Why Women Flock to Niche Dating Sites
March 30, 2007 by gayla
Filed under Relationships
According to those playing closer attention to online dating sites and the ratios in a recent article which appeared a while back in the NYTimes – the male/female ratio is apparently close to evenly split. However, an in depth look at the more niche dating sites yielded quite varying results. In fact, many of the niche dating sites investigated were coming in with around 80% of their member base being female.
I have a theory on why this is…Though I could be wrong, I was once eyeball deep in one of those niche sites and truly believe it has to do more with the fact that women are more self conscious.
Women tend to recognize their ‘faults’ more and will purposely seek out those with similar ‘faults’ in order to find support and establish a comfort zone of sorts.
Just to play with an example here — I’ve got a close friend that many tease and call “the cat lady” because she has several pet cats. And since ‘man’s best friend’ is typically the dog, many people naturally assume that most men are not cat people. So it makes more sense that my friend explore a niche dating site to seek out only those men who are cat people too. Right?
Niche dating sites are a great way to avoid having uncomfortable talks, sticky situations and to even spare hurt feelings. Many women [and men] who are self conscious about their weight may flock to the BBW dating sites, those with sexually transmitted infections can flock to dating sites that allow them to avoid having to disclose very personal information and those with certain living situations can find those who are more compatible. It just makes sense to cut to the chase and get down to business with only the pool of likely prospects.
Tags: dating, niche dating, online personals
It sounds very logical your hypothosis, but you will have to let all us men know which niche dating websites have the 80/20 split.
Not sure that even with an STI or STD I would consider visiting a dating website though, or is that just me?
We men have our faults identified for us by woman. It seems that woman want respect but are not willing to respect the feelings of us men. So I can understand why some men would want to join niche websites also
Martin
I’ve always preferred niche sites, not because I’m self-conscious or insecure, but because the quality of the men on niche sites is MUCH higher. Match.com, Yahoo and the like seem to attract a much higher proportion of playas, hounds, and just plain jerks — it seems to me that the major sites are where guys go when they’re just booty-hunting.
Anyway, I had a much better feeling — and much better experiences — on several niche sites.
I can’t agree more with “City Squirrel”. About 26 percent of dating sites are niche sites. People are more likely to join niche dating sites to meet others that have common interestes with them. I have tried Yahoo and Match but finally choosed millionairematch.com. Many people are finding more and more difficulties to find dates on larger or general dating sites.
that is absolutely right sam…