Analysts expect the turnover of online dating companies to double after the RBC media holding launches its own dating service, LovePlanet.
Photo: Grigoriy Sobchenko
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Russians Spend $34 Mln on Online Dating
Online dating services were the biggest earners among Russian web-sites last year, analysts reported Friday. Dating web-sites gained $34 million in profits in 2006. The figure is expected to double this year.
The total turnover of online dating services grew fourfold last year, to $35 million, according to a report iKS-Consulting released on Friday. The Internet content market gained $73 million on the whole. Online games were second-biggest gainers with $30 million, music and video come next with $9 million together.
Experts at iKS-Consulting forecast this trend to remain this year. Some analysts expect the turnover of online dating companies to double after the RBC media holding launches its own dating service, LovePlanet.
The Mamba company, which cooperates with major portals Mail.Ru, Rambler and Km.Ru, is estimated to control over 85 percent of the online dating market. The firm’s chief executive Maxim Trukhin says his company’s database contains 9 million of online profiles, 4 million of which are active. Mamba is also planning to enter the Ukrainian market, Mr. Trukhin said in an interview with Kommersant.
However, those in the market expect dating services to give way to online games as the market’s number one in 2008. Later on, the crackdown on media piracy and a growing number of broadband Internet users is likely to put music and video in the lead. Russia’s Internet content market in 2010 is likely to resemble its American counterpart with music and video accounting for 28 percent of profits, online dating for 25 percent for and games for 22 percent.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 02, 2007
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