SXSW 2012

Why is it that out of 40M online daters in the U.S., only 1.3M are on the largest paid site? Even dating sites that don’t brand themselves as catering to a niche tend to attract certain types of daters. And there are no universal rules. Take NY for example: 20something social go-getters favor HowAboutWe while professionals are on Match.com. 30something entrepreneurs crave Okcupid while the traditional-valued join eHarmony. Yet the same group of people in Austin will yield different results. How do users choose the site they’re on, what inspires brand loyalty, and how do companies uncover useful data on consumer decisions? The dating industry is a great case for this phenomenon, but the issue touches nearly every consumer-facing industry. The result? Companies are battling it out for users. What makes one person choose Foursquare over Gowalla, or Groupon over LivingSocial? In a never-before-seen meeting of the dating giants, we’ll delve into the enigmatic consumer mind.