What does OkCupid's Deal with Match.com Mean?

It’s old news now, Match.com snatched up mostly-free dating service OkCupid. OkCupid was a fun little site that I enjoyed being on. It’s how Taylor and I met, in fact! As expected OkC’s CEO stated “Our goal is that the acquisition will have no effect whatsoever.” We’ll see about that. I call B.S. on such statements, though. If we look at MySpace you’ll see that an urgency to produce a real ROI model becomes paramount. This is also similar to last years snatch up of Mint.com (another service I use) by the makers of Quicken and Turbo Tax aka Intuit.

With the dust still settling, I wonder how smart of a move this was for Match.com. Did they really need to make this purchase? They have a ton of niche dating sites, as well as a free site that goes head to head with Plenty of Fish, called Down to Earth. I’ve never been on Down to Earth, my girlfriend my jab me with a hot poker if I did… I kind of like that action, though. Something kinky for later. Anyway, moving on…

The only thing I can really come up with is user experience that OkC provides is attractive to Match. OkC, who generates revenues from ads and premium “A-list” services. Could match.com be banking on OkC’s user experience? Possibly because, in my opinion, OkCupid isn’t really an innovative site, it doesn’t really do a whole lot to distinquish itself from the glut of other online dating services, other than offering a full range of features for free. For OkC CEO, Sam Yagan, it’s not a shabby deal. He wasn’t innovating or changing how online dating works, this move made sense for him.

More than anything OkCupid is the hip online dating site for socially connected and aware folks who want an easy and fun way to meet people. It’s an experience and that’s what Match.com bought.