eHarmony Blog.com

Entrepreneurship newsmagazine SmartCompany.com.au interviewed eHarmony VP-International Sean Cornwell, who is based on the UK, last May 26. Here are the highlights, including our commentary:

• 650,000 registrants, of which 123,000 came in the first quarter of 2010. [According to Quantcast, only 66,000 people visit eHarmony Australia more than once a month.]
• Cornwell claims that his site is “proven in the science and in the psychology literature to really predict successful long-term relationships.” [He is dreaming. eHarmony has proven nothing yet in the scientific and psychology community.]
• eHarmony Australia is “very deliberate feeding people between five and a maximum of seven compatible matches a day”. [See, EH is purposely limiting our daily matches.]
• On member demographics: “it’s people in their 30s, 40s, 50s that tend to use our service. Often people who have been married before, divorced or even have had children from a previous relationship.”
• He says that going a little while without getting any matches is “in Australia, unlikely.” [In Australia's major cities, yes. In the Australian countrysides, no. Outside the 30-50 age bracket, moreso.]
• They redid some of their fundamental research for the Australian market and found that, compared to the US or the UK, Aussie couples are happiest with their marriages. “They tend to put in more effort, they tend to do things together more often than their counterparts in the UK and the US and they just seem to kind of get on better as a whole.”
• On Social networking helping or hindering online dating: First, the functionality isn’t there in Facebook. Second, you’ve have to do it overtly. Third, online dating through Facebook is for the 25 to 30 age group and is “much more around the casual end of the spectrum rather than serious long-term relationships.”

[eHarmony is not an Australian company and have no staff or offices in your country. They also have no local toll-free number. For job applications, court subpoenas, account cancellations, letter bombs, air strikes and what not, see our Business Addresses article.]