

Ask HN: Why do Internet dating sites charge the same amount for men and women? - eckly

I would expect profit to be maximized at a point where men are charged more than women (I am assuming that there is greater demand for internet dating among men).
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Tangurena
There are a number of people who make a living sueing newspapers for running
"ladies night" advertisements. So it would not surprise me that there are a
similar bunch of people sueing dating sites claiming that any sort of pricing
differential would be discriminatory.

>Last September, after losing a Denver County Court case against Westword for
a ladies'-night ad (at trial, he compared himself to Rosa Parks and Martin
Luther King Jr.), Horner filed a complaint against this paper with the
Colorado Division of Civil Rights - a complaint he offered to settle for
either $7,000 (the amount we'd need to pay in order for him to never file
against us again) or $20,000 (in which case he'd also promise to not teach
anyone else how to file against us). And in February, the Division of Civil
Rights found probable cause that a ladies'-night ad in Westword had
discriminated against Horner although just a year earlier, the same director
at the same division had determined that a ladies'-night ad in the Denver Post
had not discriminated against Horner, and in his determination cited the
judge's ruling in our Denver County Court case, a ruling that exempted
newspapers.

[http://www.westword.com/2009-05-21/news/steve-horner-
doesn-t...](http://www.westword.com/2009-05-21/news/steve-horner-doesn-t-even-
live-here-so-how-can-we-discriminate-against-him/)

<http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/10683429/detail.html>

~~~
radu_floricica
I wonder if it would work if they charged a price based on the relative number
of men/women already registered. Si it's more of a market price.

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Frocer
Good question. May be they could get sued for gender discrimination? Although
I'd like to see two things before making any assumptions:

1\. Do men really out number women drastically on dating sites (this is only
assumed, but is it really true?) 2\. Are there any services that charges
differently by gender (I can't think of one on top of my head).

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DrJokepu
Just think about it. What would happen if a site started charging only black
people? Or only asians? And now think about how race-based discrimination is
any different from gender-based discrimination. Our society has rules that you
can't break, not even for maximalizing profits.

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run4yourlives
Last time I checked (10 years ago) they didn't.

