Connecting up网络情缘
Mar 26th 2009 | SAN FRANCISCO
From The Economist print edition
Online-dating websites prosper in the recession
金融危机下交友网站逆势而上
NOT many industries are doing well in the recession. But along with discount retailers and pawnbrokers, online-dating sites such as eHarmony.com and OkCupid.com have seen business look up. There are several theories to explain why. It may be that people have more time to devote to their private lives as the economy slows; that uncertain times increase the desire for companionship; or that living alone is expensive, whereas couples can split many of their costs.
在经济衰退的大环境下还能有良好业绩的行业并不多，而折扣零售业、典当业以及像eHarmony.com和OKCupid.com这样的网上交友网站却正 好幸运的成为了这样的行业。有很多种说法可以解释这个现象：可能是因为人们在经济不景气的情况下有了更多的时间关注自己的个人生活；这段充满不确定感的日 子催生了人们对伴侣的渴望；抑或是由于和夫妻两个人在经济上相互扶持相比，单身显得比较奢侈。
“People who have been single for years are suddenly focused on finding someone,” says Greg Waldorf, the boss of eHarmony, a wholesome marriage-oriented site with more than 20m paying subscribers. He favours the companionship-in-hard-times theory: “Going through difficult times with someone special is better than doing it alone.” In a recent survey carried out for his company, 25% of women said stress about the state of the economy made them more inclined to seek a long-term relationship. The company also noticed that the number of visits to its website was higher than average on days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by more than 100 points.
“人们在长时间单身之后会突然产生寻找自己另一半的想法。” Greg Waldorf——eHarmony.com这个拥有超过两千万注册用户的婚介网站的老板如是说。他认为患难更生真情：“和某人携手共度难关的感觉比所有问题一个人抗更让人感到宽慰。”在他们公司最近的一项调查表明，25％的女性认为经济压力让她们更加急切地寻求一种长期的同伴关系。他们公司注意到当道琼斯工业指数下跌超过100点时他们的网站能够获得更高的访问量。
At OkCupid, which is aimed at a more casual, youthful crowd, there has been a jump in membership since the financial crisis set in (see chart), and an even bigger jump in how often members use the site. Back in September, users were sending 6,000 on-site instant messages a day, says Sam Yagan, OkCupid’s boss. Now that number is over 18,000. OkCupid has the advantage of being free, which has proved popular with people looking for partners for what Mr Yagan euphemistically calls “cheap entertainment”. After all, if you have a girlfriend or a boyfriend, he says, “you can just play Scrabble instead of going out for the evening.”
至于OkCupid——这个面向不特定的年轻大众用户的交友网站，它们的注册用户人数在金融危机下增长迅速，（见表格）而用户的使用频率更是有了迅猛增 长。九月份，用户每天在网站上发送的临时消息还只有6000条，而现在每天已经超过了18000条。——OkCupid的老板Sam Yagan指出。OkCupid的优势在于免费，这使得网站在那些热衷于寻找被Sam Yagan先生委婉地称为“低成本娱乐”的人群中很受欢迎。毕竟，如果你有了男女朋友，“你就只能选择玩点拼字游戏而不是整夜的出去狂欢”， Sam Yagan这样形容到。
But perhaps the boom is the result of neither a nesting instinct, nor a desire to save money. AshleyMadison.com, a very different type of dating site, is also doing well. Instead of arranging marriages, the subscription-based site arranges affairs—and never before have so many people been looking for a bit on the side. AshleyMadison’s boss, Noel Biderman, thinks his site, and others, are prospering for another reason: money problems. “The majority of relationship discord stems from economic troubles,” he says. Instead of fighting, married people are taking stock of their lives. “They want to do something that makes them feel better about themselves,” Mr Biderman says, “and $49 is a tiny expenditure for a life-altering affair.”
但也许这种激增的结果并不是人们成家的本能或者出于省钱的目的导致的。像AshleyMadison.com这种特殊的交友网站现在运营的也非常良好。和 其他婚介网不同的是，这是一个以为顾客策划特殊事件为卖点的网站——而以前从来没有这么多人在网上找这些东西。AshleyMadison的老板Noel Biderman认为他们这类网站的繁荣有其他的原因：钱的问题。“关系的不和谐主要是由于经济因素。”他还认为，相较于斗争，已婚人士们更愿意总结自己 的人生。“他们想要做一些能让自己感到舒服的事情，”Biderman“而且49美元对于一次改变人生的经历来说不算什么。” |
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