how many Australians are currently using the internet for dating?

Hi bighair,

The following is the result of my research for the number of
Australians using the internet for dating.

Approximately 1.2 million Australians are using the internet for online dating.

"Lonely hearts from their 60s to 80s are looking for love on the
Internet according to analysts who say 1.2 million Australians are
using computers to find prospective partners.

Paul Collins, the managing director of personals.com.au, said elderly
singles were not scared to post pictures and profiles with Internet
dating services.
"What we used to see were lots of 18 to 25-year-olds using the Net as
a means of dating. But now people in their 60s, 70s and 80s are online
looking for love" said Mr Collins.
He has 14 years industry experience and is based on the Sunshine Coast."

Personals
http://www.personals.com.au/asp/index.asp?page=footers.aboutus_media


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Over 900,000 Australians visit online dating sites each month.

"About 900,000 Australians visit online dating services each month,
according to Nielsen/Net Ratings, and Yahoo! is set to join a crowded
market with ninemsn, friendfinder.com, rsvp.com.au and lavalife.com.au
all offering online dating services.

"We have noticed that people like communicating with each other," said
Yahoo! Australia and NZ managing director Clifford Rosenberg. He said
earnest descriptions of strangers' hobbies and pets were more likely
to attract paying customers than other online content typically
produced by the media."

Fairfax Digital
http://afr.com/articles/2003/07/14/1058034937625.html

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"...A further 37% said their preference is to flirt online, making
them part of the 930,000 Australians who visited an online dating site
in July 04 alone (Nielsen//NetRatings)."

Goggle's cache of The Media Game
http://www.mediagame.com.au/html/login/login.cfm?f_viaTMG=1&f_clientRef=4301-125738-1200057


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An interesting excerpt:

"Up to ½ a million Australians are meeting lifetime partners over the
net. Many of these partners come from overseas. The meet maybe through
a dating agency, then meet up in a chat room, send each other photos
and go on several cyber dates. I was told in an email from a serial on
line dater that people seem to be more honest over the internet than
they would be face to face. This seems hard to believe seeing as
though it would be too easy to lie about your appearance, financial
situation and other important details when the other person doesn?t
know you or in many cases can?t see you.

Most of the people who are using dating agencies online are tired of
trying to find love the old fashioned way. Two kinds of people use
online agencies, the first are people who are lonely and want
companionship. The other are cons, thieves and scam artists.
Unfortunately, there are many of these kind of people around on the
internet and it is easy for them to hunt the innocent people in an
environment like the internet."

CYBER ROMANCE:- THE GUIDE 2003 
http://birkenstock11.tripod.com/cyber.html 


Search criteria: 

"100000..1000000 australians" "online dating"
"* million australians" "online dating"
"* million australian" "online dating"
"* million australians" "dating online"


I hope the information provided is helpful. If you have any questions
regarding my answer please don't hesitate to ask before rating it.

Best regards,
Rainbow