To put it in Oracle marketing terms, I’ve been thinking about my click-through-rate and my cost-per-download. I’ve been using the same online-dating site, personals.salon.com, for three years now, with mixed results. I tried this site because Jonathan and Christine–two friends from the tech crowd at NYU–met their spouses on the site. I also fell in love with their business model: pay-per-use, or, more accurately, pay-per-contact.
Almost a year ago, the original pay-per-use company went bankrupt, and the remaining assets–including the customer base–was purchased by a competitor that adheres to the subscription model. This happened exactly one year after I moved back to San Francisco so I’ve had two years to evaluate the models.
I have noted that my response rate–that is, the ratio of women who reply to the number of initial emails I send–has gone down.
I have a theory, but I have to include two observations. First, like
in the physical world, most of the time, men contact women. Second,
women will not pay to use an online dating service if they don’t have
to.
Now, the original model meant that every initial email to someone
cost one dollar. The new model means that emails are free to those who
subscribe. As someone who had purchased a certain number of contacts
before the changeover, I could still operate under the original model,
while most of the rest of the population had to switch to the
subscription model to contact anyone at all.
So why did my response rate drop?
I think there are two strategies: craft a nice, short, personalized
message to a woman; or write a standard response and send it to as many
woman as possible. Under the pay-per-use model, the second model is
expensive. Moreover, because there is no effective time limit, you are
not under time pressure to expend the contacts you have purchased.
Under the subscription model, the second model is cheaper, and not just
because initial contacts are free, no matter how many you make. The time cost of writing customized emails is also eliminated. Most
important, because the ability to contact people is constrained by the
time limitation in the subscription, it is best to contact as many
people as possible in as short a time as possible.
So two potential theories. First, the subscription model encourages
men to spam women, making it more difficult for women to evaluate the
responses they receive, meaning my crafted emails are being ignored.
Second, the pay-per-use model limits the number of contacts a woman
receives (and thus her choices), meaning she is more amenable to meeting whatever random guy
contacts her.
I think it’s the first. Thoughts?
[Oddly enough, my follow-through rate, that is, the number of dates that progress, has been way higher
under the current scenario where most subscribe but I don’t. Can’t
figure that part out. Of course, none of this changes the reality of my
love life.]