The Deception of Match.com

Online dating sites have become quite popular over the past ten years.  I’ve tried Match.com primarily, and that is all I will comment on here.

There is a bit of deception in the way Match.com is designed, and it appears to be deliberate.  I’m surprised there hasn’t been a reaction by the user community or consumer protection organizations.

Although Match.com may rightfully claim to have millions of members, how many are real members – with full use of the service.  One can log in and search through millions of “profiles”, many of which have photos.  If a membership is purchased, one can even send an email to his/her target of desire.  But, chances are the email doesn’t make it to its intended destination.

How can that be?  Well, only paying members can read and respond to emails sent to them through Match.com.  When viewing a profile, there is no indication of whether the individual is a paying member.  So, one may shoot cupid’s arrow at another Match.com user, but chances are it will miss.  According to this article, only one in twenty members of dating sites are paying members.  If that is true, on average one would have to send twenty emails just to have the possibility of a response.

Is this deliberate?  I can only hypothesis, but my guess is that it is.  It is a way for Match.com to attract members.  Specifically, it is a way for Match.com to turn non-paying members to paying members.

Does this cross the line?  I believe it does.

Are members aware of the difference between a non-paying membership and a paying membership?  The site explicitly describes the benefits of a paid membership.  It becomes obvious after joining anyway.  The site won’t let you send or read emails, until you pay to become a member.  There is no real deception here.

The deception is for paying members who attempt to contact others through the site.  There is no way to know if the member being written to will be able to receive the email and respond. Why write an email if there is little chance of a response.  So paying members may be wasting much of there time, all in the effort of having Match.com attract paying customers.  Some may call this a good business model. I call it deception.

Addressing this problem is quite simple.  When displaying profiles, Match.com shows whether the user has the capability to respond.  It would only be fair to its paying members.