DatePsu.com

Author:

Clionsky, Brian Alexander

Area of Honors:

Finance

Degree:

Bachelor of Science

Document Type:

Thesis

Thesis Supervisors:

Professor Miles, Thesis Supervisor
James Alan Miles, Thesis Supervisor
James Alan Miles, Thesis Honors Advisor
Dr. Joseph Randall Woolridge, Faculty Reader

Keywords:

online dating
internet dating
match.com
eharmony.com
facebook
social networking
college relationships
dating patterns
online usage

Abstract:

Dating and relationships have never been a simple process. People are always searching for love and have found many ways to get around the traditional methods of dating and meeting to create lasting and successful relationships. Some of these methods include speed dating, blind dates, and video personal ads. These methods have always been relevant to the current technological advances at the time. Since the origination of the internet, people have used it as a means of communication and meeting. This started with the creation of online chat-rooms, online personal ads similar to those in newspapers and print mediums, and most recently online dating/matching websites. As technology continues to evolve so does the way online daters can meet which has changed and will continue to change the way people think/go about dating well into the future. DatePsu.com is a free student based Internet-dating and meeting website that will be targeted and exclusively for the students within the Penn state Community. The target market is Penn State students with an @psu.edu email addresses within the age range of 18-25. The current (Fall 2010) total enrollment at Penn State (all campuses) is 87,309, of which 77,179 are enrolled as undergraduate students. At University Park (Main Campus) alone, there are 44,817 students, of which 38,594 are enrolled as undergraduates. Going forward Penn State expects to grow either consistently with historical averages or at an accelerated pace. With a constantly changing (every four years) but steadily increasing market size which makes Penn State an ideal market of both size and characteristics. In order to register for the website and its services one must possess a psu.edu email address. Students will be able to post a profile with specific personal information geared towards dating and getting the attention of the opposite sex. Students will also be able to fill out a questionnaire, which will be used to create student matches based upon similarities. Users can only view profiles of other users if they with a minimum threshold of compatibility. Research was conducted to get a better sense of the target market and how to win over the college student since no major or legitimate localized college dating services exist. Also, another goal of the survey was finding out where students found information and which groups of people were influential to them in terms of learning about new services and products around campus. Penn State students of all ages were given two surveys, approximately 30 questions in length. The survey collected was only given online, through SurveyMonkey.com. Each survey was completed by over 280 students, distributed completely through Facebook. While there is not a clear lack of demand for a strictly online dating community at Penn State, it appears clear that most students do not feel that a whole website devoted to such a service is necessary. Penn State students find it easy to meet people in social and academic situations. Socially, there is definitely a demand for a connection and party website or Facebook Application extension in the local area with localized marketing, connecting similar people.