Has dating online lost its appeal? While growth in the internet dating industry has skyrocketed over the past few years, trends may be indicating that the industry is slowing down. Although dating online used to be outside of the social mainstream, and labeled members are desperate daters, over the past decade, things have begun to look up for internet dating companies everywhere. Even Hollywood tapped into the craze of dating online with movies centered around peoples' experiences.



With this in mind, it may be surprising that dating online, while certainly more mainstream, has not taken off in terms of industry numbers. There are several reasons . First, while the initial growth of the industry was extremely fast, and climbed rapidly, the growth may have temporarily plateaued. Also, as buzz around dating online picked up, interest grew and more people tried it out. However, many have also been turned away after their experiences. Granted, some have had negative experiences while dating online, from conflicts with other members, to feeling that it was not worth it to pay membership fees. So, while the mystique surrounding online dating websites may have been intriguing for new members, as more people tried dating online, the mystique wore off and scaled off the growth of the industry.

Another potential reason for the slow down could be because of the rapid growth of social networking sites. Although many members of networking sites are younger, potential couples can still meet online similar to the way that they do while dating online. The increasing number and popularity of social networking site has offered stiff competition for traditional online dating sites in that both have taken aspects of peoples' regular social lives online. Though social networking sites and online dating websites differ in their main functions and features, it may be just as easy for people to meet potential dates online through similar interests.

These, among others, could be some of the reasons why the online dating industry has shown signs of slowing in the past few years. Nonetheless, this is an industry that has proven that dating online will never go away.