Before venturing off into the great unknown of Plenty of Fish dating, I first want to take a look at some of the current online dating statistics for this particular site.
This first thing I want to highlight is the number of users on Plenty of Fish. By taking a look at Google trends and comparing it with the other top online dating sites, we can see that Plenty of Fish is the second most visited dating site behind Match.com.
So, because POF is the second largest online dating site, we can only assume that size of our potential dating pool will be quite significant. This is important because as we continue to experiment and refine our dating system, we are going to need to interact with a large quantity of potential dates.
Second, if we look at the registration page for Plenty of Fish, you'll notice that they cite two interesting statistics which you can view in screen shot below:
Largest Dating site in the world generating over 300,000 relationships a year, larger than all other free dating services combined.
49% of women who leave plentyoffish.com found their boyfriend here. Love really IS just a click away.
The first statistic of being the largest dating site in the world conflicts with the Google trends data, but it's difficult to say how accurate either is. One thing is for sure though, Plenty of Fish has A LOT of users!
The second statistic cited is also interesting. I'm not sure how they got this number, I'm assuming through some type of survey, but if it is true than it is quite impressive. 49% of women, almost half, find a boyfriend through Plenty of Fish. That's pretty damn good if you ask me. Although, I'd be much more impressed if the success rate for men were that high. However, for some reason this number is not shown, but I'm guessing it's much lower.
So as we can see we're not messing around with some rinky dink dating site. The pool from which to draw dates from are in the millions. Certainly enough women that we can essentially screw up several hundred times and not be concerned about our prospects for dating on Plenty of Fish.
"However, for some reason this number is not shown, but I'm guessing it's much lower."
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't know how they getthat number either. It's certainly not reliable. However ...
The ratio of men:women on POF varies from 3-5:1. Guessing is not required.
The percentage of men finding a "gf" on the site is between 10-18%.
Think about it. How much effort will men put into odds that low?
There are certainly a lot more men on the site than women and wouldn't be surprised if the ratio is more like 10:1.
ReplyDeleteWhere are you getting the 10-18% from? Is this just a guess or do you have some data that would suggest this, which I'd be curious to see. Though I would agree that the percentage is likely pretty low.
But here's the thing - despite a high male:female ratio, it's not difficult to get dates from IF you have the ability and willingness to stand out from the rest of the men on the site. Who by the way, are mostly pathetic in their attempts to get dates of of POF.
"Where are you getting the 10-18% from?"
ReplyDeleteIt's just ratios. Divide 49% by 3 and 5. Assuming women are only getting one BF each. Not always the case :-) I guess that's what s/he meant.
"But here's the thing - despite a high male:female ratio, it's not difficult to get dates from IF you have the ability and willingness to stand out from the rest of the men on the site. Who by the way, are mostly pathetic in their attempts to get dates of of POF."
I do OK, but I disagree with the quote above, in general. I bring a lot to the table, but I see a lot of decent guys getting nowhere there ... mostly based on looks/height/money. But yeah. a quite a few guys have a bad approach. I tried to help out a few buddies with profiles/email. It was pretty hard to get past average looks/height.
This is you're blog, so I'm not about to rip apart the value/use of free dating sites. It is what it is. Like it, don't like it, doesn't matter.
But i will say this. If you're a women on a free dating site waiting for the proverbial good guy with edge to line up in your email queue, then it ain't going to happen. Ya gotta go get him. That's what these guys are used to, that's what they stick with. If they can't translate that in the profiles, tough luck for them.
The 49% probably comes from database records in the delete account function which requests reason for leaving, one of which is found somebody. That doesn't mean found a boyfriend, just means met somebody, deleting account to see how it goes. Quite a few I would imagine lasts the typically 3 month honeymoon period, same as real life. So looking at it this way, 49% isn't impressive, it just misinformation sales tactics. One would hope given the male:female ratio that at least 70% of woman at least get a 3 month boyfriend.
I don't have anything against POF. It's just a potential dating site.
The ratio of single men without kids to single women without kids on POF is probably closer to 8-10:1. Endpoints super good looking and below average have different ratios I'd imagine. But average and slightly above is pretty competitive. I think this is why the first poster questioned the level of effort.
I have used POF for a couple of years and keep a hidden profile there to use if I find someone interesting while browsing once or twice a month. The reason I keep my profile hidden is because, if I do not, I am bombarded with emails from every walk of life. Most of these men should have sense enough NOT to bother with me, based upon what I am looking for as outlined clearly within my profile. I am a Christian woman seeking a Christian man...difficult on POF. I have non-Christian male friends who use the site for "flings", one-night-stands...sex, in general. They have very impressive profiles that would lead a woman to think otherwise. So, I'm very leary of most of the men on this site. I certainly do not mean to generalize. But, when you have the "inside scoop" as I do from male friends, you cannot be foolish enough to overlook that valuable info. :o) The paid upgrade is a really good idea to set apart the serious ones from the guys I have just described. I know for a fact that my player friends WILL NOT pay for an upgrade and are perfectly happy with all of the women they meet for free. The upgrade was a great idea that I hope will take off.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think that it matters little what's in your profile content. You must be in the top percent of attractive guys to actually get considered. In other words, with that 5-10:1 ratio, if you're average, not a model, don't live in the gym and worship your body, or just plain don't have that "magazine" appearance, you haven't got a shot. But on the bright side, a very very small percentage of single women use dating sites at all, so that should help.
ReplyDeleteMy ex has a number of boyfriends from pov. If that is a common practice, it wouldn't be too difficult to find dates...just not meaningful ones.
ReplyDeletean article earlier this month stated that single men without kids to single women without kids ages 24-30 active users only was 59:1 male:female
ReplyDelete