COURTLAND BROOKS - June 12 - In 2005, Ed Baig at USA Today quoted me as saying that the Internet Dating industry was in the first stages of maturity. Here's the post. After that, I'd say the key stages of growth that we as an industry experienced were...
1994-2008 - The Age of Web-based Internet Dating
2008-2020 - The Age of Mobile/App based Internet Dating
I think you could generally say that in each of these era's, you had to be on the web, and then on mobile, to be seeing double digit growth each year.
Now I think about it, later in 2005 I remember standing on stage at the Mobile Dating Conference and predicting that we would go "straight to Star Trek," in the USA, and all be using screen based phones. See slide 18 of my slide deck from 2005. In 2007 the iPhone emerged, and the rest was history.
What's next? On last Friday's IDEA webinar call, I eluded to it at the end of the webinar. (The webinar will be live on OPW tomorrow btw). IMHO the next two ages of Internet Dating are...
2020-2025 - The Age of Video based Internet Dating
Each of these stages took a while to build to, but now, I can definitively say, we are in the video based Internet Dating age.
Video connects people, is safer, richer and more dynamic, and allows humans to be humans, communicating far more naturally (and honestly). Covid-19 has firmly driven home the need for video now, and it's just a given at this stage.
With each transition to new media, there are winners and laggards. Some make the transition to the new medium, and win market share. Others hold onto the past, miss the boat, and in some cases, die a slow and painful death.
What's after video? At this stage, I'm convinced that Augmented Reality will mark the next major experiential shift and opportunity for greatly enhancing the user experience in Internet dating. So, I'd predict...
2025-2030 - The Age of Augmented Reality based Internet Dating
If you'd like a good book on this subject, I suggest Scoble's new book "The Infinite Retina."
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