After seeing that PlentyofFish commercial I caught the tail end of another ad for a big international dating site. This one was for Zoosk.

There are several of these all running now. These internationally based sites are clearly muscling in on the Australian market. But there must still be money to be made. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing this.

The saturation point must be fast approaching, though. It will be interesting to see when it does occur!
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Locally run dating sites have been running television ads for quite a while now in Australia. I think RSVP might have been the first to do it. Aussie Matchmaker and Adult Matchmaker have done so for years, too. And Oasis Active has been visible on the box lately.

Of the big international sites moving into the Aussie market, I think Lavalife has been at it the longest. And eHarmony has been going for a while, with a lot of ad exposure in recent months.

Then earlier today I saw a television advertisement for POF (Plenty of Fish). That was surprising because it is still basically a free site (although you can pay for an upgraded service that gives you even more options and visibility).

The fact that they've decided to run very expensive TV ads here confirms that POF -- like the big paid dating sites mentioned above -- is doing very well indeed in this country. To use their own metaphor the Australia dating pool is clearly a long from being overfished and there are clearly still many thousands of members yet to be hooked!
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There's been plenty of media talk about Australia's man drought, and how it has affected people's dating behaviour. This demographic imbalance is most pronounced in the cities on Australia's eastern seaboard, which cumulatively have the vast majority of the nation's population. But in Western Australia the problem is reversed. The state has too many men.

It's unfortunate. But the fact that the eastern states suffer the man drought and the west has a lack of women suggests a neat solution: a mass exodus of women to Perth!
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Australia has long been comparatively low key when it comes to interest in celebrities. Of course, famous people from this country and abroad often receive media attention, some of it unwanted. But the pursuit of them has never been anywhere near as intense or invasive as it is in the USA, or even Britain.

This seems to be changing now, though, with the media hounding of Shane Warne and Liz Hurley. Reporters and photographers have been following them around for days, even waiting outside his house and filing regular reports.

You can't really feel sorry for the pair, though. They certainly court media attention.

Still, considering what happened to Princess Diana, there's something a little bit ominous about these tweets from Warnie:

"Apologies to anyone driving on the rd & witnessing the ridiculous behavior by irresponsible photographers trying to get a pic !!!!!"

"Ps I'm not complaining by the way, but I fear that someone could seriously get hurt on the rd as the photographers are so irresponsible."
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EHarmony reveals some more specific demographic information of interest to single people. This time it's about Aussie women looking for love.

Their data says that suburbs such as Alexandria in Sydney's eastern suburbs had the nation's highest concentrations of such women.
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Like the dating site RSVP, eHarmony is frequently analyzing its membership to uncover interesting statistical and demographical information that is used by various media outlets. For example, it recently revealed that the suburb of Reedy Creek had the most single people in Queensland's Gold Coast.

The information is certainly useful, particularly if you live in the area. It also shows just how popular this site is. For eHarmony to confidently make this claim about one particular suburb, it must have members in most, if not all, postcodes of Australia.
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Strange things are happening in the Northern Territory. Not so long ago there was a woman who was stalked by an amorous kangaroo. Now, another woman says that her house is haunted by a ghost called Kevin, who has been pestering her for sex.

It will be interesting to see what other strange tales come out of that state.
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It's interesting how some particular areas show certain trends in use of online dating sites. Take the Tweed area in New South Wales. According to recent research there has been a huge increase in people from this region joining RSVP.

There are a lot more people there joining more traditional matchmaking services as well. An owner of one such service also confirms another trend that has been seen in online dating statistics: that of increasing numbers of older people seeking love and romance.
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Here's more confirmation of just how entrenched online dating now is in Australian society: A survey commissioned by the dating site RSVP has found that a quarter of Aussies had used an online dating site.

The data also showed that 9% of internet daters found their spouses online. That's notable, because there is a widely held view that most of the people using this method to meet people are just after a one night stand, or at leanothing serious.
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Australia's newest political party, the Australian Sex Party, has been busily expanding its base over recent months and launching new branches. The latest is in Darwin.

Here are more posts on the subject.
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