12 Jan 2017

More Kiwis logging on to find love

7:39 pm on 12 January 2017

An international online dating service dedicated to helping mature professionals has grown 20 percent in New Zealand in the past year, helped along by an increasing number of baby boomers and Gen Xers looking for love.

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New Zealand has become one of EliteSingles' fastest growing markets. Photo: 123rf.com

The global online dating service, EliteSingles, which is one of three dating services owned by Berlin-based Affinitas, has been registering 8000 new users a month, making New Zealand one of its fastest growing markets.

Affinitas chief executive Jeronimo Folgueira said the New Zealand business was outpacing growth in its home market.

"We have been extremely successful in New Zealand, even though we are based in Berlin. Last year our New Zealand business was bigger than our German business."

Elite Singles matches users with the aide of a questionnaire and in-depth personality test, which are then manually verified to improve the quality of connections.

Jeronimo Folgueira

Affinitas chief executive Jeronimo Folgueira Photo: Supplied

Mr Folgueira said the company had made a significant investment in the New Zealand market and was thinking of introducing the Attractive World brand, which was designed to appeal to younger singles.

"Attractive World is a very different selection process. It is not personality matchmaking. It is a more open search and is based on community. The community has to select the people to let them in. So it focuses on getting the right users into the platform."

He said EliteSingles had been able to rapidly grow the market, because other international dating service competitors were focused on building a presence in the much larger Australian market.

"In [the New Zealand] market it is very important to be a large player because that gives more value to the customer by having a much bigger pool," he said.

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