Dating Monsieur Cupid.A frenchman has lured hundreds of thousands to his matchmaking website in the pursuit of love-or fun

Armelle met her prince charming on meetic,Europe's largest dating site,shortly after it opned for business in France in 2001.She divorced him in 2006.She and the prince-his name is Eric-are still good friends,and they're both hanging out on meetic again we've used their real names to protect their online identities.I'm always looking for Prince Charming,and I've already met seceral,says the slight,dark eye,38 years-old Parisienne,who work in production for one of the big fashion houses.Some of them become the friends,some of them become the lovers.None of them will even become my husband,I'm no longer look for that.


Barry Diller's Match.com is the internet dating world's two-ton Cupid,dominating online romance in the U.S.,where two-thirds of its 1.3 million paid subscribers live.Match is all business,and that business is landing a mate.On Meetic,the cyber chestnuts are always in bloosm,and love is as much a game as a goal.In 2005,a French cad named Lewis Wingrove published a blog and later a book graphically cataloguing a year's worth of Meetc conquests of which finished sous la couette-under the quilt.Meetic founder and chief executive Marc Simoncini went ballistic and briefly considered suing.The young women in Meetic's modest office in Boulogne-Billancourt found the whole thing amusing and told Simoncini to lighten up.He now concedes that it's some of the best publicity Meetic has ever had.



Meetic has clearly scratched an itch.More than 30 million people now have a free personal profile on one of its sites.Since the firm hit the dating sece in 2002,its picked up around 650000 paying subscribers in 15 countries,and is the leading dating site in almost all of them.Last year,Meetic earned 36 million before taxes on revenues of $166 million-almost exclusively from subscription fees that range from $47 to $85 a month.When I looked around at the other dating sites,they were all so boring and sad says Simoncini,45,a suave,slightly somber Frenchman.I said,my site's going to be much more fun.People aren't going to meet someone.Everyone hopes it's the one,But if it isn't,that's maybe not so bad.Meetic is like a bar-the biggest bar in the world.



Not that Simoncini was looking to become a bartender to the world.He had already founded an Internet portal called IFrance,and made a killing when he sold it to Vivendi for $200 million in 2000 amid a mad spending spree by then CEO Jean-Marie Messier.A year working for Vivendi convinced Simoncini he wasn't cut out for corporate life.At dinner with his three closest friends-all recently divorced-the light dawned.They all complained they couldn't meet anybody-they worked too hard,they didn't go out anymore,they were too old,recalls Simincini,who met his wife the old-fashion way,at a night-club.I said to myself,I don't know that many people,so if I know three people like this,there must be millions.Growth was exponential,and Simoncini expanded rapadily beyond France.first conquering the Latin-lover markets of Spain and Italy,then turning toward the colder climes of northern Europe.He learned a lot.It truns out that in love,everybody's the same,but different.For instance,Meetic advertising theme.The rules of the game have changed,worked brilliantly in France,but bombed in Italy,where courtship rituals remain more traditational.Speak to Italian man about women making the first move,says Simoncini and he doesn't even understand what you're talking about.



In Denmark,There were howls of protest that women got to use the site gratis-and it was women who were doing the howling.They said,What exactly are you getting at,making it free for women!says Simocini with an I don't get it shrug .We said,Excuse us-we'll bill you.Since last year,women pay everywhere.England?Who knows.For one thing,it's the only country where historically more women than men pay for dating sites.England's a mystery,says Simoncini.We're not sure if they're American or European.The marketplace may clarify that mystery as Meetic and March do battle for the English heart.Match.com does a big chunk of its European business in the U.K.,where it's in a dead heat with Meetic.Last year,Meetic acquired a large British site called Dating Direct as part of a new frontal assault on its chief competitor.Still,Match CEO Thomas Enraght-Moony claims he's not threatened by his rival in love.Match is about people looking for an enduring relationship.It's a more poetic,romatic sensibility.Meetic is a lot of more casual.It's a different proposition.Simoncini says bring it on.Now we'll see who the English really are!



Meetic may be flighty in matters of the heart,but it's serious when it comes to business.Nielsen Media Research rated it the U.K.'s biggest Web advertiser in the first four months of 2008.Elsewhere,Meetic was similarly aggressive,buying a big dating site in Germany last year,as well as sites in the Netherlands,China and Brazil.Simocini is also moving beyond the dating game by launching two new media portals.VIOO is a kind of online women's magazine,while peexme is a social networking site for adolescents.The idea is to use Meetic to cross-promote the new sites,hopefully snaring some of the heavy traffic that flows through it toll-free.


The reasoning is sound and Meetic has committed at least $15.5 million to strategic endeavors like these.But while the French love a lover,they're less enamored of enterpreneurs.Meetic's stock price has halved since last Januray,slashing its market value to $280 million-quite a haircut for Simoncini,who owns nearly a third of the company.It's far and away the wrost side of France-they're always telling you that whatever you do,it won't work,he says.I'm sad for everyone who's lost money,but I'm not going to let it stop me from doing what I think is right-after all,it's my money in there too.