Online dating is bigger than porn – People want Contact more than Content

Facebook has over 400 million members and growing. Why?

Now it is clear that people are finding that online is THE PLACE to find a mate. Average time on site 22 minutes! Average age is 48. Customer spend on average $239 a year. The industry is worth over a $1.0 billion a year. Why?

What this says to me is that:

• People are alone and cut off – they want to find safe ways of connecting
• What we want is social contact more than content
• If you have content, then you have to wrap contact around it - a Jane Austen Book Club will do it – As Hugh says make it into a Social Object
• Your content becomes a Trust builder- Is this why so many personal ads say “I am an NPR listener”? It could just as well say “I am a Tea Bagger” – still tells others who you are

Contact – real human contact is what people want. The proof is in the sex statistic – 1/3 of women have sex on the first date – why? I think because the online dating algorithms work – both feel that they are indexed a match and the barriers go down

And your online social strategy is based on what ideas?