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February 10, 2004 | ||||
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My Iranian Valentine
By SOFIA KOSMETATOS Daily Record Business Writer A commercial in Farsi airing in Montgomery County may have some cable television viewers thinking they accidentally changed the channel. But the 30-second spot, with English subtitles, will make perfect sense to the county’s large Iranian population, the target of a Potomac company that wants the area’s Iranian singles to turn to its IranianPersonals.com dating service. According to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics, about 13,000 people of Iranian ancestry lived in Maryland in 2000. According to research conducted by Potomac-based World Singles LLC, the parent company of IranianPersonals.com, the Washington metropolitan area has one of the largest Iranian populations in the United States. The company runs a number of ethnic dating Web sites. The highest concentrations in the area are in Montgomery County and in parts of Northern Virginia, where the commercial also is running. The commercial, the first TV spot bought by World Singles, began airing in prime time last week and will run through Valentine’s Day during entertainment and dating shows like “True Hollywood” and “Blind Date.” It portrays a young Iranian woman whose parents argue about what young man would make the best match for her. Leila escapes to the computer in her room, where she logs onto the site. World Singles President Said Rouhol-Amin would not reveal the cost to air the commercial, but did say it was not cheap. It is also running in other metropolitan areas across the country with large Iranian communities, like Orange County, Calif. With nearly 100,000 members in the United States and abroad, IranianPersonals.com is one of the most popular ethnic dating sites founded by World Singles. Rouhol-Amin, a native of Iran who has lived in the U.S. for 23 years, would not reveal earnings for his privately held company, but said the site is growing, with 5,000 new members in January 2004. Other sites include EligibleGreeks.com, with nearly 30,000 members, TurkishPersonals.com, ItalianoSingles.com and the recently launched AlbanianPersonals.com. The Iranian site was the first to get TV ad support because it is the oldest and most popular of the company’s ethnic dating sites. Match.com Vice President Trish McDermott said the dating powerhouse does not even consider niche sites like IranianPersonals.com competitors. But the niche company’s growth comes at a time when online dating is extremely popular. With millions of users already, Match.com is adding subscribers every quarter. Its parent company, InterActiveCorp, reported a 30 percent yearly increase in paid subscribers of online personals in the fourth quarter of 2003, rising from 725,000 to 939,000. Some 12 million people use Match.com and sister company uDate, including those who post profiles but do not pay to subscribe, said McDermott. Rouhol-Amin launched IranianPersonals.com in 2001, after starting a dating service as part of an online Iranian community the previous year. Back then, “online dating sites were so taboo,” he said. Ethnic dating sites make sense to Michael Lasky, co-author of “Online Dating for Dummies.” “It gives them the whole U.S. And it gives them their own country,” he said. For 28-year-old IranianPersonals.com-user Leila, who declined to use her last name, having the ability to choose from a pool of culturally-compatible men and screen them before the first date is empowering and time saving. “I didn’t have to sit there and have somebody buy me a drink and talk my ear off,” she said. Online dating is a more progressive way of meeting men, said Leila, a marketing executive who lives in Virginia. Commonly, family and friends set up potential couples at parties or other functions, she said. But sites like IranianPersonals.com give women the power to choose a suitor for themselves. For Leila and for Rouhol-Amin, the increase in women memberships of 40 percent per year is an indication that Iranian women — and parents — increasingly are accepting nontraditional dating methods. But Madeline Zilfi, professor of history at the University of Maryland, College Park, said the acceptance of online dating in Iranian-American communities depends on how secular they are. In her experience as the sponsor of the Iranian Students Association, young Iranians are trying to retain some of their ethnic identity through Internet communities. And while Iranian men Zilfi knows are not being compelled to marry Iranian women, parents still desire that they do. |
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