Yahoo! gets personal in the UK

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 11 Jun 2003 at 10:22

Yahoo!'s paid-for online dating service has been launched in the UK, Ireland, France and Germany.

The success of Yahoo! Personals in the US, Canada, Hong Kong and China did much to turn around the company's fortunes in 2002, with revenues from Personals and other paid-for services pouring $89.4 million into the coffers in Q4 last year.

'Yahoo has 30 million users across Europe and 15 million in the UK and our objective is to create a place where people can find and communicate with each other,` said Jose Adams, MD Europe, Yahoo Personals. `Over the summer the service will be free. We will charge a subscription later on in the year, but we have yet to decide the pricing,' she added.

Yahoo! claims the time is right in Europe to exploit online dating opportunities and says analyst predictions value the European market at â40m this year, rising to â117m in 2007.

Yahoo! Personals will be available for the UK and Ireland at this Web site. It will also be available in France and Germany, for those with a taste for the continental.