Online Dating Niche Has It's First Baby Boy

Is it possible that niche dating sites will kill the nation-wide, global dating sites that cater to people of all backgrounds, gender, location, and identity? Should we, as online dating site entrepreneurs, stop injecting money into building high functioning, online dating community websites loaded with the best of Web 2.0 under the premise that "if you build it, he will come"? The following news may suggest that we should be funneling more money into marketing to the minority as opposed into developer's hands.

The Fingerlake region in the corner abyss of New York state is not what one may consider a "niche" market. Then again, if you ask any New Yorker, you will likely get an overwhelming "YES". Regardless of the side you take, in context of the global online dating industry, Ithaca based Catchmakers, does fall under the niche market category. Catchmakers is more than a local business, it's a niche business, that caters only to people in the Fingerlake region. Membership to Catchmakers is open to people 21 or older, versus age 18 for most other online dating services. It's a company that specializes in finding long-term partners for those people living in the Fingerlake region. The profiles are not available to the general public and eligible adults can post a profile for free and for a fee search for other people's profiles.

Catchmakers has high standards. On Feb 10, Catchmakers released a press release celebrating the upcoming birth of a baby boy to be born of a couple who met on their dating site. Unlike other dating sites that try to entice through citing number of holy matrimony, Catchmaker keeps count of the number of babies born of its service.

With local and niche players popping up like this, it's critical that internet marketers refocus their strategy with local perspective in mind. Additionally, not all local markets are targets for such niche online marketing. A quick glimpse at the demographics of the region will shed some light on why such a focused strategy works for Catchmaker.

One specific fact that likely plays into this is that Fingerlake region is a fairly homogeneous population whose workforce is primarily located in educational/social services, manufacturing, and retail. The similarity between the three industries is that there is less relocation at a firm level. Manufacturing firms tend to stay in the same region and retail, even the ones run by national chains, are local from this respect. Social and educational services are also community based and less likely to create a need for its workforce to move around. In short, the Fingerlakes region has people of similar socio-economic class with potentially similar values and upbringing that will be beneficial for a niche/local player such as Catchmaker.

Demographics

The Finger Lakes Region is comprised of nine counties, five of which are part of the Rochester
metropolitan area which accounts for 95 percent of the total non-farm jobs in the region. The Finger Lakes population growth has experienced a lag growing only 3.8% during 1990-2002 compared to 6.5% for the state. The total 2006 population of the Finger Lakes region was 1,196,334.

Diversity

On average the region is 92.3% White, 4.4% Black and 2.6% Hispanic.

Age

The median age in the region is 37 years, but it varies greatly from county to county. The median age in Livingston, the youngest county, is the same as the national average, 35.3 years, whereas the median age in Seneca, the oldest county, is 38.2 years.

Income

The median household income in the region is $41,576, close to the national median of $41,994.
Education

81.4% of the region’s population over 25 has a high school diploma, compared to 84.1% in the region as a whole. 18.7% of the region’s population has a bachelor’s degree vs. 27% in the nation as a whole.

Economy

The region’s largest industry is educational services, health care and social services, employing almost a quarter (24.1%) of the regional population vs. 19.5% of the national population. Manufacturing is also an important industry and retail trade is the third largest industry in this region.