Gold diggers: Dating sites making mega bucks for love

The hunt for love online might be fraught for some, with fraudsters, scammers and cheaters hiding around every corner, but it is also highly profitable for the firms running the sites, who it seems are laughing all the way to the bank.

While many of dating apps can be accessed free of charge, they also offer premium services in return for a fee, providing a major revenue stream in addition to advertising.

And according to an analysis by online investment platform XTB.com, Match.com (pictured) is by far the most lucrative dating app on the market, making an estimated $25m per million users – four times more than second placed Zoosk.

In third place is eHarmony ($5.4m per million users), followed by Bumble ($3.4m) and Tinder, which with over 500 million users worldwide is the most popular app but comes in fifth in terms of cash generation ($3m).

The top ten sites are made up by Grinder ($2.9m), Hinge ($2.6m), OKcupid ($1m), Her ($700k) and Plenty of Fish ($533k).

According to a separate report published by Allied Market Research, the global online dating services market is expected to be worth $9.2bn by 2025 and it is estimated that by the end of this decade around half of the couples will have met online.

Senior analyst Shankar Bhandalkar said: “Online dating service providers are investing heavily on innovation in the view of facilitating easy use and accessibility of various features introduced in the market.

“This is factors has a positive impact on the global online dating services market growth. Asia-Pacific countries such as China, India, Japan, and others serve as the potential markets for the online dating services, owing to a rise in the number of singles.”