Europeans looking for love online

Europeans are more active on online dating sites than their American counterparts, new figures suggest.

Statistics released by web monitoring firm ComScore reveal that 18 per cent of internet users in Europe visited dating sites in July this year, one per cent more than users in America. 

However, European visitors viewed an average of 310 pages per visitor, a 44 per cent increase compared to American visitors who average 216 pages per visitor.

Breaking the stats down by country, users in Germany were the most active, racking up 446 pages each compared with 343 for France and just 213 in the UK.

The growth rates for dating sites in America and Europe were also remarkably different. The audience in America remained flat compared to July 2005, but grew by 26 per cent in Europe.

"In North America, large online personals sites like Match.com and Yahoo Personals still lead the rankings in terms of reach, but their growth rates have slowed in the past year," said Bob Ivins, managing director of ComScore Europe. 

"In Europe, more specialist local sites such as Meetic in France and iLove in Germany have become successful, experiencing double-digit growth and dominating the category in their home countries." 

The top dating sites in July were:

US: Yahoo Personals 3% (total reach), 18% (reach of dating sites)
UK: DatingDirect.com 7% (total reach), 31% (reach of dating sites)
France: Meetic 11% (total reach), 54% (reach of dating sites)
Germany: iLove.de 11% (total reach), 48% (reach of dating sites)