Heavy snowfall increases online dating traffic

Online dating sites are benefitting from the huge snowfall that currently has parts of the country covered in white powder as snowed-in people turn to the web to raise their spirits.

The biggest snowfall in the UK in nearly 30 years has been causing widespread travel disruptions, preventing millions of people from going to work and forcing them to stay indoors.

However, rather than get depressed, it appears British people - singles and married alike - have been checking out online matchmaking services, with some joining the forums.

Both Mysinglefriend.com and Singles365.com, two of the UK's largest online dating sites, have revealed that the snow has been far from bad news to them as far as web traffic is concerned,

"We have seen a huge growth in people visiting and signing up over the last three days, leaping up 55 per cent on Tuesday," a blog post on Mysinglefriend.com revealed on Thursday January 7th.

"The snow may well have made getting to work impossible for many this week, but there's one great thing the winter chill has provided and that's a bumper amount of MSFers."

Meanwhile, rival site Singles365.com also revealed that it has received "a record number of new members in the snowy weather… as many look for some fun in the big freeze".

"It seems people are getting slightly board of watching daytime television and have turned their attentions towards exploring the online dating scene," explained the online matchmaking forum.

Thanks to the weather visitors to the website surged by 27 per cent on 4th and 5th January compared with figures from a year ago.

With such numbers in an already successful sector that has been increasingly attracting new people over the last few years, service providers can be forgiven for wishing for more weather disruptions.

Elsewhere, WhiteLabelDating.com has announced the availability of improved profile-matching technology that could boost the success rates of singles as they go about searching for an ideal mate.

The organisation, which specialises in providing customer-focused, flexible and scalable online dating systems, signed a deal with IntroAnalytics in a bid to enhance singles' experiences.

According to the site, the partnership will "dramatically increase the successful matching of member profiles based on implicit behaviour as they move around the site".

This system is better than the current method of relying on the user's preferences or questionnaires, which WhiteLabelDating.com said is the first time the technology is being used in the sector.

Ross Williams, chief executive of Global Personals expressed his excitement at the potential impact of the technology to singles using affiliated sites featuring the new system.

"The information gathered by observing behavioural patterns will allow members to increase their chances of meeting someone that they might have missed out on before, making their experience second to none."