Click for Romance

Want a date for Saturday night?

Used to be you'd double-date with your best friend's roommate or venture out on a blind encounter with your sister's co-worker's neighbor's brother.

But these days a multitude of businesses promise to help single people meet that special someone. Singles can answer a personal ad, sign up for a dating service, attend a "speed dating" seminar, or click on one of the thousands of online matchmaking services that have sprouted in recent years.

All of a sudden, romance is a growth industry.

In 1998, the dating services business was estimated to be worth $1 billion and it's projected to reach $1.5 billion in revenues by 2003, according to the Computer Industry Almanac.

Why has this industry exploded in recent years? For one thing, the single population has grown. In 1960, 13 percent of households in the United States were people living alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2000, 26 percent - more than one-quarter of all households - were single people. An estimated 3 million singles live in the New York metropolitan area alone.

And new technology, including the Internet and sophisticated sorting software, have made it possible for lonely singles to virtually "meet" hundreds of people around the world with a few keystrokes.

"The Internet is an enormous "net" that yields large numbers of potentially compatible partners that one wouldn't normally meet," says Dr. Jamie Turndorf, a psychologist who offers compatibility testing for couples on her Web site, drlove.com.

Nearly 61 percent of American singles who use the Internet have clicked into an online dating site, according to survey USAToday in 2000.

Match.com, owned by Ticketmaster, retains the No. 1 spot with 2.5 million members. The company has partnered with MSN and AOL to run their 'personals.'

John LaRosa, research director at Marketdata Enterprises in Tampa, Florida, estimates there are more than 1,500 dating service Web sites. He notes, however, that it's hard to keep track with so many small sites going in and out of business.

Faced with dwindling advertising revenues, print publishers have eagerly climbed on the dating bandwagon through classified ad voice personals. Men and women pay a per-minute fee to chat by phone and become acquainted. People2People Group, the world's largest provider of relationship services to media companies, has linked print, voice, cellular and web technologies into one universal, global database.

Even the staid New York Times is getting in on the action. The newspaper recently added a classified personals section at the back of its Sunday City section. For a $2 connect fee and $2.99 per minute ($3.49 if paying by credit card, ), singles can browse audio introductions and leave messages for the people who interest them.

Kate Uraneck, 43, a student at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, joined match.com last year for $12.95 per month. "It's the price of a movie ticket and a candy bar, so I thought what can I lose?"

An attractive, vivacious woman with short blonde hair, Uraneck went out with a number of men she met through the Internet. "I definitely got my money's worth and a social life back. I got about a dozen dates and a six-month relationship with a nice guy."

That relationship ultimately ended and now that schoolwork is taking up most of her time, Uraneck has let her membership lapse. But, she says. "I may go back. It was fun."

Over the past few years, Cindy K., a 40-year-old computer programmer who didn't want her last name used, has used a dating service, attended singles events and cruised for eligible men on J-date, a matchmaking site aimed at Jews.

But after spending hours scanning photos and bios on the Web, she's less than enthused about Internet dating. "It's hard work," she says.

Cindy answered a number of online personal ads through J-date, a site aimed at Jews, and several people answered her ad, but she's yet to find anyone she wants to meet.
"You have to be really persistent," she says. "It's much more difficult than a dating service."

After hearing stories of friends who met their match through online dating service, Cindy still looks at the sites from time to time. But, she says. "I'd rather go out and meet people face to face."

* Matchmaker, Matchmaker *Arranged Dating and Arranged Marriage * Click for Romance