Based on the five forces model, the on-line personals market does not seem very attractive. The entry barrier is very low because just a website is enough for starting its business, and there are already at least 850 different personals sites on the internet, and the same number of new sites entered the market every year. However, most of them may soon disappear without any profit because of the severe marketing competition. Leading companies have spent about 40% of their revenue for marketing and it the ratio has been increasing every year. It is very challenging to survive in this fierce rivalry for start-up companies. The suppliers’ bargaining power is very low because those online companies actually do not need some significant supplies, …show more content…
Its patented matching algorithm might be a core element which provides an important decisive competitive edge. Indeed, the Guided Communication helps the members who want to move to the next step, and it also makes the process smoother. Even though the significantly higher price than its rivals (See Exhibit 1), eHarmony has converted the active members into paying members three time more effectively than the industry average. It means people acknowledge eHarmony’s high quality services and expect better result from its matching system. As a result, there was not any significant competitor in the serious relationship segment. However, these advantages are severely threatened by its rivals. Especially Match, the biggest competitor of eHarmony, launched Chemistry which is also focusing on the serious segment and almost copied eHarmony’s services and business model. Moreover, Match almost doubled its advertising spend and Chemistry’s campaign was directly targeting to eHarmony. Yahoo! also developed a matchmaking service in 1997, and also introduced Personals Premier in rivalry with eHarmony. Personals has been very efficient in advertising expenditure which is supported by one of the world biggest portal site, Yahoo!. (See Exhibit
The suppliers bargaining power is generally strong because of the big monopolies and the high importance of purchasing components and operating system, therefore it decreases the profitability of the market players.
Additionally, Slater’s research suggest there is a new meaning of commitment as there is an abundance of people willing to meet others and possibly be in a relationship. As Slater suggests, people become “disposable” as there is no need to settle for someone when there could be a new person online with desirable qualities. However, with more options to choose from the less faithful partners who are in relationships become; essentially, this causes a rise in divorce rates. This may be possible because many online dating users still have active accounts after being in relationships. Which Slater discovered after an interview with Match.com’s Greg Blatt, most dating sites purposely send alerts to inactive open accounts to get them to return.
Think about how your grandparents met; was it at a job they both worked at? Then think how your parents met, through their friend group? Now, how do you plan to meet your soulmate? Over the past ten years, dating has done a complete 360-degree turn. A study done on Americans by the Pew Research Center found, “66% of online daters have gone on a date with someone they met through a dating site or app, and 23% of online daters say they have met a spouse or long term relationship through these sites (Smith and Duggan).” From a boy asking a girl’s parents permission to date their daughter, to today when people resort to dating apps and websites like, Okcupid or Tinder.
eHarmony’s business strategy is focused on serving individuals who are seeking serious, long-term relationships that will result in
Love has been around since the beginning of time and for as long as romantic relationships have been around; people have tried various ways of meeting one another. The mid-1990s marked the start of online dating and since then has evolved into a much more common method of dating. Online dating is typically taken advantage of in one of two ways. Some people prefer to create their own profile and rely on themselves to choose their mate choice, while others allow the online dating services to create matches between the online subscribers. In a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center they found that one in ten American’s are using an online dating site to help them locate a spouse or a long term partner (Smith 1). Due to the advances in technology in recent years, online dating has developed into a resource that has become culturally accepted and has advanced in many ways, but with that comes mate choice, safety concerns, and the outlook on online dating.
Justin Young illustrates that “Because of the large population of suppliers, no single supplier can easily impose its demands on firms like Costco. Suppliers’ bargaining power is further weakened because the overall supply is high, which means that a single supplier’s action is unlikely to significantly impact the level of total supply available to Costco” (Young). Costco is one of the largest retailers in the U.S., so it is obvious that the corporation will never depend on any suppliers for a particular type of product. Costco knows that the corporation can’t base the whole operation on a small number of suppliers. Moreover, the limit in suppliers will cause a lot of problems for not only operation but also the ability to compete with other competitors. Therefore, Costco will have a large number of suppliers for their products. Furthermore, for each type of product, they will have multiple suppliers to make sure that they also a variety in any kinds of product. For suppliers, they can’t cause a significant impact on Costco because they know that they aren’t the only ones that Costco bases on. There are many suppliers which want to work with Costco and are willing to replace the spot of any suppliers which make mistakes leading to lose their spot. Getting products in Costco doesn’t only help suppliers reach a large number of customers but also be able to sell more products. With many warehouses and distribution channels, Costco is a dream place to sell products for any suppliers. Suppliers themselves are also in the competition to put their products on Costco’s shelves, so it will not be an impact on bargaining power of suppliers. Even though Costco may have strict rules and regulations for their products, suppliers are obviously benefit from those things. Their products will not only have high quality but also meet particular standards that customers demand. Costco wants to distribute
The market is dominated by a few large suppliers rather than a fragmented source of supply. There are no substitutes for the particular input. The suppliers customers are fragmented, so their bargaining power is low. The switching costs from one supplier to another are high. There is the possibility of the supplier integrating forwards in order to obtain higher prices and margins.
The number of suppliers available for each input drives the bargaining power of suppliers. More the suppliers, lower would be their bargaining power.
The bargaining power of suppliers is very low. Major players are vertically integrated for example KKD is producing their own equipment while others are partnering up with suppliers.
Buyer power within the industry is low as substitute products are not easily accessible, unless the customer decides to negotiate with the providers.
And because of the influence of movies and media, it pressurizes people into subconsciously thinking that their date with that special someone should be extraordinary which usually ends up being rather expensive. While the same cannot be said about online dating as it is cost efficient and allows people to expand their horizons by not limiting themselves to the same circle of people. However, people are more likely to imagine their future with someone in traditional dating based on their personality, habits, and more, while the same cannot be said about online dating. But if done right, online dating can help a person meet other people in the real world who they have much in common with. With the help of technology, they can be living on the opposite sides of the world and still get to know each other well, giving them a chance to delay commitment until they are
...nships are being adjusted. They cater to the very need that Americans have, something that is not time consuming. The sites use algorithms to match someone with a compatible date. After mates are matched they begin to email or chat. Sometimes dates come out of these conversations and the couple ends up married. But most of the time nothing happens. What technology has done is make users shallow. With Social Media everyone sees the profile and that’s it. The profile is the pre-judgment that others can have on the user.
The article “Love Via The Internet”[3]. The writer started the article by showing her own opinion clearly about the long distance relationships through the dating websites “I'm having doubts about a long-distance relationship that started through a dating site.”[3]. Then she started to give an example of a relationship via the...
The bargaining power of the supplier increases when there are few suppliers or a single supplier is supplying too many companies.