Nielsen Monitor-Plus Reports Ad Spending Growth for Dating Services

NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Advertising spending for dating services, especially online services, are growing at an unprecedented rate, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, the advertising intelligence service of The Nielsen Company. Nielsen Monitor-Plus reports a dramatic increase in ad spending over the past three years.

In 2004 (January-November) total U.S. media spending was $149 million; 2005 (January-November) total spending was $310 million; for January - November 2006 total spending was $430 million. In 2006, most dating services companies spent their advertising dollars on Cable TV with $130.6 million in reported ad spending, the Internet ranks second at $127.3 million and Spot TV follows with $75.1 million.

  Media Type                    Jan 2004 -    Jan 2005 -  Jan 2006 -
                                Nov 2004      Nov 2005    Nov 2006
                                $ mil         $ mil       $ mil
  Cable TV                      $56.7         $87.8       $130.6
  Internet                      N/A           $88.9       $127.3
  Spot TV                       $43.5         $55.8       $75.1
  Spot Radio                    $9.3          $25.5       $33.1
  Network Radio                 $17.1         $17.0       $18.6
  Network TV                    $4.4          $2.7        $15.1
  National Magazine             $9.8          $19.5       $11.9
  Syndicated TV                 $0.0          $5.6        $8.7
  Local Magazine                $2.3          $2.0        $3.1
  Local Newspaper               $4.3          $3.6        $3.1
  Spanish Language TV           $0.0          $1.5        $2.1
  Outdoor                       $1.0          $0.5        $0.8
  National Newspaper            $0.4          $0.3        $0.4
  National Sunday Supplement    $0.0          $0.2        $0.2
  Grand Total                   $148.8        $310.9      $430.1

  Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus

"The dating services industry has shown tremendous growth in terms of ad spending across all media, but most especially Cable TV, Online and Local TV and Local Radio," said Brian Lane, SVP Client Strategy & Product Management for Nielsen Monitor-Plus.

Online Ad Spending

Total estimated spending on image-based online advertising for dating services was $127.3 million for Jan-November 2006. True ($52.2 million), Mate1.com ($20.4 million) and InterActiveCorp (match.com) ($16.1 million) led the top online personals advertisers in 2006. With the exception of match.com and eHarmony.com the remaining eight companies are almost exclusively using the internet for advertising.

  January-November 2006 Online Advertising Spending

  Company                                Estimated Spending
  True                                   $ 52,169,100
  Mate1.com                              $ 20,410,000
  IAC/InterActiveCorp (match.com)        $ 16,083,600
  Flingweb.com                           $  9,869,300
  MarketRange, Inc.                      $  7,275,800
  eHarmony.com                           $  5,801,400
  Yahoo! Inc                             $  5,491,500
  Chemistry.com                          $  2,845,800
  SinglesNet                             $  2,481,800
  MatchNet plc                           $  1,526,500
  Grand Total                            $127,308,000

  *Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance


  Top Advertisers

Spending for the top 10 dating services represents 96% of total spending for this industry ($290 million of the $302 million total). eHarmony.com led the way, spending $110 million in January - November 2006.

                                          Jan - Nov 2006     % change vs.
  Top 10 Advertisers                      $ mil              Jan-Nov 05

  eHarmony.com Inc.                       $110.14                 39%
  IAC/InterActiveCorp (match.com)          $66.40                 39%
  Teligence (Live Links, Tango,
   Redhot, Vibeline, Fonchat)              $42.68                 20%
  First Media Group Inc. (Quest Dating)    $24.68                149%
  Its Just Lunch Inc.                      $18.45                 75%
  Vertrue Inc. (Lavalife)                  $16.33                 15%
  Marketrange Inc. (PerfectMatch.com)       $4.19                 -8%
  Valenti Intl LLC                          $2.89                  3%
  Cupid.Com Inc.                            $2.52                 96%
  Adventures Northwest Inc.                 $1.64                124%
  Top 10 Total                            $289.92                 40%
  All Other Total                          $12.99                -17%
  Grand Total                             $302.90                 36%

  Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus


  Top Markets

New York reported $11 million spent on dating services for January - November 2006. Collectively, $58 million was spent in the top 10 markets in 2006, an increase of 30% from 2005. Nine out of the 10 markets showed double digit increases, with the exception of Washington DC. Boston had the largest increase in terms of percent, spending 73% more to find a date in 2006 than the year before.

  Market                            Jan-Nov         Jan- Nov        %
                                     2005            2006         change

  New York                           $9.1            $11.6          27%
  Los Angeles                        $6.7            $8.8           30%
  San Francisco-Oak-San Jose         $4.9            $6.7           36%
  Chicago                            $4.7            $6.3           35%
  Atlanta                            $3.6            $4.5           22%
  Dallas-Ft. Worth                   $2.8            $4.3           54%
  Washington Dc                      $3.9            $4.2            6%
  Boston                             $2.3            $4.0           73%
  Philadelphia                       $3.5            $3.8           11%
  Minneapolis-St. Paul               $2.8            $3.8           35%
  Grand Total                        $44.5           $58.0          30%

  Source: Nielsen Monitor-Plus

* Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. Nielsen//NetRatings currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above online advertising spending data does not include any house advertising activity.

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