Dating site Metrodate.com just announced that they are going to make their website absolutely free of charge.
Metrodate:
- was launched in 1998 (reached 10 year milestone)
- depended on premium membership revenue (until now)
- currently services 220 countries (focusing on metropolitan areas)
Let’s take a closer look at their press release to see why they decided to go 100% free. Let’s also take a quick glance at traffic quantity and quality to see what they have to offer consumers.
Why Change?
Why did Metrodate go from paid dating service to a free (ad supported) model?
According to the press release issued by Elaine Chan of True Communication, Inc. (which operates Metrodate):
- they made the decision after reviewing the needs of their user base
- users said they were growing accustomed to web sites being free
- they will focus on local, targeted advertising for revenue
Bradley Pliner (President of True Communication, Inc.) said:
“I want more people to have the opportunity to utilize the upgraded and redesigned Metrodate.com, and making it free was the clearly the best way to accomplish this.”
How Much Did Metrodate Cost Before Going Free?
We added Metrodate to our site on July 1st, 2008. When we checked their prices last year, they were charging a flat $29.95/month. We did not find a discount for yearly memberships.
In their press release this week, they said their site cost “about $19.95/month” so they may have lowered their prices at some point during the last six months.
Metrodate.com’s Web Stats (Past 13 Months)
Quantity of Traffic (Unique Visitors and Visits per Month):
Quality of Traffic (Avg. Time Spent and Pages Viewed per Visit):
Median and Mean for All Sites
How did Metrodate’s traffic compare to the mean and median for All Dating Sites reviewed on GiveYourHandaBreak.com?
| Dating Site / Range | Visitors | Visits | Stay/Visit | Pages/Visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source: Compete | ||||
| Metrodate.com | 59,746 | 100,265 | 11:05 | 16.7 |
| Mean (Average) | 330,947 | 1,686,766 | 10:50 | 24.6 |
| Median (Middle) | 41,880 | 152,799 | 9:45 | 19.5 |
Note: Calculations made based on the 127 dating sites listed on GiveYourHandaBreak on January 9th, 2009. All values are estimates and reflect traffic data from last month or earlier.
In terms of U.S. traffic, Metrodate’s:
- unique visitors were below average but above the median for all sites
- visits were below average and median
- average time spent per visit was better than average and above the median
- average pages viewed per visit were under the mean and median (but still respectable)
Based on the above, one can say that the quality of traffic is good. Visitors tend to stay long and view a lot of pages per visit. Quantity of traffic still needs work but should improve now that the site is free.
All values were based on data provided by Compete, a free service that triangulates multiple data sources to estimate U.S. traffic.
Thank You
We applaud Metrodate’s courage in light of the current economic climate.
Many companies buckle down, cut expenses, fall back to guaranteed revenue streams or otherwise react negatively to economic downturns. Companies without vision will slash advertising budgets and online advertising as a whole will probably shrink.
Metrodate gave up a steady revenue stream (monthly subscription fees) to try an uncertain revenue model in response to the needs of their users.
Such a big gamble at a time like this? It takes courage. It also shows faith in online advertising and responsiveness to user feedback. Hopefully, the gamble will pay off. We wish them and their users the best. More dating sites means more competition and more competition leads to better value for consumers.
We’d like to thank Bradley Pliner, Elaine Chan and everybody else at True Communication for changing to a 100% free dating site. We applaud your company’s positive move at a time when mass media fills our heads with economic doom and gloom.
Sources:
Metrodate Press Release (http://www.metrodate.com/about/pr/pr-20090105.aspx)
Web Stats by Compete Site Analytics (http://siteanalytics.compete.com/)
Internal Resources:
Metrodate.com (http://www.giveyourhandabreak.com/sites/metrodate/)
All Dating Sites (http://www.giveyourhandabreak.com/all/)
Web Statistics (http://www.giveyourhandabreak.com/web-stats/)
External Resources:
Metrodate.com Website (http://metrodate.com/)
Compete Metric Descriptions (http://www.compete.com/help/s2)
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