• February 15, 2008

The market share of U.S. visits to the dating category increased 26% for the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, compared to the same week in 2007, Hitwise reports.

The most-visited Web site within the dating category for last week was Singlesnet.com, which received 14% of all the U.S. visits to the category.

Other top Dating Web sites for last week included Plentyoffish.com, which received 11% of the U.S. visits--followed by eHarmony.com, which received 6% of visits, as did TRUE.com. Plentyoffish.com posted the largest year-over-year traffic growth among the top five Web sites within the Dating category, with an 87% increase in U.S. visits.

"Each year we see people trying to find love online after the holidays and meet someone new in time for Valentine's Day," said Heather Dougherty, research director, Hitwise. "This January brought a higher influx of traffic than past years and the users are spending more time interacting on the dating Web sites looking for potential mates."

The average visit time for the Dating category during the week ending Feb. 9, 2008 was 17 minutes and 7 seconds--up from 14 minutes and 5 seconds for the same week during the previous year. For the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, the average time spent on Plentyoffish.com led among the top five dating Web sites with users spending an average of 21 minutes and 31 seconds on the Web site. The average visit time on the free dating site increased 31% from the week ending Feb. 10, 2007.

For the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, True.com received 26% of its share of traffic from new visitors. Among the top five dating Web sites by market share, Yahoo Personals and Singlesnet followed--with 15% and 13%, respectively--of new traffic that has not visited during the previous month.

--Tanya Irwin