Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dating site?

Posted by irrationaljared on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @09:55AM
from the ask-hn dept.

I have an online dating site (The Matching Game - http://www.thematchinggame.com) with the following user-base numbers:

- 3,000 Daters - 60% Women - Average Age 23 - $1.27 User Acquisition Cost

I have no idea how these numbers stack up against other sites that are out there. I know the user base is small, which is why I'm asking. Need to figure out if there's any chance of making enough money to keep the site running as I scale it up.

Any insight would be very helpful.

( 6 comments | 5 points | on HN )

Re:Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dat... by nussbi on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @10:58AM (#2332269)

In my opinion, the User Acquisition Cost looks pretty high, but I can't be 100% sure as scaling is q question of monetization. I guess it all depends on how you monetize, i.e. what percentage of user become paying customers.

The men/women ratio looks promising though to make it a success!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dat... by dsl on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @01:06PM (#2332834)

As someone in the know, I have to say you are completely wrong.

At that UAC, you could turn a nice profit just upselling users to join Match.com or eHarmony.com.

Your biggest problem will be maintaining a UAC that low at any sort of scale, unless you've discovered some magic bullet which means you'll be the next PlentyOfFish.

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Re:Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dat... by irrationaljared on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @05:37PM (#2334056)

Do you have any idea what UAC you need to maintain in order to turn a profit via upselling? Doesn't have to be too specific, just looking for ballpark numbers.

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Re:Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dat... by irrationaljared on Wednesday March 16, 2011 @11:24AM (#2332369)

A small percentage of people pay for priority matching, but I also just launched it. I have a few other ideas on how to monetize that I haven't put in place yet.

Right now it's definitely losing money, but I'm hoping that dynamic will change at scale (a dating site is more useful when there are more people on it).

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Re:Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dat... by nickfromseattle on Thursday March 17, 2011 @02:31AM (#2335281)

How did you get 3,000 people to sign up and post their pictures?

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Re:Ask HN: Are these user-acquisition numbers good for a dat... by irrationaljared on Thursday March 17, 2011 @04:46PM (#2338000)

Mostly we've been advertising through adwords, Urban Dictionary, and stumbleupon.

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