Match.com Buys Dating Site OkCupid

As Valentine's Day looms over the horizon, two online dating sites have struck up a romance--with each other.

IAC's online dating branch, Match.com, has bought OkCupid for $50 million in cash.

While the 16-year-old Match.com has about 1.8 million subscribers, OkCupid is a free site that generates its primary revenue from advertising. OkCupid is just one of a few sites that Match.com has snatched up, though certainly the most high-profile. Match.com also purchased People Media and Singlesnet in the past few years.

Launched in 2004, OkCupid also runs a blog called OkTrends analyzing the data on the site that draws about a million people monthly.

"OkCupid has been a real innovator in our space, and the dating environment they've created has struck a chord with a younger demographic. " said Greg Blatt, CEO of IAC, in a press release. "We know that many people who start out on advertising-based sites ultimately develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community, which subscription sites like Match.com."

Blatt seems to believe that OkCupid has the potential to usher younger, more casual users into more formalized, extensive online dating as it exists on Match.com, in what Blatt calls "a seamless evolution of the online dating experience" accomplished "without ever having to leave our portfolio of sites."

Comments

[Robert Shay]

06:22 PM on 02/04/2011

Another case of the Internet Worm eating itself. Let the smell of money permeate the air and the Worm starts feeding.

[DatingMrYuck]

05:23 PM on 02/03/2011

I'm glad OkCupid is using it's witty and hip appeal to finally take the stigma out of online dating. As it should be.

http://www.datingmryuck.com/blog/

[Achim Heger]

10:30 AM on 02/03/2011

OkCupid seem to remove all mocking refrences to match.com.

They also changed the "joke" question in the "Dating Persona Test": If you have any STD’s, please go here. -> plentyoffish.com that used to be match.com I wonder if that was necessary, or they simply wanted to avoid potential trouble.

On the other hand it was clear that they would sell, that is how they did it in the past,
build up a solid user base with good ideas and then the site. They sites usually get demolished in time and people move on the the next project. I would wonder if it would be any different here.

[Achim Heger]

10:59 AM on 02/03/2011

Mainly I didn't see much development (features/GUI) on OkCupid recently. Some parts are only half-heartedly implemented like chat and forums. They wanted to go for different languages and then they pulled back. I wonder about the future of OKC and how match.com should become attractive for OKC users.
Also the spirit of a site/company changes, when the founders leave. So far they seem to stay and I'm curious about future development.

[wowme]

09:40 PM on 02/02/2011

I am sure they will breakup soon. I mean the people who uses those sites.

[Ian Forrester]

08:42 PM on 02/02/2011

As a long time user of OKcupid.com I'm frankly shocked that they would sell out like this, but what really gets me is them trying to hide all those great blog posts from trends.okcupid.com about online dating. They should be a shamed and to voice my opinion I've started adding "NOMATCH" to my Okcupid profile pictures. They need to understand that this isn't right and I really like to see some Dataportability features added soon, so I and others can move else where.

More of my protest can be found here - cubicgarden.com/?p=10577

[Striderxdj]

12:10 PM on 02/02/2011

I wonder how soon til they kill all free dating sites for ripoff paid sites with old outdated profiles and spam bots.

[Moarku]

11:30 AM on 02/02/2011

I'm guessing the first thing they'll do is delete that blog post that blasts all pay sites.

[SurrealSequences]

11:43 AM on 02/02/2011

Moarku, I'm guessing you are correct.