With the influence of the Internet growing by leaps and bounds over the last decade, it’s no wonder why the world of romance and relationships hasn’t been spared from the shift of offline, to online. After all, people are always trying to find new and easy ways to meet romantic partners or just friends and acquaintances, be it for personal pleasure, or business.
It goes without saying that meeting someone new in the old days was a lot tougher. You had the option of either meeting a man, or woman, at work, or through mutual friends. To some extent, that’s still the way things work today. But with the advent of online dating sites and social networks, the process of “hooking up” has become faster, not to mention easier, than ever.
Although social networking and online dating pretty much have the same core business model, they still have some notable differences despite the fact that many of them go hand in hand (e.g. using Facebook account to log in to a dating site and syncing posts).
Here are some key differences:
• Obviously, online dating site users want to date. The sites themselves are designed towards that single goal. This isn’t necessarily the case with social networking sites likeFacebook and Twitter.
• Social networks allow users to create their own social experience. Online dating siteson the other hand, are designed to be make matches between individuals deemed compatible.
• Online dating users are much more willing to pay to use a dating site. In fact, it is estimated that Americans are going to spend over $1.7 billion on online dating servicesin 2013.
• The demographic targets for online dating sites are more specific, with singles being the main target. The most successful sites pair users according to race, religion and sexual orientation. Twenty of the most popular online dating services include Christian Mingle, Manhunt (a site for homosexual men), Asian People Meet, ChristianCafeand Amigos (geared towards Latinos).
• The number of online dating site users (estimated at around 40 million in the United States) pales in comparison to the number of users in social networking sites.Facebook alone has 149.4 million users in the U.S. Likewise, social networking andonline dating sites have a number of similarities. Social networks are very similar toonline dating sites in the sense that users are required to create member profiles which serve as the avenue for them to meet and interact with fellow users. Most social networks require users to provide a bit of information about themselves, just like online dating sites. This includes their name, gender, age, interests and a photo of themselves.
In today's environment of technology, it's common for single people to maintain various profiles across multiple social platforms. Dating applications, such as Social Connect, have definitely aligned the two social concepts of online dating and social networking.
Author Bio : The above article was provided by Matt Fuller. Matt works with variousonline dating sites and provides online dating tips for singles.
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