If you thought Internet dating was just for the youthful or the middle-aged, think again - SingleSeniors.net, a new online dating portal for senior citizens, is in beta testing and due to open for official business May 17, according to creators Internet Business International, Inc.
In its beta-testing form, SingleSeniors.net features a simple homepage design, without the razzmatazz graphics and hyperbole sometimes thought to be endemic to the dating sites aimed at younger sociables, with a large photo image of an elder couple dressed casually and strolling a beach and a smaller photo image on another elder couple relaxing in a park. The site's offerings in beta test mode include free personals, a chat option, and a basic search-match option.
"Single Seniors is the perfect online dating partner," says the homepage. "Our dating service is for mature adults who are actively seeking mature singles who would like to meet others for romance, dating, intimate relationships or marriage. Distance is no object!"
SingleSeniors.net represents a comeback of a sort for IBI - they stopped Internet operations in April 2003. But they said they are opening a dating site because of social networking's rapid growth and lucrative potential - and because senior citizens 65 and older are believed the fastest-growing Internet age group, at least according to Nielsen//NetRatings from a November study. The same study said that, among senior citizens, there were more women coming online than men, with a 30 percent rise for the ladies and a 20 percent rise for the gentlemen.
On the other hand, SingleSeniors.net even in beta doesn't appear to appeal strictly to the 65 and older set. The six known matches for a man seeking a woman, when the man-seeking-woman search was tried by AVNOnline.com, yielded five California women between the age of 50 and 56 and one who gave her age as 64. A test of the same search in reverse yielded one 71-year-old from California and one apparent 33-year-old practical joker from Alabama.
IBI was also influenced, apparently, by a study from InterActiveCorp, whose holdings include top online dating sites Match.com and uDate.com. IAC said that as of December's end, they had 939,000 subscribers and, as of their most recent quarterly report, a 32 percent growth (to about a million subscribers) in personals services.
IBI is also working on a new radio ad program for stations whose primary audiences are senior citizens.
