Match.com
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The U.S. Match.com home page
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Type of site
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Online dating service |
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| Owner | IAC |
| Website | www |
| Alexa rank |
 462 (April 2014[update]) |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Yes |
| Launched | 1995 |
| Current status | Active |
Match.com is an online dating service with web sites serving 25 countries in more than eight languages. Its headquarters are in Dallas, Texas. The company has offices in Dallas, West Hollywood, San Francisco, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, and Beijing. Match.com is owned by IAC.
Match.com was founded by Gary Kremen, Fran Maier, and Peng T. Ong in 1993. It was started as a proof-of-concept for Electric Classifieds which aimed to provide classified advertising systems for newspapers. Early on, Kremen was assisted by Peng T. Ong, who helped in the design of the initial system, and Simon Glinsky, who helped in the development of one of the first Internet business plans for Match.com and also provided management and marketing expertise. The initial business scope developed by this team included a subscription model, now common among personals services, and inclusion of diverse communities with high first trial and market leaders status, including women, technology professionals and the Gay and Lesbian community. Fran Maier joined in late 1994 to lead the Match.com business unit where she significantly bolstered the strategy to make Match.com friendly and accessible to women (the men would then follow).
Match.com went live in early 1995 as a free beta. It was first profiled in Wired magazine in 1995.
The initial users of the service were given free lifetime charter memberships for signing up in an effort to build up the initial database of users for other paying customers to be able to match with.
In 1998, Match.com was purchased by Cendant. A year later Match.com was purchased by IAC (then still operating under the name TicketMaster). In late 1999, Match.com was moved to Dallas, Texas, to merge with another matching site, One & Only networks, that IAC had purchased the same year.
In September 2001, Match.com merged with Love@AOL, partnering with AOL and MSN to bring online dating to the general public. Love@AOL was no longer free, after it became Match.com, but all the names were transferred, allowed a more diverse audience to gain access to Match.com. Cost of membership for one month was $24.95.
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Wikipedia