How to Launch Your Dating Service
The paradigm of relationships has already changed. A friend of mine from Google told me dating was the easiest and the most gainful niche to launch a new business on the Internet. Andrey from Badoo shares this point of view, too. Let’s discover market whys and hows together!
Why to Launch
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2017, the median age at first marriage had reached its highest point on record: 29.5 years for men and 27.4 years for women (1). For the most part, people today view online dating positively. About six-in-ten (59%) say it is a good way to meet people, and 47% agree that it is easier than other ways of meeting.
Mashable considered online dating as basically the best thing that ever happened to introverts in the era of Introvert Revolution (2). Digital love is a new black (3). It is a very hot and interesting market for everybody who would like to feel himself as a digital entrepreneur. That is an investment grade market for newbie-entrepreneurs, in accordance to CB Insights (4).
The survey by Statista in January 2018 revealed that 12% of 18–29-year-olds admit to being in a relationship with a partner or spouse that they met online (5). Dating services in the US was a $3 billion business per year in 2018, growing since the previous year. Around 15% of US adults, or 50 million Americans, say that they have or continue to use dating services.
Market Landscape
CB Insights rounded up to 50+ dating services and applications:
Each app has its own competitive advantage or spin on the dating game: With its monthly subscription fee, Match.com attracts people willing to put their money where their mouth is. Bumble uses a similar format to Tinder, but with a twist: only women can send the first message, meant to cut down on “sleazy” messaging from men. The League is an elite dating app focused on ambitious pros (5).
Lots of people feel themselves lonely, especially all over emerging markets. Between 2013 and 2015, online dating usage has tripled among those between the ages of 18 and 24. With that, in the Matchmaking segment, the number of users is expected to amount to 141.1m by 2023. The average revenue per user (ARPU) here amounts to US$17.24 in 2018. With a market volume of US$1.5B, most revenue is generated in the United States.
Business Challenges
There are lots of challenges faced by founders:
- Lack of cash (29%)
- Poor product (17%)
- Business model (17%)
— Development of such a high-load infrastructure takes lots of time and money. With this idea in mind, it is reasonable to deploy a dating app with a powerful framework and pay more attention to business model, marketing positioning, and cash generation — much important things to do.
As far as we can see, I would like to highlight these options:
1. Download and deploy the YouDate — Dating Script by hauntd
It is described as a dating script powered by PHP Yii 2.0. There are lots of core features and possibilities, from profiles, messaging, matchmaking to gifts. It is easy to install. Thanks to the developer, there is a comprehensive manual. It is considered to launch applications both for iOS and Android.
2. Find and hire a freelancer using Upwork, Freelancer, Guru, Toptal
As the gig economy has now composed of 60 million workers, ever bigger slice of the American workforce, it has become usual for entrepreneurs and corporate giants to hire remote workforce in a fast and reliable way. The total addressable market for the global Gig economy is $1.5 trillion (6).
Fortune 500 companies are increasingly shifting noncore jobs, such as marketing, human resources and procurement, to gig workers in order to focus on the things they do best, like manufacture products or sell services (7). You post a job and describe your project. There are 5 important hacks.
To cut a long story short you should:
- Encourage transparency
- Hold regular meetings
- Organize your work
- Use a time tracking tool
- Aim to create a strong company culture
Well, not as easy as it seemed, right? The advantage is a precise list of features that can be developed exactly based on your requirements.
Summary
The dating market is full of interesting business opportunities. This month, Bumble announced the launch of Bumble Brew — a café in New York City’s Soho neighbourhood that will transform into a wine bar at night. It will serve as a meeting space for users of this mobile app, with food and wine.
Before any product development, you’d better to compose and verify your value proposition by launching a landing page. “…like any other business initiative, a product launch takes time and careful planning — rushing to market without having your ducks in a row is a recipe for disaster” (7).
Take a look at services to verify it quickly:
As a rule of thumb, there are a few simple heuristics to consider:
- Make Sure It Hasn’t Been Done Before
- Know What You Don’t Know
- Know Your Competition and Be Different
- Launch Your Simple Landing Page
- Reach Your Audience and Discuss!
- Keep Testing Your Ideas Every Week
- Start Development with Option 1 or 2
Wish you all the best of luck. Love what you do and do what you love!
