Ten Million People Have Signed Up For The Service Of Indian Matchmaking Site Bharatmatrimony
……U.S., Web matchmaking giants are eyeing fertile potential markets such as China and India. But an international match presents hurdles in business as in love: differing societal attitudes, wily competition and cultural quirks to bewilder the most sophisticated suitor. Love, it turns out, isn’t the same in every language–not even close. But it has learned along the way that its model does not always translate. On Match, users post personal profiles and photos, attracting and perusing potential mates in what resembles a colossal bar scene. While many Americans like the freedom and convenience, single women in Japan felt threatened by the lack of privacy. Plus, parts of the profiles weren’t culturally appropriate, as Match CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony learned over lunch in a Tokyo restaurant with his country manager. “He pointed to the women there and said, ‘We really don’t need to ask for hair color. We all have the same,’” says Enraght-Moony. In Scandinavia, on the other hand, the 2.2 million Web-savvy singles were long used to dating online. To differentiate itself from local competitors when it launched there in 2003, Match toned down its window-shopping aspect and played up the promise of long-term love. “The dream here is not to marry a millionaire prince,” says Johan Siwers, vice president of Northern Europe. “The dream is to live a good life in the countryside and be happy.” Match now rules the Scandinavian market, with 1.5 million members. If a country with little tradition of matchmaking can embrace a version of it online, then it follows that cultures long used to a third party’s hand in love affairs would do the same. That’s what many Western companies seem to believe anyway, judging by their expansion strategies. Match.com the leading online dating site in the U.S., began exploiting first-mover advantage through international acquisitions in 2002. Now in 35 countries, the Dallas-based company says 30% of its 1.3 million members live outside the U.S., accounting for 30% of its $350 million 2007 revenues (the bulk of its 15 million members just browse for free). Once a practice as provincial as it was personal, the art of pairing up people for marriage has become an increasingly international and technology-driven business. As young people all over the world move far from home for school and work, even those from traditionbound cultures can no longer rely solely on the resources of crafty aunties to find them suitable mates. Enter the Internet, where marriage and dating sites began to appear a decade ago and have multiplied rapidly over the past several years. In the U.S. alone, there are close to 1,000 such sites, led by Match.com eHarmony and Yahoo! Personals…….
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1704691,00.html
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