DatingDirect.com enjoys 10,000 Valentine's Day membership boost

by Joe Lepper, Brand Republic 31-Mar-06, 15:00

LONDON - Online dating agency DatingDirect.com notched up 10,000 new members on Valentine's Day alone after recent promotional efforts, according to latest figures.

Internet research and analysis firm ComScore Europe figures show that DatingDirect.com also performed well throughout February, a key month for the dating agency sector, signing up 150,000 new members during the month including the Valentine's Day surge.

The latest figures rank DatingDirect.com as the most visited online dating site, with 1m unique users a month, accounting for 11% of the sector.

They also show a surge in interest for the sector as a whole, with a 30% increase in unique users from 7,254,000 in December to 9,495,000 in February.

Darren Richards, CEO and founder of DatingDirect.com, said: "Online dating has never been more successful and is a clear indicator that singletons have faith in the fact that true love really can be found online."

Meanwhile, DatingDirect.com has announced details of a £1m link-up with Chrysalis Radio to sponsor the evening show across its Heart network.

The deal will run for the next 12 months and covers all three Heart stations: Heart 106.2 in London; 100.7 Heart FM in the West Midlands; and Heart 106 in the East Midlands. This will include bespoke programming, including a feature called Love Links, which prompts listeners to visit the online dating agency's site. The show runs between 7pm and 10pm from Sunday to Thursday.

Richards said: "It will build greater awareness of DatingDirect.com and give us the opportunity to reach out to even more singletons and further build our database across the regions. The strength of the Heart brand and of course the name itself make it the ideal partner for DatingDirect.com."

The choice of the evening show was as it was felt this was the key time when people were most receptive to messages about meeting new people.

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