Los Angeles Daily News, CA
San Gabriel Valley Tribune, CA
June 5 2005

Feeling that click with culture
Ethnic dating sites expanding

By Naush Boghossian , Staff Writer

Talin Aintablian never really “clicked’ on the dating scene with guys
who shared her cultural background.

But when her brother met his fiancee on HyeSingles.com – an online
dating site for Armenians – she decided to give it a try. Much to
her surprise, she says, she met “the one.’

“If I had been dating someone when I met Patrick, I would have dumped
him right away because I knew this guy had to be the one,’ Aintablian,
32, said of her boyfriend of three months, Patrick Tourian.

While general online personals and dating sites have been around for
years, a new online dating niche has emerged and is seeing surging
growth in the Los Angeles area: Sites catering to ethnic groups.

With an estimated 600,000 Iranians and 400,000 Armenians in Los Angeles
– the largest populations outside those countries – the sheer size
of the communities is fueling much of the growth.

“These sites are especially popular in the Los Angeles area because
of the huge concentrations of people there from other countries and
cultures who are seeking similar people so they can pair up more
successfully and outside of their tight family circle,’ said Judith
Meskill, editorial director of Weblogs Inc., the largest online
publisher of weblogs.

“These services allow people restrained by religious or familial
responsibilities to find more people with their backgrounds.’

Julie Albright, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology at USC, said
the sites also help those facing the same issues as larger society –
including busy schedules and few places to gather – to meet in an
easy and relatively inexpensive way.

“It opens a wide pool of availables to you while dating. You can walk
to the local Armenian cafe and meet one person, but online you can
meet 30. It increases your odds for a love match,’ said Albright,
who researched attraction online and is studying attraction and
deception on the Internet.

“What’s beautiful about the Internet for these ethnic communities
is it enables people to sort through a lot of people and focus in on
those types of qualities they desire,’ she said.

Aintablian, a Hollywood resident, said the online site helped her
find not only a culturally compatible partner but somebody with whom
she had a lot in common.

“You’re running them through some kind of screening process so it makes
it easier to have a potential date with somebody that has the same
interests and desires,’ she said. “He’s like me. He’s American but not
really Americanized because he hasn’t lost his culture and traditions.’

For his part, the 36-year-old Tourian said he turned to the Internet
to find an Armenian girl because his options were limited in Arizona.

“I found this to be a great way to try to find Armenians,’ the business
owner said. “It brings the whole community together.’

That’s the philosophy of Said Amin, CEO and founder of World Singles,
the leading online dating company for ethnic communities that runs
IranianPersonals.com , HyeSingles.com and ArabLounge.com .

Since its founding four years ago, the company has expanded to include
14 niche sites. And membership is growing.

IranianPersonals now has more than 120,000 members, nearly a quarter
of them from the Los Angeles area; HyeSingles has 16,000 members,
nearly two- thirds of them from the Los Angeles area.

“Birds of a feather flock together. As the database grows, it will
draw more people,’ said the 32-year-old Amin.

One 28-year-old local high-tech industry worker who used
IranianPersonals.com said she not only met somebody who speaks her
language and shares her culture, but somebody who has even more
specific traits in common.

She said the site’s open-ended questions like “How important is it
that your children learn to read and write Farsi?’ and “How do you feel
about the Israeli-Palestinian crisis … and what do you suggest as a
solution?’ gave her a glimpse into her potential partner’s character
and outlook on life.

She and her architect fiance plan to get married next year.

Analysts of the nearly $500 million online dating industry agree
that such successes will help propel these types of sites to continue
to proliferate.

“I think you’ll see more and more of it. In theory, if there was a
market shakeout because so many people are launching these types of
communities, I think you’ll find niche-oriented sites will find more
attraction,’ said Michael Jones, president of Idea Oasis, Internet
Dating Executive Alliance/Online Association for Social Industry
Standards.

One site that has continued to attract attention is JDate, the Jewish
dating site launched in 1997 that is considered the leader of ethnic
online dating.

JDate accounted for nearly 25 percent of its parent company Spark
Networks’ $65.1 million in revenues in 2004, and its online dating
service has grown so large that it is rolling out premiere offerings
to try to continue to attract and retain customers.

In early May, it launched Joe’s Club in Los Angeles in which,
for a yearly membership fee, the company will provide personalized
matchmaking and bring together at a local restaurant eight people
from the site that they believe are compatible.

“The reason for that success, whether they’re Armenians or Jews who
are sharing a common ethnicity or a religion, is they’re looking for
long-term partners who share their values and traditions,’ said Gail
Laguna, spokeswoman for Spark Networks.

But while niche sites continue to flourish they have not been immune
from some of the same problems that plague general dating sites.

Teni Khachatourian of Los Angeles decided to give HyeSingles.com
a try. But while she may have expected run-ins with online losers
and dorks, she never expected to meet a man, date him for a month,
then find out he was married.

“I don’t think anyone ever expects to meet a married guy in a singles
arena. But in an Armenian site where the community is so small and
everyone knows each other, it would be so risky, so I would think
that’s the last place a married guy would put up a profile with a
photograph,’ said the 27-year- old film publicist at Columbia Pictures.

“The lesson is that it’s not different if you’re online or at a bar
or at a singles event. Being single, you have to be aware and as
cautious as possible.’

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress