Leap Year May be Unnecessary: Match.com Research Indicates 87% of Single Women (and Only 83% of Single Men) Would Consider Making the First Romantic Move Today

LONDON, February 26 /PRNewswire/ --

Tradition has marked 29th February a day when women are encouraged to make the first move or even pop the question to their beaus, but women may no longer need a specific occasion to be romantically assertive. In a January 2004 survey by Match.com of more than 800 single adults, 87% of women said either they would make, or would at least consider making, the first romantic move if really attracted to someone, while only 83% of men surveyed indicated this.

Shyness, fear of rejection and overall dating jitters may be more prevalent among men today than women, as 17% of men, and only 13% of women, indicated they were too shy and fearful of rejection to make the first move when they were really attracted to someone.

"It's no surprise that women are taking charge of their romantic lives in this new Millennium, as this coincides with other strides women have made to exert more control and influence in terms of their educations, professions and their financial and social lives," said Trish McDermott, Vice President of Romance and resident dating expert at Match.com.

"Romance and love go both ways, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter who makes the first move, just that someone does so," added McDermott.

For some women, making the first move in an online courtship proved to be highly successful in securing a lifelong bond. In a January 2004 survey of more than 300 married people who met on Match.com, 27% of the women surveyed admitted they made the first move in contacting their current husband via email on the online dating service. Based on resignation survey data Match.com calculates that more than 200,000 members met the person they were seeking on the site in 2003 alone.

Online dating may be influencing the degree to which women feel empowered to directly pursue their romantic interests as it allows women to privately, comfortably and securely contact potential dates without any associated stigma or fear of public rejection. But not all dating practices have seen similar progress. Match.com also reports that 71% of singles surveyed in January of this year still expected men to pay for the Valentine's Day date.

About Match.com

Match.com operates 31 leading subscription-based online dating sites in 18 local languages and spanning six continents, offering adults worldwide a fun, private and secure environment for meeting each other. Match.com's personals businesses, including udate.com, claim more than 939,000 paying subscribers and millions of members. The Company estimates it is responsible for arranging hundreds of thousands of relationships for its members since its launch in 1995. Match.com powers paid online dating on MSN, EarthLink; BET Interactive and is the premier provider of personals for Love@AOL, offering the Match.com service across AOL, AOL.com, CompuServe and Netscape.com. Match.com offers wireless dating with MatchMobile (www.matchmobile.com), and events and vacation opportunities for singles through its sites MatchLive.com and SpeedMatching.com, both operated by its affiliate, MatchLive, L.L.C., and MatchTravel.com. Match.com is an operating business of IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI).

SOURCE Match.com