Match.com, with 1.8 million paying subscribers globally, has decided to go retro and take dating offline.The company recently announced plans to host 2,000 to 3,000 offline events in 40 countries around the world for paying subscribers. The new service will be called “The Stir,” and come in two varieties:
- Free events, like casual drinking evenings, and
- Paid events, like bowling or cooking lessons.
In both scenarios, however, Match.com will only send invitations to paying members who algorithmically seem like they will be a good match (based on factors each person lists in their profile).It’s an ingenious way for a dating site to take advantage of offline events to boost revenues — a tried and true technique utilized by many subscription sites. (In fact, our sister site, Subscription Site Insider, will be releasing a how-to guide in the near future for subscription sites interested in hosting successful offline events.) It’s also an idea that can be easily adopted by smaller, niche dating sites, who may not have the IT power to run algorithms and pre-select attendees, but whose niche focus means members are already pre-selected and eager to meet like-minded individuals.
