friendster

05/28/2003 12:31:00 PM
Of all the internet dating networks and sites, one is standing out as an intuitively superior model: Friendster.com. With a current base of over 250,000 users and a weekly growth rate of 20 percent, you should be watching your own inbox for an invitation from one of your friends. Because unlike the other dating sites, friendster is by invitation only, and once you build a profile, you only have access to the profiles of your friends, and friends of friends and so on up to 4 degrees of separation.

One of the biggest complaints about online dating sites is the randomness factor: you have no idea who the people are. They could be cool, but you'd have to spend a good deal of effort to get to know them and find out. These other services are the internet equivalent of meeting someone in public, like at an airport: there has been no selection process whatsoever. But when two people are introduced by a common friend or when they meet at a party or in a lecture, there is a sense of camaraderie just because they have been selected together in some way out of the public pool.

The success of an online dating site, just like the success of any service, depends on the level of sophistication that goes into planning for that subtle cost/benefit moment of choice when the consumer decides whether or not to sign on to the service. Friendster located and strategically built around the main stumbling blocks of most dating sites (and of dating new people in general), and whether or not they have the business sense to successfully transition to a pay service, the principles of their model will certainly survive on as the next evolutionary step in online dating.
Time Magazine article
Take the Friendster.com tour
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