August 22, 2007

E-Harmony claims to produce 90 45 marriages a day.

So how good are your chances? Consider that it has 17 million users. About 0.2% a year. But some of those people aren't really trying, and most of them are not as easy to get along with as you.

CORRECTED: I read it as 90 marriages a day, but it says 90 members. Really, the success rate is pathetic!

38 comments:

Telecomedian said...

I've tried Match.com and Yahoo Personals in the past. I had a whole lot of nothing from both sites in 2007, but had good luck with Match back in 2002.

I'm curious about eHarmony, but not enough to go through that entrance exam or to reach for the credit card.

Maybe that'll be my gift from myself to myself in 2008.

Brent said...

I'm looking forward to seeing what form E-Harmony will take when it hits the Muslim Middle East.

Name suggestions?

hdhouse said...

so about 30,000 "perfect matches" which to me still means about 17,000,000 minus a few who are no potential significant other in the e-harmony universe.

marklewin said...

The press release said 90 members a day get married. That works out to 45 marriages a day. Also, the 1% statistic seems high. My cursory calculations suggest the rate is closer to .225% or or roughly 2.25 of every 1000 members gets hitched every year.

Hoosier Daddy said...

I'm looking forward to seeing what form E-Harmony will take when it hits the Muslim Middle East.

Well at the present I think the best bet would be:

E-cousins or Martyrs for Love

Heck if they could just get to Victorian Era romance it would be an improvement.

Ann Althouse said...

Mindsteps, you're right. It says members, not marriages, so I've doubled the number.

Ann Althouse said...

will correct

halojones-fan said...

Meh. From what I've seen there are two kinds of women who use online dating services:

*Cheaters, and
*Fat chicks.

Either she's looking for a one-night stand, or she's "desparate seeking same".

vnjagvet said...

Another version of the old "lonely hearts" club.

With a lot of advertising bucks behind it.

Suzy said...

I've tried e-harmony. If you're a man, you get all sorts of potential matches sent your way. If you're a woman, you get hardly any. Which tells me that there are way more women as members than men. In my first week on e-harmony, the "webmaster" sent three potential matches to me, and none of them responded to my overtures. (On match.com, I get many hits.) A male friend of mine signed up for e-harmony and was sent at least five potential matches every day. So if you're a man, by all means sign up; if you're a woman, don't bother.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Does anyone else agree that the guy who hawks the E-Harmony commercial looks like Don Knotts?

Guacamommy said...

I met my fiance on Match (we marry in October), my dearest friend met her current beau (and future hubby) on eHarmony, and 2 other friends met their spouses online, one on Match, and one on Yahoo Personals. It can work if you don't expect too much from it. It's dating, just like any other dating (except you might need to develop a slightly thicker skin in order to withstand a great deal more rejection - hey, if you talk to more people, you're going to get rejected more often).

We all agreed that online dating allowed us to meet people we wouldn't otherwise meet in the course of our day-to-day lives (we live in a huge city), and dating is really a numbers game. We were (and are) all working full time, raising kids, attending school and family functions, tending to our homes inside and out, and that left precious little time to get out there and pound the dating pavement.

eHarmony's marriage rate? Eh, maybe not so important. It can be a fun and interesting dating experience, so maybe that's enough bang-for-your-buck.

Like most things, you get out of it what you put into it. Be honest, be yourself, have fun with it, don't live and die by it, and eventually, you'll probably meet someone you like (and perhaps even love).

KCFleming said...

I wonder if there are any eShotgun weddings?

Hoosier Daddy said...

Pogo said I wonder if there are any eShotgun weddings?

Dunno but I heard about one called:

wait for it.......

E-Lope

But seriously, try the veal. I'm here all week.

KCFleming said...

I'm waiting for SIMs adherents to do an entire virtual marriage online, and never meet at all. What would your real life spouse do if you were cheating on her, secretly married to a fictional character, with eKids and all?

In SIMs, are people sometimes found floating face-down in the eRiver?

Brent said...

. . . anybody here from out of town?

Brent said...

If you want success, then truth in labeling is called for:

For Women: E- Want Romance

For Men: E- No Commitment*

*which has a successful subsidiary: E- Why Buy The Cow If You Can Milk It For Free

John Stodder said...

When the moon so long has been gazing down
On the wayward ways of this wayward town.
That her smile becomes a smirk,
I go to work.

Love for sale,
Appetising young love for sale.
Love that's fresh and still unspoiled,
Love that's only slightly soiled,
Love for sale.
Who will buy?
Who would like to sample my supply?
Who's prepared to pay the price,
For a trip to paradise?
Love for sale
Let the poets pipe of love
in their childish way,
I know every type of love
Better far than they.
If you want the thrill of love,
I've been through the mill of love;
Old love, new love
Every love but true love
Love for sale.

Appetising young love for sale.
If you want to buy my wares.
Follow me and climb the stairs
Love for sale.
Love for sale.



