8.52pm on Wednesday 2nd January will be the best time to find an online date in 2013, according to match.com, as millions of people in Britain log-on to find a partner to share the year with.
Not only does the post-Christmas lull provide time for reflection, with many singles making finding a partner their New Year’s resolution, but Wednesday 2nd January is also the first day back to work for most office workers[1], leading to a flurry of relationship-searching in the evening, which will peak just before 9 pm.
The 8.52pm peak concludes what is traditionally the busiest week of the year for online dating. On match.com alone, interactions between members over the past seven days were 11% higher than average. This uplift in activity is set to continue – in the first week of January, an estimated 3.2[2] million people will go online in search for date.
Finding a partner in 2013 will again be top of many singles’ lists of resolutions for the New Year. Recent ONS research into happiness and wellbeing showed that those in a relationship are generally happier than single people. These statistics are reinforced by match’s own data, which found that numerous aspects of our lives improved when in a relationship, including financial security, work performance, family relationships and even our body confidence. Thankfully, online daters have reason to be hopeful. Internet dating has grown in popularity in recent years, and is now the third most popular way to meet a partner in Britain, along with meeting someone at work. In fact, online dating is now included in the ONS’s UK ‘shopping basket’ of goods and services, which measures the UK’s cost of living.
Kate Taylor, resident relationship expert at match.com, offers her explanation as to why there will be a peak in activity: “It’s the time of year when we vow to eat more healthily, exercise more frequently and budget better. As the Christmas festivities calm down and we re-evaluate our lives, it’s little wonder that looking for a partner will top the list of New Year priorities for many single people. Online dating offers you the best possible chance to find the perfect date for you, and if you make sure you’re online during the busiest time of the whole year you’ll have an even better chance of meeting someone special.”
Londoner Florence Goy, who appears in match.com’s new TV ad, is also turning her attentions to finding a partner in the New Year and you can watch her advert and find out more about her here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_7-dRESOsI
[1] Isurus, May 2011
[2] match.com internal data, December 2012