24/7 Embraces Dating/Personals Segment

Online dating is a hot and growing segment, attracting large numbers of young, single, and recurring unique visitors--an audience that advertisers are eager to reach.

Ad server 24/7 Real Media on Tuesday said that it signed Date.com to its Open AdStream local ad serving solution. The site boasts more than 2 million members worldwide.

According to the Online Publishers Association and comScore Networks, U.S. consumer spending for online content in the Personals/Dating category soared to $214.3 million in the first half of 2003. Personals/Dating also earned the top spot as the largest paid content category. Overall, online spending in the dating/personals segment represents 30 percent of the $748 million spent on online content in the first half of last year. The personals segment attracted more than 34 million unique visitors in April 2004, according to comScore.

Date.com's audience is comprised of 1,146,000 unique visitors who averaged 9.1 minutes per day in May 2004. In particular, Date.com highlighted audience segmentation as one of the significant factors behind its decision to use 24/7. Behavioral targeting enables a site like Date.com to sell and deliver advertising to specific market segments.

"Open AdStream's advanced targeting capabilities have made it possible for us to customize advertising packages that meet the specific needs of our advertisers," noted Kris Covino, Date.com's chief technology officer, in a statement.

Robert Tas, 24/7 Real Media's senior vice president of technology solutions, noted that Open AdStream "will scale to accommodate the continued growth" of companies in a fast-growing market like online dating services. Open AdStream enables publishers to control individual ad deliveries, generate reports, and monitor ad placement across their respective Web properties. Weather.com, FoxNews, and Forbes.com are among 24/7's Open AdStream clients.

After all the dating, there is marriage. At least that's what visitors to TheKnot.com encounter. The Knot is an online wedding site with an audience of more than 2 million unique visitors, according to the company. Interestingly, comScore notes that visitors to TheKnot.com rate in the top 10 percent in average minutes per day among all sites; visitors spend an average of 13 minutes per day on the site.

Next story loading loading..