According to DowntoEarth's Privacy Policy, this new, free entrant is "part of the IAC/InterActiveCorp family of businesses." IAC, of course, acquired Match.com in 1999, and is also behind Match.com's spin-off site Chemistry.com. Despite its success with paid dating, then, IAC is testing the waters with a free model.
Markus Frind, CEO of rival free dating site (and startup anomaly) Plentyoffish.com, somewhat self-servingly claims the move is a victory for free dating sites. He writes: "Downtoearth is headed up by Jacob Solotaroff, the former Director of Product Management and Member Integrity at Match.com...It looks like the project was started back in June 2008," and "It looks like match.com realizes they are losing marketshare fast and paid sites don’t really have a future."
Despite his obvious bias, Frind may have a point: the incredibly low cost of providing a dating service makes it difficult to justify payment for the basic level of service. Which leads us to ask: Are paid dating sites a thing of the past? If you are paying for Match.com, does the new free alternative appeal to you, or are you happy paying for the more established service?
Let us know what you think in the comments.
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