UK Dating Review: Who is a leader?
UK dating market is one of the strongest after US/Canada market and is the leader of online dating markets in Europe. In this article I will review most popular dating services in United Kingdom and share my opinion on them. Which are most popular, which are cheaper and which are effective.
From the author: Before starting to read this article take into account that this only my personal opinion and it may vary from yours or any other UK dating expert. And also the world is changing as well as new dating services so maybe at the moment you are reading this article situation has changed and now there are other leaders in UK online dating. I am writing this article at June 23, 2006. So let’s start.
WHO IS THE LEADER ON UK DATING MARKET?
UK Match.com
Is there anyone surprised? I think no. Match.com is a world leader in online dating and UK is one of their markets where they are also listed among top 3 UK dating sites. UK Match.com is separated dating service with own discounts and promotions but US Match.com members still can login into UK Match.com site and looking into it from marketing point of view it’s an instrument on people psychology. So when you hear that Match.com is leading UK dating provider with loudest audience – remember that its loudness could be stated because of users outside of United Kingdom. Follow the link to read detailed Match.com review.
But according to Alexa ranking UK Match.com is second by popularity network site after Match.com.
Yahoo! Personals
Some reports were saying that UK Yahoo Personals is among top 3rd UK dating providers. But when I visited UK Yahoo Personals I found that now they are affiliated with Match.com and it means that in reality there is no Yahoo Personals in UK dating – there is only Match.com and Dating Direct.
Dating Direct
In my opinion they are true leaders of UK dating. This service specializes in providing personals services for those single who live in UK only. Sure they have other regions Australia, Canada, USA and Ireland. But their first and main goal is to provide dating in the UK only and for singles living in UK. For other 2 leaders Yahoo! Personals and Match.com UK dating market is only one of regions where they provide their services.
That’s why I think that Dating Direct is a true leader of UK dating. Click here to read Dating Direct review or click on the banner below to visit it.
UK DATING SITES LISTED IN ALEXA TOP 100,000 RANKING
After reviewing top UK dating providers I want to pick out others less popular UK dating sites. To determine level of site popularity I will use Alexa ranking – tool which helps to orientate in traffic volume. If site represents in Top 100,000 list it means that this site is popular and it is worth to try it.
PearMatch Dating Agency - UK online dating and matchmaking agency with thousands of picture profiles for you to choose from. Free registration and search. Site is now listed it Top 100,000 ranking but it is not far from it. Subscription is £10 for 14 days, £20 for 1 month, £30 for 3 months, £40 for 6 months, £60 for 1 year.
Meetic - Meetic could be named as one of the possible leaders in UK online dating. Meetic company growth on the European market is huge and according to specialists forecast it could compete with Match.com at European market. UK Meetic is also a part of big European Meetic network and it’s difficult to determine what is the real amount of users from UK. When I did search for woman in the age 18-75 Meetic showed me about 1000 profiles with photos. Not much but probably they just limit the amount of profiles when searching. Anyway you can try Meetic if you want to dating someone in United Kingdom.
UK Dating Agency - one of the oldest UK dating agencies. They also have regional sections but unlike Match.com UK is their main section. But the members database is smaller and this is their main disadvantage. Also this agency doesn’t have any modern features which Match.com, Dating Direct and Meetic have.
X-Date - leader of speed dating in UK. Most of the speed dating events are in London but other cities are also involved. If you like speaking with singles this service may organize great singles party somewhere in the club near you.
Date the UK - Recently launched UK dating service but we really liked this service a lot because it includes all services including online chat and text flirting which their main competitors (DatingDirect, Match.com & Yahoo Personals) have but their price is only £19.99 per month. The only disadvantage is their members’ amount is only about 1 million as declared on site. Anyway we are planning to review this service soon and if you interesting in trying this UK dating service we recommend you to check this service review in our dating reviews section.
FREE UK DATING SERVICES
Flirt Box - This site is totally free to join and use and there no hidden costs. But the problem is as always quality of the free site. This free UK dating site is more like a forum with singles profiles photos. You can save money but you will lose in service. But results could be even more effective than on other dating sites. You’ll never know until you try if it really works for you.
Plenty of Fish - Well known world free dating site and you can try it also to dating UK singles for free. When I did search for women in the age 18-99 it returned more than 600 active profiles. But disadvantages are the same as at Flirt Box: no good design usability.
UK Dating is a big and constantly increasing market so maybe I have missed some dating sites but I hope those I have listed here could be enough for you to determine which of the suits you the best. Feel free to email me with any comments and suggestions on this article at webmaster@welcometodating.com
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