New dating service provider touts exponential results

April 25, 2000
Web posted at: 12:55 PM EDT (1655 GMT)

By Richard Stenger
CNN Interactive Writer

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Want to find a significant other but already find the Internet dating scene tiring or dangerous? A new online service promises Web romance with a twist, recruiting loved ones to serve as online matchmakers.

The United States has 50 million single people between 20 to 55, and 61 percent of them will use an online dating service this year, according to Webwoo.com.

But nearly everyone who uses the Internet to find a date has "at least one stalker story," said Tammy Korol, vice-president of Webwoo, which launched earlier this year.

Webwoo staves off potential stalkers, she said, because all potential dates can be traced back to someone who knows the dater.

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"Statistics show that friends or friends of friends are the number one source of finding a mate. Friends offer that all-important reference check that, up until now, you haven't been able to get online," she said.

To encourage matchmakers, Webwoo offers incentives to those who come up with potential dates, including a $10,000 cash prize for anyone who hooks up a Webwoo pair that marries.

Webwoo extends the circle of matchmakers beyond just one person. For example, after a person on the market enlists ten friends or family members to help find a date, those matchmakers could provide the names of other matchmakers if they exhaust their candidates.

"Now instead of the ten people Joe has been bugging to fix him up, he's got 100 people looking for dates!" a Webwoo statement read.

"It's an exponential form of matchmaking. It's not just your circles, but your friends' friends circle," Korol said.

For all the women that complain there are not enough men to go around, online dating is the solution, Webwoo spokesperson Eve Edwards said. The typical ratio of male-to-female online dating services users rank over five to one.

A one-time charge for those on the prowl runs from $50 to $100. Matchmakers pay nothing. No one has won the big cash prize, but business has been good for Webwoo, which has thousands of customers nationwide.

"It started in New York, but California is booming," said Korol, a self-described dating guru who has arranged almost 40,000 dates during a long career in professional and amateur matchmaking. She chalks up 25 marriages as her handiwork.

Like in the Hair Club for Men, besides being vice-president of an online dating service, Korol also is a member.

"A lot of us here do use the system. I've done very well, actually, thank you very much. I have my friends setting me up."

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Webwoo -- The Friends of Friends Dating Network

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