Internet dating has evolved a great deal since the days when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan met in a chatroom in the film You’ve Got Mail. Besides the fact that almost no one uses those first-generation Web forums anymore, online dating has become a major corporate machine and more the norm than the exception.

IAC, the owner of many popular dating websites, has acquired DateHookup.com. Although most people don’t think about the world of dating websites in terms of mergers and acquisitions, IAC has been slowly building itself an online dating empire.

IAC’s current portfolio of dating websites includes: OurTime, SingleParentMeet.com, BlackPeopleMeet.com, BBPeopleMeet.com and SinglesNet. DateHookup.com promises to round out its broad array of niche dating sites. 

“DateHookup has built a sizable and active community of online singles in the U.S., reaching demographics and markets that complement IAC’s existing online dating companies,” said Lance Barton, vice president of Mergers and Acquisitions for IAC. “We can leverage our expertise and initiatives from our other sites to drive incremental contribution, improving an already attractive acquisition multiple.”

DateHookup is different from other online dating communities, which typically require a monthly service fee, in that it is 100 percent free, supported entirely by advertisers. This unique feature offers singles, unsure whether or not they’ll benefit from joining a dating website, the opportunity to try it out without investing money in a proposition that they are uncertain of. 

This strategy is one that is clearly working for the site, which has over one million unique visitors each month.


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IAC’s dating empire is profitable and growing: it is reported that IAC’s dating sites accounted for more than $500 million of its $2.06 billion earnings in 2011. Online dating communities are just one piece of IAC’s multi-billion-dollar media puzzle, which also includes such sites as Insider Pages, Urbanspoon, Citysearch (News - Alert), and Dictionary.com. 

Days before announcing its acquisition of DateHookup, IAC had reportedly purchased About.com from the New York Times Co for $300 million.

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