I used it a little back in 2014, and again in 2021. The second time around, it was very different.
I don't know of any dating companies that focus on matching people versus optimizing for revenue.
Meeting the right person should be worth a lot, and we should be happy to pay thousands for that.
Of course the profit depends on the user statistics too: I'm not sure what the economic term for profit thresholds for power law masses versus targeting - where say lots of users with a low profits per user (say advertising) beats reasonable profits per user (say kagle).
An insulin shot at the right moment can be of unlimited value to the consumer. SaaS salesmen try to capture the entire value add a tool gives a user, but this seems to kill companies as the price a competitor can undercut by is huge (so much that the original price seems exploitative).
Basically any marketing based on the "value to me" I'm sceptical of.
An approach with transparency, that shows "this is what delivering an actually good product costs", might be possible...
E-Harmony seemed like it was going for the pay a bit more, one time, and you'll take who you get and be done. But I don't know if that worked for them.
We're happy to pay much more than thousands to marry the right person.
Meeting the right person doesn't do anything for you; why would you pay thousands for it?
The next week, he's back again, and this time he's complaining. "O Lord, didn't you hear my prayer last week? I'll lose everything I hold dear unless I win the lottery."
The third week, he comes back to the synagogue, and this time he's desperate. "O Lord, this is the third time I've prayed to you to let me win the lottery! I ask and I plead and still you don't help me!"
Suddenly a booming voice sounds from heaven. "Benny, Benny, be reasonable. Meet me half way. Buy a lottery ticket!""
I would do the same, but I don't know how to make it feasible without sounding terrible.
I do often let people know I'm open to matchmaking if they know any women my age.
I imagine that would need to be quite personalized and high touch, but it would be an appealing contrast to standard dating sites, which have interests diametrically opposed to those of their users: a user who makes a long-term match will stop paying the membership fee, so the site owner has no real incentive to help the user do anything but churn.
And yes, there are probably small mom-and-pop types of businesses that just want to keep their status quo.
I believe I've heard a few years ago, that at least one country operates a dating service for their citizens. I can't find it now, but apparently the Tokyo Metropolitan Government just launched their own dating app, "TOKYO Enmusubi"
Different words, same problem.
