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An online survey was carried out with the purpose of finding out the extent to which internet users subscribe to online dating services. The paper aims to assess users' experiences of such services and their eventual outcomes.

Data were obtained through a self‐completion online questionnaire survey posted on the website of a leading internet research agency, utilising its online panel of c. 30,000 UK respondents.

More than 3,800 online panellists responded of whom 29 per cent said they had used an online dating site. Most of these respondents (90 per cent) had spent up to £200 on internet dating in the past two years, with 70 per cent of users achieving at least one date, 43 per cent enjoying at least one sexual relationship, and 9 per cent finding a marriage partner.

Despite the limitations over sample control of self‐completion surveying, a large online sample was achieved that indicated the growing importance of the internet for finding social and even sexual companionship.

Data indicate the kinds of factors that are important to internet daters in choosing online dating agencies and that drive eventual satisfaction with service received.

This survey provides original and up‐to‐date findings on a growing online and social phenomenon and represents one of the largest surveys of its kind yet carried out in the UK.

To explore and add insight to the online‐dating services phenomena which is the next product and beneficiary of the internet revolution that offers customers a convenient and affordable alternate to traditional methods of dating.

Empirically investigated through conceptual models and statistical methods was the value proposition of online matchmaking services, which boils down to the ability to provide appropriate matches through successfully business‐to‐customer (B2C) customer service enhanced by the web and based on sound customer relations management practices.

The differentiation of the marketplace includes unique ways to collect user‐based information and customized, proprietary algorithms that generate what are believed to be the best matches, based on user and matchmaking service criteria. Online dating services use statistics, data mining, and activity monitoring to provide appropriate matches; thus, differentiating their services and understanding the success of their product offering.

The basic strategic business model created by online dating industry that is researched in this paper is built around B2C customer service in a privacy and security conscious environment. Internet dating service providers are gaining increased acceptance though successful use of customized software that helps generate a potential valued‐added match for the masses.

What most companies do not define as clearly are the many privacy issues and possible protection against the people they may come in contact with through using these services. The industry has to be particular careful about the legal ramifications since much of the information it gathers from its customers must remain private and confidential in order to succeed and gain a larger market share.

It is apparent that online dating services are concerned with privacy and confidentiality issues as high priority by management. To date, no academic‐based research has surfaced concerning this emerging online industry and the information exchanges required to ensure a safe environment.

The spread of the Internet has transformed the dating landscape. Given the increasing popularity of online dating and rising immigration to Canada, this study takes an intersectional lens to examine nativity and gender differentials in heterosexual online dating.

In 2018, a random-digit-dial telephone survey was conducted in Canada. Logistic regression models were used to analyze original data from this survey (N = 1,373).

Results show that immigrants are more likely than native-born people to have used online dating in Canada, possibly because international relocation makes it more difficult for immigrants to meet romantic partners in other ways. In online-to-offline transitions, both native-born and immigrant online daters follow gendered scripts where men ask women out for a first date. Finally, immigrant men, who likely have disadvantaged positions in offline dating markets, also experience the least success in finding a long-term partner online.

Extending search theory of relationship formation to online dating, this study advances the understanding of change and continuity in gendered rituals and mate-selection processes in the digital and globalization era. Integrating search theory and intersectionality theory, this study highlights the efficiency of using the Internet to search for romantic partners and the socially constructed hierarchy of desirability as interrelated mechanisms that produce divergent online dating outcomes across social groups. Internet dating, instead of acting as an agent of social change, may reproduce normative dating practices and existing hierarchies of desirability.

The purpose of this study was to investigate assortative mating processes inside Internet-dating-service settings. Unattached consumers traditionally sought to satisfy their need for love through conventional search processes, including old-fashioned match-making. That was then, this is now; dozens of internet-mediated dating websites promising romantic-love-matches currently operate internationally. These dating services cultivate dating-exchanges by offering new-fashioned match-making processes. Despite these trends, theoretical and practical questions related to how and why dating services marketers might induce superior romantic exchanges between customers by managing assortative mating processes remain unanswered until now.

A survey-based approach was used to test hypotheses. Pretests were conducted to develop reliable measures of assortative mating propensity. Seven subconstructs of assortative mating were identified by analyzing data from a representative sample. The measurement model was validated before hypotheses testing. The focal assortative mating construct was measured formatively; assortative mating subdimensions functioned as indicators. The model was tested by structural equation modeling.

Assortative mating processes facilitated superior preference-selection outcomes for individuals seeking consumer-to-consumer romantic relationships inside internet-mediated service settings. Insights were generated about how and why assortative mating processes exercised positive effects on consumers’ attitudes toward online dating and about how dating services marketers might leverage assortative mating tendencies to benefit consumers.

A novel concept was introduced to the services marketing literature, as were several theoretical implications. The study simultaneously measured consumers’ propensities to engage in assortative mating and captured the effects of various physical/behavioral consumer characteristics. This study develops new and practical insights about how dating service marketers could manage the effects of assortative mating processes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore in depth the special context and unique life experience of the online dating site and provide insights regarding an interpretation of virtual cohabitation model.

This study uses netnography, online interviews and the physical travel of researchers to the field for field participation and observations. The combination of netnography and online interviews combines online and offline studies to achieve more consistency in the data collection, analysis and other processes. In-person participation in observations makes the research more realistic. The combination of these qualitative methods is helpful in achieving a more comprehensive and accurate research process.

