Skip to content
»View Offer
By Molly S
01 October 2008 00:00
Has any one tried internet dating, and has it worked for you?
By garethhargreaves
According to PARSHIP, one of Europe’s largest online matchmaking services, the internet has become a mainstream way to meet someone special. Indeed, there’s now a 50/50 chance that any single person you know is currently logging on to find love.
In 2007, 7.8 million single Britons used some form of online dating service to find romance, compared to the 5.4 million who used a mixture of offline and online services in 2005.
British reserveBritish singles still prefer the more casual approach, with more than one third (39%) ready to sit back and wait for that special person to come along by chance, internet dating is now far more than a niche activity: in the last 12 months, 52% of British men and 48% of women have used the internet to find a date, compared to 2005 figures of 36% for men and 34% for women. What’s more, 53% of singles (59% of men and 46% of women) say they intend to use the internet meet someone in the future, with figures rising to 65% with 36 to 40 year olds who say they intend to log on to find love in 2008.
Nearly one third of singles (29%) believe it’s a great way of finding love (as opposed to a casual fling), and nearly two thirds of singles (57%) say it’s socially acceptable, even if 25% of people in a relationship would beg to differ.
13,000 people were polled in 13 Western European countries for PARSHIP’s singles survey, which determined that three out of four (75%) of UK singles haven’t had a serious relationship in more than 12 months, while half (53%) have been without anyone special for more than three years. Of the British singles logging on to find love, men dated four different women over a 12-month period and women clocked up three dates.
There are an estimated 15 million singles now living in Britain (source ONS 2006) of which half (51% or 7.65 million) are looking for a long term-relationship; 17% would prefer a casual relationship and 28% are not looking for a relationship at all. However, unlike their European counterparts – who, with the exception of Ireland, would choose an unformalised long-term relationship over marriage (across Europe an average of 35% favour a long-term relationship and 17% a marital commitment) – UK singles would go for commitment leading to marriage (29%) rather than simple cohabitation (24%). As might be expected, it’s women in the UK who especially favour marriage vows: one third of them (33%) are looking forward to their Big Day, compared to just one quarter (24%) of British men.
Looking to start online dating? Why not try our great dating service Friends of Yours?
Add your comment
Sign in You must be signed in to submit a comment.
Has any one tried internet dating?
Your comment
By submitting your comment, you agree to adhere to Yours.co.uk Terms and Conditions
Cancel
Subscribe to comments
You must be logged in to subscribe to a topic
Login or register now
angie1963 says
Hi i have tried internet dating, but i will say be VERY careful, as i started chatting to a man as he lived not far away, (or so i thought) and before long he said he had to go away on business to Africa! anyway we carried on chatting and he was sending the most beautiful texts, and we used to chat every night on msn, then one night he said his mother was very ill and he had to go quickly to her in another country but all his funds were tied in up his business dealings, so i said i would help him out, and sent him £1,300 via Western Union, he promised he would repay me on his return to the UK, but needless to say he never returned, in fact he wasnt even from the UK, after a bit of investigating it turned out he was a conman from Nigeria and was praying on vulnerable women on internet dating sites, I felt very ashamed and thought how could i have been so stupid, i did go to police but they couldn't help me as he was in Africa, so i would just say be very careful and do some basic checks on who ypu are seeing.
18 April 2012 14:30
sofiaotter says
Most of the people I know under the age of 40 have tried internet dating at some point. Even those people who never had the vaguest intention of going online for a date and were only looking for ways of making money or just for some online entertainment eventually met somebody online that they 'bumped into' in real life later on. Pretty soon there won't be any distinction left between 'real' and 'online dating' because the virtual world has become such an important part of our everyday life, it's hard to separate the two of them.
11 April 2012 11:51
petri says
I have tried Internet dating. There is plenty of dating chat sites on the Internet you can choose from. Online dating gives you the opportunity to meet many interesting people at the comfort of your computer. You also avoid the hassle typical for the first dates when you meet offline.
29 September 2011 15:49
I have tried this chat site in UK for Internet dating:www.chatboxuk.com/ . It is safe and really works. There you can meet many other interesting singles. If I have to give you some tips, first – put your most attractive picture. Second, try to be flirty, chatty and show your sense of humour.
28 September 2011 16:30
gironescobar says
I've created profiles on many dating sites hoping to find the perfect person for me. All I've got in return was a lot of spam in my inbox. Are some of these dating sites selling email addresses? I'm always reading the Spam Security Blog and I'm aware of most such scams but I think I've let my feelings concur my better judgment and now I have a lot of spam to deal with.
15 August 2011 16:07
