The market share of U.S. visits to the Dating category increased 26 percent for the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, compared to the same week in 2007, according to Hitwise. The most-visited website within the Dating category for last week was Singlesnet.com which received 14 percent of all the U.S. visits to the category.

Other top Dating websites for last week included Plentyoffish.com which received 11 percent of the U.S. visits followed by eHarmony.com who received six percent of visits as did TRUE.com.

Plentyoffish.com posted the largest year-over-year traffic growth among the top five websites within the Dating category with an 87 percent increase in U.S. visits.

“Each year we see people trying to find love online after the holidays and meet someone new in time for Valentine’s Day,” said Heather Dougherty, research director, Hitwise. “This January brought a higher influx of traffic than past years and the users are spending more time interacting on the dating websites looking for potential mates.”

Average Session Time

The average visit time for the Dating category during the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, was 17 minutes and 7 seconds, up from 14 minutes and 5 seconds, for the same week during the previous year. For the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, the average time spent on Plentyoffish.com led among the top five dating websites with users spending an average of 21 minutes and 31 seconds on the website. The average visit time on the free dating site increased 31% from the week ending Feb. 10, 2007.

New and Returning Visitors

For the week ending Feb. 9, 2008, True.com received 26 percent of its share of traffic from new visitors. Among the top five dating websites by market share, Yahoo! Personals and Singlesnet followed with 15 and 13 percent, respectively, of new traffic that has not visited during the previous month.

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