The findings of the study can be classified into a three-stage situational context approach, which is presented in the form of propositions. Finally, the insight of the virtual cohabitation context model was developed, namely, motivation (including escapism, hedonic gratification and autonomous), showing off and psychological compensation, stimulation and fantasies, emotions (including impulsiveness, emotions and desires), over-control and low self-control, behavioral control, gratification and dependence and love trap (including sex transactions and consumption traps).

The theoretical contribution of this study is to establish an interpretation of virtual cohabitation model and ten related propositions.

The aim of this study is to examine interpersonal trust in Muslim matrimonial sites (MMS) from a male perspective. Specifically how users perceive interpersonal trust in MMS; what are the signs of lack of trust in MMS (if any); and what strategies do users adopt to handle the lack of trust in MMS.

This empirical qualitative study used ethnographic techniques to collect data. In addition to briefly observing five MMS, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with ten participants, who were all males, between the ages of 25-35, and residing in different locations, including the USA, the UK, the UAE, Australia and Bahrain. While the interviews focused on participants' experience in MMS, the analysis of these interviews focused on the issue of trust in these sites.

The analysis has revealed that participants associated trust with “risk taking”, “reliance” on one's abilities, “self-confidence” and honesty with the first three being the major themes that transpired from the analysis of data. The analysis has also revealed three signs of lack of trust in MMS. Users expressed concern over a large number of members' profiles being fake; they appeared suspicious about these sites and approached them with caution and felt intimidated by the unrealistic expectations members placed on them. However, it was found users adopted several strategies to handle the lack of trust in MMS including using their communication skills to study others carefully, doing “police work” to uncover any inconsistencies in their statements, “interrogating” them using a pre-developed list of questions and involving their family members in their negotiations.

Despite MMS immense popularity within the Islamic world, with the exception of a few articles, there are not many articles available in the academic literature on them. This article seeks to address this imbalance.

This paper examines how and why online daters, differentiated by gender, strategically self-present in online dating profiles when pursuing two competing goals: attracting potential daters and avoiding detection as a liar.

A survey and a content analysis were employed to test four hypotheses.

The results revealed that seeking to project an attractive image in online dating was significantly associated with acquisitive self-presentation. The online daters adopted falsification more than any other strategies, and women were more likely than men to embellish their self-presentation, especially their physical appearance.

The findings clarify people's mate selection processes in light of the interpersonal deception theory (IDT) and the information manipulation theory (IMT) as well as take an evolutionary psychological perspective on computer-mediated communication. For practitioners, they provide a more nuanced picture of deceptive communication in online dating and, for online daters, can guide the adaptation of their online behaviors.

Online dating services have been growing rapidly in recent years. However, adopting these services may involve high risk and trust issues among potential users toward both online dating services and the daters they introduce to users. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how perceived benefits vs risks, and trust vs distrust affect user adoption vs non-adoption intentions toward using this rather controversial information and communications technology in the context of online dating.

Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the research model using data from a survey of 451 single individuals.

The results indicated that perceived benefits play more essential roles in adoption, while perceived risks affect non-adoption more. Individuals' trust in online dating service predicts a major portion of the variation in user benefit perceptions, while distrust in online dating service and in daters that users might select significantly influence perceived risks. Moreover, benefit and risk perceptions can mediate the impacts of trust and distrust on both adoption and non-adoption decisions.

This study extends theories of decision-making in the use of controversial information technologies such as in the case of online dating. It investigates the coexistence of various trust and distrust beliefs as well as benefit and risk perceptions, and their different impacts on adoption and non-adoption in online dating services.

This paper aims to examine predictors (personality, belief systems, expertise and response time) of detecting online romance scams.

The online study asked 261 participants to rate whether a profile was a scam or a genuine profile. Participants were also asked to complete a personality inventory, belief scales and demographic, descriptive questions. The online study was also designed to measure response time.

It was found that those who scored low in romantic beliefs, high in impulsivity, high in consideration of future consequences, had previously spotted a romance scam and took longer response times were more likely to accurately distinguish scams from genuine profiles. Notably, the research also found that it was difficult to detect scams. The research also found that it was important to adapt Whitty’s (2013) “Scammers Persuasive Techniques Model” to include a stage named: “human detection of scam versus genuine profiles”.

This is the first study, to the author’s knowledge, that examines predictors of human accuracy in detecting romance scams. Dating sites and government e-safety sites might draw upon these findings to help improve human detection and protect users from this financial and psychologically harmful cyberscam.

Online dating facilitates both dater interactions and rejections. Given the vast offer of potential mates and daters' limited time, several rejections may occur. On online dating platforms, most of these rejections are simply the absence of a reply (ignoring). The purpose of this paper is to compare the impact of implicit rejection (ignoring) vs explicit rejection (declining) on the behavioral intentions of daters, considering self-esteem as a moderator.

Experiment 1 investigated the effect of the extent of rejection (implicit vs explicit vs control) on the behavioral intentions of online daters. Experiment 2 assessed observers' recommended actions to a male (vs female) online dater following rejection (implicit vs explicit vs control).

Implicit rejections generate greater behavioral intentions than explicit rejections. Both daters (study 1) and observers of the dating scenario (study 2) indicated greater intent to revise their profiles (study 1) or recommend a profile revision (study 2) when implicitly (vs explicitly) rejected by interaction partners. Self-esteem moderated the effect of the extent of rejection. Higher levels of self-esteem eliminate and lower levels of self-esteem intensify the effect of the extent of rejection on behavioral intentions. Additionally, observers' recommendations based on the extent of rejection depend on the rejected dater's gender.

Ignoring is a frequent practice among dating platform users, and this paper provides an original contribution to better understand the differences stemming from implicit or explicit rejection of online daters.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2020-0207