A comScore study finds that males are driving Europe?s mobile dating site traffic, with men ages 25-34 representing nearly a quarter of users.

Italians lead European countries in mobile dating site usage, according to the study. Of the nearly 11 million users accessing mobile dating services each month in Europe, 22 percent are males between the ages of 25-34 years old, compared to just 8.7 percent of females in the same age group.

?Data from comScore MobiLens shows that males are more predisposed towards being mobile media users than females anyway ? some 60 percent of EU5 mobile media users are male,? said Jeremy Copp, London-based vice president of mobile Europe at comScore.

?It is not clear exactly why there should be a greater disparity between the genders in accessing dating services though,? he said.

?We would recommend that the results show a need to look further into the split of dating services provided for example to see if perhaps there is a disproportionate number of, or mobile access to, male gay dating sites in order to provide an answer.?

ComScore?s June 2010 data shows that across Europe there has been a 52 percent increase in mobile access to dating sites since June 2009.

Italians on top
Italians are the most active in looking for love on their mobile devices, with 7.1 percent (3.3 million) of users accessing dating services each month.

Spaniards come in second with 6.1 percent (2.1 million) of users, followed by Germans with 3.9 percent (2.1 million users) and the French with 3.6 percent (1.7 million users).

Britain ranks fifth with just 3.5 percent (1.7 million users) engaging with dating services via mobile.

The comScore study finds that SMS is the most popular method of accessing mobile dating sites with 5.6 million users in June, ranking just above access via browser with 5.4 million users.

Usage of applications for mobile dating is on the rise with 1.8 million mobile users in June, up 71 percent in the past year to outpace dating site access via SMS and browser.

?The findings show that mobile dating services are a rapidly growing mobile media genre, and already attract a significant audience,? Mr. Copp said. ?They therefore offer an attractive way to reach mobile users, especially to target young males.

?Marketers shouldn?t assume that all mobile users access dating services exclusively by one mechanism: they need to consider reaching their audience through applications, mobile Internet sites and potentially also SMS,? he said.

Final Take
Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily
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