Online dating website Match.com is going the free-way: In addition to its paid service, it has launched a free online dating service under the domain name DownToEarth.com. Apparently, it became too difficult to compete with the many free dating sites on the Internet, especially with the widely popular PlentyOfFish.com.
The domain DownToEarth.com is really great, in my opinion. For one, it’s a generic term. But it is also very catchy and brandable. In this context it may even describe the people you will find there: Down to earth, friendly people. Match.com is a top generic and branded domain as well, of course.
As it looks, Match.com is a company that understands the concept of domain names, hence successfully using them to better brand its businesses.
(Hat tip to Markus Frind.)
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It’s difficult for free services to compete with paid services, even if the paid services offer much more.
it’s difficult but from what I’ve been reading: http://plentyoffish.wordpress.com/2009/01/03/its-official-matchcom-abandons-paid-dating/ and of course via other spots, paid dating may become a competitive force against free dating sites in the near future.
If the free dating sites including plentyoffish.com, promatching.com, offer quality along with free service, why go for paid sites? After all, the purpose is to find a date or true love, it could be from paid or free dating sites. Where it came from, doesn’t matter really!
The paid service will be the dominant . I guess they just want to rule the free one too .