and knowing my utter inability to restrain myself, probably on many things beyond those topics as well).

I’m single, and after trying Match a little over a year ago I knew this was a service that could really enrich people’s lives. On that basis, I picked up from NYC and moved to Dallas, TX to run the company (think Victor Kiam (Remington Shavers) – “I liked the shaver so much I bought the company” — and Cy Sperling (Hairclub for Men) – “I’m the president, and a client”). There is no way I could put in the effort and do the job well if I hadn’t used and believed in the service.

But it wasn’t just my initial experiences that told me how effective Match could be. Match has touched the lives of lots of people I know well. First and foremost, my brother recently got engaged to a gal he met on Match (a victim of the deadly Daily 5). My friend Lew from college met his wife on Match. My friend Esther is in love with someone she met on Match. My friend Eric has had a series of monogamous relationships with people he met on Match (Match is great, but it can’t cure commitment phobia). And that’s just a fraction of the people I know, and a tiny fraction of the people I meet, whose lives have been enriched by being a Match member.

But I got tired of telling my friends and reporters that Match and online dating were effective based on my own life experiences, so we commissioned an independent third party research company to conduct a series of surveys on dating and marriage behavior in the U.S. It confirmed what we instinctively knew. Online dating is changing the face of dating, romance and marriage in America, and Match.com is leading the way.

The research reveals that of all people getting married in the U.S., approximately 1 in 6 met on an online dating site. That’s third behind work/school and friends/family, and significantly ahead of bars/clubs/social events, which is where most single people tend to focus their energy. Here are the full results of how people have met their spouses over the last three years:

1) Through Work/School 36%
2) Through Friend/Family Member 26%
3) Via Online Dating Site 17%
4) Through Bars/Clubs/Other Social Events 11%
5) Other 7%
6) Through Church/Place of Worship 4%

Additionally, 1 in 5 single people have dated someone they met on an online dating site and 1 in 5 new relationships now begin on an online dating site.

It’s amazing that something that didn’t exist 15 years ago now plays such a prominent role in the romantic landscape of America. And the survey underscores my philosophy of online dating. It is not THE way to meet someone great. It is A way to meet someone great. Don’t just rely on online dating. If your friend knows someone great for you, meet them. If you want to go out to a club with some friends and see if you meet someone great, do it. It’s just that online dating is so easy and cheap (about 5 bucks a week), and helps so many people change their lives, that you ought to do it IN ADDITION to the other things that you do. The way I see it, there are lots of ways to meet someone great, but online dating is the only way to meet someone great in your bathrobe on a Saturday morning without running the risk of having to explain yourself to the cops.

The survey also confirmed what we instinctively and anecdotally knew: Match.com is the unequivocal leader in the space. Match.com has led to more dates, more relationships and more marriages than any other site. Approximately twice as many as the next closest site over the last few years. There are so many reasons for Match’s leadership in the category that it requires its own post, so I’ll fill you in on why Match is the best in my next installment.

Keep checking us out. The Match team and I will be filling you in on interesting developments and perspectives on dating (online and off) and all other things romantic.