• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 3, 2003

Electronics, Education, Careers and Dating Are Go-To Locations

The growing online community of visitors to personals sites consists of Internet savvy adults, using the Web in every way imaginable.

Top 10 Online Computers & Consumer Electronics Destinations
Brand or Channel	Unique Audience (000)	Active Reach (%)
Microsoft	37,927	36.88
Real	8,927	8.68
Gator Network	5,179	5.04
WhenU	5,014	4.88
KaZaA	4,596	4.47
Apple	4,525	4.4
SmileyCentral.com	3,268	3.18
Dell	2,953	2.87
McAfee	2,904	2.82
Hewlett Packard	2,686	2.61
Top 10 Online Education & Careers Destinations
Brand or Channel	Unique Audience (000)	Active Reach (%)
Monster	2,560	2.49
Yahoo! HotJobs	1,176	1.14
CareerBuilder	968	0.94
AOL Research & Learn	858	0.83
U.S. Dept. of Education	518	0.5
Merriam-Webster	489	0.48
SparkNotes.com	450	0.44
collegeboard.com	378	0.37
University of Phoenix	365	0.35
umich.edu	363	0.35

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Week ending Nov. 16, 2003
US, Home

And, Nielsen//NetRatinga reports that surfers are flocking to Friendster, a member community destination. "Users of online dating services take full advantage of all the resources the web offers," said Lauren Taub, Internet analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.

The most recent Nielsen//NetRatings NetView figures reveal that since the tracking of Friendster began in June 2003, the site's unique audience is up 74 percent. However, the top personals sites remain strong players with traffic more than three times that of Friendster.

Friendster attracted 927,000 visitors from home and work in October 2003. Those logging on to Friendster spent an average of one hour and fifty-one minutes on the site in October. By comparison, the top personals site, Yahoo! Personals attracted 4.9 million surfers from home and work in October 2003. Each surfer spent an average of 35 minutes during the month on Yahoo! Personals. Following closely was Match garnering 3.9 million Internet users who spent more than 55 minutes on the site in October. The third most popular site was AmericanSingles attracting 3.7 million individuals during the same period. Rounding out the top five destinations was MSN Dating & Personals and Netscape Love & Personals, drawing 1.9 million and 1.5 million home and work visitors, respectively.

"The Internet has become a widely popular forum for dating, becoming big business, as evidenced by the significant increase of online ads for dating sites in the past few years," said Taub. "Increased advertising, the relaxing of many stigmas and an expanding tech savvy population are all contributing factors to the continued success of online dating sites."

This report uncovered the online habits of those surfers logging on to dating sites and found that 84 percent of visitors to dating services are online five or more times a week. Those using an online dating site access the Internet to send online invitations, search for homes and apartments, download MP3s, look for restaurants and participate in fantasy sports leagues. Online dating sites are keen to understand the habits of users to maximize reach of online ad campaigns.

Finally, according to Nielsen//NetRatings @Plan Fall 2003, divorcees are more than three times as likely to use a dating site than the average Internet user and singles are more than twice as likely to do the same.