--Cole Porter

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
marklewin said...

Hoosier Daddy said...
Does anyone else agree that the guy who hawks the E-Harmony commercial looks like Don Knotts?


I think the guy is straight out of a Hollywood typecasting call for a psychologist. Neil Clark Warren looks, sounds, dresses, and is named the part.

John Stodder said...

Does e-Harmony have some kind of special cachet with the religious right? Maybe it's just an impression I get because I hear Hugh Hewitt and his ilk flogging them on the radio.

hdhouse said...

Pogo...eshotgunweddings is pretty good. ... now if we can have eonenightstands...or my personal fav "eMoan.org" we can have a business.

hdhouse said...

John Stodder said...
Does e-Harmony have ... because I hear Hugh Hewitt and his ilk flogging them on the radio."

Hugh Hewitt flogs for $. If you had a visual stream you would see "contact me at e-mediawhoreforbucks.duhhh"

reader_iam said...

Me, I'm enjoying the use of the phrase "enough bang-for-your-buck" above in connection with dating services.

Sorry. Couldn't resist. I'm implying nothing about anything (or anyone) other than the state of my own mind.

Michael T said...

I met my wife through match.com. (I also dated women the "usual" way while meeting women on the Internet.)

I was tired of dating random women who looked good on the surface but were completely incompatible with me. All the women I met through match.com, with one horrendous exception, were closer matches than those I met in the "real" world.

Recommended.

hdhouse said...

oh susan...we are a match. i'm sure of it.

Eva said...

Yep, here's another testimonial. Met my husband on match 3 years ago. We married on 7/7/07. My best friend met her husband around the same time and married him about 6 months later. Someone that I work with is on e-harmony and is riding it like a wet hog: juggling about 6 guys. I agree with guacamomma, it's a numbers game. If you meet enough people, you'll meet someone you like. No different than the "real" world.

Unknown said...

Let me clear up some misconceptions for everybody. I did eHarmony for about a year. I probably met about twenty different women in person over the course of the year until I met my wife through the site. If you really take the time and are honest about yourself and what you are looking for it works.
Niel Clark Warren, the founder of eHarmony is a Christian and has been known in Christian circles for quite awhile. He has written books and given talks about building marriages for years. His goal in founding eHarmony was to improve the maritial landscape in America by joining people who were truly compatible.
eHarmony is not a Chrisitan site, but it is marketed in such a way that Chistians know what it is about. However, there is no requirement of any religious affiliation, in fact when you fill out you questionniare, there are a number of questions about your religious beliefs, how important they are to you, and how important they are in a partner. so if you say you have no religious beliefs and prefer your partner not, eHarmony has no problem matching little athiests together.

lee david said...

I calculate that that rate, if they stopped taking new members, it would take 517 years + to marry them all off.

Methadras said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Methadras said...

17 million members with 90 members per day getting married. 90 members * 365 days in a year = 21,900 people per year getting married as a result of E-Harmony. 21,900 married people out of the 17 million members = pretty crappy percentages, but in this case I'd still say that 21,900 getting married per year from this site alone is a good thing.

Eli Blake said...

I met my wife in Church.

Some advantages to that:

1. She's sober the first time you talk to her.

2. You know right away what she looks like.

3. There are already some specific standards the Church has in regard to dating, which reduces the guesswork and corresponding stress on each of you in terms of what to expect.

4. Since you are going to the same church, that's one big issue that won't be a problem.

5. When you do disagree, you can agree on where/who to ask for help in resolving it, if necessary.

Halo-Jones fan:

What's wrong with 'fat chicks?' A lot of men (myself included) would much rather date a fat woman (I won't say what my wife weighs here, except to say that it's more than I do) than a woman who looks like she just escaped from a refugee camp someplace.

Unknown said...

Most don't realize this, but Pogo hooked up with Fen through We-Be-Dedeluded-Together.com

Brent said...

Eli Blake,

Great comment. Just quoted you in a business newsletter I edit. Thanks.

My father's advice to my sister growin' up:

"What you catch 'em with is what you got to keep 'em with."

Mortimer Brezny said...

I have a better chance of going to dinner with Ann than the average eharmony user has of getting married to another eharmonite.

Unknown said...

e-harmony is an anti-gay bigoted website that is the darling of the religious right. They ban gay people from their site.

Good for competitors such as chemistry.com for creating advertisements that play on e-harmony's bigotry.

64 said...

If there's one business that would tend to separate straights and gays, it's a dating site. Unless the gay men are looking for a wife. Then I guess they should be allowed on.

independentvoter said...

I've heard that E-harmony charges several hundred dollars to join. Maybe it's worth it, maybe not. A lot of people may not have access to a club scene or be comfortable with a club scene. I personally cannot afford that kind of entry fee. I use my political forum to make a lot of good friends though. I guess that will have to be enough for now. :p lol

-stuart