7 Reasons Why Match.com Fails at Online Dating
I have just finished a 3 month paid subscription on match.com - and here is my report on match.com’s service! And I have to say its not exactly a glowing report. I went on about 4 dates over this time, with ZERO connection with any of them. Why did Match.com fail at online dating? Here’s the run down:
1: Because you have to pay and become a subscriber in order to send and reply to emails, there is no guarantee that people can even reply to the emails you send them. I would guess only about 20% of the people on there are actually paying members. So that immediately reduces your chances of dating online and finding someone on there. So, you could see the person of your dreams on there, write them a wonderfully crafted email, but sadly get no response. Not because they didn’t like you, but because they aren’t a paid member, so couldn’t reply without paying $30 a month. Which leads me to my next point.
2: Yes, it costs $30 a month to use this ’service’. Fair enough its cheaper if you pay in advance (which is what I did). But that’s not exactly that cheap. PLUS they charge you more if you want to see if people have even read your email! This should be included in the basic monthly cost. And don’t forget Match.com is $30 more per month than MySpace Dating, which is free!
3: The built in email program is like something from the 90s. When you reply to emails, it doesn’t even show you the original email below that you are replying to! This makes it very hard to respond to what people have asked you, because you have to keep clicking ‘back’ to see what they said in their email. I don’t know of a single email program that doesn’t include the original email below when you hit reply. This immediately then puts you to a bad start - it doesn’t exactly inspire good free flowing conversation - something which is surely very importantly for a match-making service. Come on Match.com, this is an easy one to fix.
4: What happened to their built-in instant messenger? Years ago when I first used Match.com, they had a cool match.com instant messenger, which allowed you to chat live with other people online - great for connecting! But it’s not there anymore! Why did you take it away Match.com? When you combine this with #3 above, this really makes for bad conversation-starting. Please bring it back!
5: The people on there often lie about their photos. While this is not exactly Match.com’s fault, I increasingly found that people were using ‘outdated’ photos, which made the person look much better than when you meet them in person. A couple of women I met where ‘bigger’, and one I met looked much older than their photos. My advice? Always try and subtly ask how old someone’s photos are, and ask to get some newer ones if possible.
6: Match.com doesn’t make it easy to notify you of new matches. Fair enough, you can get email results for your saved searches. But you still have to look through all the results in the email, and hopefully notice new members occasionally - so its pretty easy to miss new matches. Match.com really should have a system to send you an email every time someone new matches your search, and email you details of JUST this new person - not everyone else that also has matched previously. That way, you see the new match easier and you can contact them immediately, and increase your chances of success.
7: Lastly, but very importantly. They fail badly at the whole ‘community’ thing - lacking options for profile personalization and ability to add friends, which is where online is going. Look at MySpace’s success - largely due to its ‘viral’ community aspects. The profile questions aren’t that bad at Match.com, and over the years they have improved the ones you have to answer. But why not make them customizable? They should give members a selection of questions that could answer. This encourages members to find questions they like and thus more likely to reveal great stuff about them. Also, users should be able to customize some elements of the look and feel of their member profile too. I guess Match.com are too concerned with their brand image to let users do this? Bad… again, look at the success of MySpace…
I would love it someone at Match.com reads this and replies to this. Help me get this in the hands of match.com by forwarding this to your friends and ‘digging’ this article using the yellow ’digg’ button above. That way hopefully someone at Match.com will come across it and hopefully we will get some answers! And make match.com a better place…
Anyway feel free to comment about your Match.com experiences too!
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Filed under: match.com by DatingDr
All you say is true. All you say might be in vain. Those guys behind match.com are making big money as long as they have customers. So connecting them will be a _lesser_ priority than keeping them as customers. They just keep the success rate high enough to stay popular. They don’t want to help people, they want to help themselves. It’s a business model and people just don’t get it. People are the victim here. Nobody’s ever gonna change that. Match.com would be the last!
I dunno. I’d agree with most of your complaints about the site, which is a horrible, horrible mess to be sure, but my experience was still a positive one. I think the problem is that online dating sites are all about critical masses of people. Since Match.com is the big dog and already has that, they don’t bother to work on anything else. The problem is that anything else besides lots of members, who are financially committed enough to be there, is the number one asset of any online dating site. Everything else is a distant second.
Is the site a horrible disaster and 10 years behind the times? Yes.
But it serves its purpose and it worked for me. I met a few really great dates, wading through a lot of junk obviously, and dated a girl for over a year from there. Eh. It may be a pile of old junk, but its a pile of old junk with women in it.