Since the dawn of the Internet, many have used it’s dating services to look for love. That’s not going too well…I mean for online dating services like Zoosk.
Zoosk goes down in employment and leadership. Last month, it’s founders announced they opted to become board members instead of CEOs. Now, one of their spokespersons announce they’ve laid off 15% of their work force this past week. A statement said they will cut in other areas in order to sustain cost. Lately, most revenue was brought in by membership fees. But that’s hardly covered their advertising. The market isn’t helping either. They’re delaying their IPO plan well into 2015. But the biggest threat is their competition, particularly Tinder. In the last several months, while Zoosk, Ok Cupid Dating, and others have seen market shares plummet, Tinder’s share has skyrocketed, up to almost 90%. One chart took Zoosk, Match.com, Ok Cupid Dating, Hinge and Tinder. By November 2014, of those five, Tinder had 80-some percent of the market. Zoosk had under five percent among those five.
But I’d like to be personal for a moment. Yes, among these five, Tinder is blowing the competition out of the water. But there has been so many ugly stories about online dating, such as people claiming to be something they’re not. Now I know there has been many success stories of online matches. But I’ve heard some horror stories as well. I’m not that old fashioned, and I think the Internet/21st century technology can be used for doing wonderful things. Meeting your soul mate shouldn’t be one of them. What ever happen to 1st dates, meeting people at socials, or dare I say it because I don’t want to encourage too many people, even the bar scene? Human interaction has linked men and women together for millennium. Don’t you think human interaction will work for our generation too?