Thinking about becoming a matchmaker? While there are few "industry" wide specifics as far as market reach, best practices and reach, below are some of the data points behind a recent survey by the Matchmaking Institute based in New York.
Respondents represent 40 different markets in the US & Canada
and, as such, represent a fair geographical scope of the matchmaking
industry (based on respondents’ response to their primary market).
Therefore, the survey looks fairly representative of the global
matchmaking market (for Usa/Canada).
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- Out of those 90, 51 are Certified Matchmakers from the Matchmaking Institute.
- Out of those 90, 40 are a member of the Matchmakers Network, the Matchmaking Institute's industry trade association.
- 11% of all respondents have more than 5 offices.
- 72% have only 1 office.
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- More than half have between 1 and 5 staff members.
- 25% of matchmakers work with less than 10 clients at a time, but more than 35% work with more than 100 clients at a time.
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- 45% do not show photos to their clients before a date, only a third show photos.
- 79% offer date coaching and 92% offer date feedback, which may be the
primary differences between matchmakers and other online or offline
dating agencies.
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- Most matchmakers tend to have more female than male clients with over
25% of respondents having a ratio of 40% Male / 60% Female.
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- The African-American as well as the Hispanic/Latino community seem to
be underserved as no respondents specialize in those niche markets.
Over 50% have only Caucasian clients while 35% believe their client
base follows the general population.
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- 55% have between 1 and 9 new clients a month; 21% from 10 to 24 new
clients; 12% between 25 and 99; and close to 9% have over 100 new
clients each month.
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- 31% of clients pay less than $1,000 for an annual membership or for
10 to 12 introductions. But 32% pay between $3,000 and $5,000, while
over 12% pay over $5,000.
- 70% have no income whatsoever from online dating. Most of their revenues come from personal matchmaking and coaching.
- Over 57% made less than $100K in gross revenues in 2007 and only 4.4% made over $10 million.
- Projections for 2008 show an increase from 18.9% to 24.4% regarding
the number of matchmakers making between $100K and $500K, whereas a
decrease from 57% to 48% of those making less than a $100K, showing an
increase in the average gross revenues for professional matchmakers.
Over 12% will make more than $1 million in 2008 and 6.6% will have a
net income of over a million.
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The top 5 markets for Matchmakers are:
- New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana
- Chicago-Naperville-Joliet
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta
- Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Their top secondary markets for those running more than 1 office are:
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater
- Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington
- New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
Markets matchmakers are looking at expanding are:
- Southeastern US
- Midwest
- Georgia/South Carolina
- Texas
- Asia
Read the entire survey resutls by clicking here
