'New York' Updates Dating, Launches New Personals Site

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After years as a mainstay of the New York personals market, back when print was pretty much the only option for the romantic and randy, New York has joined forces with an online dating site, HowAboutWe.com, to update its personals business for the 21st century.

The new branded dating site, nymag.howaboutwe.com, allows people to create an account for free and choose dating partners on the basis of the proposed dates themselves, only opting for dates they actually might enjoy. For example: "How about we get ice cream at Chelsea Market and walk along the High Line?"

According to New York, this approach recommends itself for visitors to a Web site devoted to urban goings-on, replete with listings for restaurants, movies, cultural events, outdoor recreation, shopping and the like.

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The Web site will feature NYmag.com's navigation elements at the top of each page, allowing it to keep traffic inside the magazine Web site. The launch coincides with New York's "Summer Issue," which includes a plethora of date ideas. It will also be promoted via email as well as online and print display ads.

While the activity-oriented approach sets How About We apart from most online dating sites, it's worth noting that the basic sales pitch is the same, relying heavily on physical appearance.

The home page for the New York dating site focuses on a handful of attractive photos paired with "how about we" suggestions, apparently selected from among the site's actual registered users.

Online dating has become a big business over the last decade.

In 2010, eHarmony's revenues supposedly topped $250 million, while Match/Chemistry took in $345 million. Like How About We, most of these companies' revenues are derived from premium accounts and customers paying for "credits" to communicate with each other.

However, analysts have pointed to How About We's potential for additional revenues from advertising or promotional agreements with dating venues -- possibly through a tie-up with Foursquare or another location-based social network.

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