Lavalife offering a fun and stress free online experience

Canada’s oldest dating site is stepping up its game with a rebrand that promises to woo disgruntled single folks by putting the fun back into finding a mate.

Lavalife, founded in 1987 by four friends in a Toronto basement, is enhancing its digital platform with a snappier design, simplified profile-creating process and connecting people with common interests. “You’ve got casually driven sites such as Plenty of Fish and Grindr, which feed the hook-up culture. Then there are traditional sites like Match.com and eHarmony for people looking to get married. Lavalife is in the middle. We target real people without the pressure,” says Alisa Civiero, who is overseeing the Lavalife relaunch project.

“The industry is realizing there’s a gap in the online dating model. Not everyone meets a match right away and they shouldn’t feel bad. Being single should be fun. We want to remove the pressure and make this a fun and enjoyable process.”

In recent years, online dating has lost much of its stigma. The Pew Research Center in the U.S. released a study about the world of online

“THE INDUSTRY IS REALIZING THERE’S A GAP IN THE ONLINE DATING MODEL.”

ALISA CIVIERO

dating in late 2013, finding that one in five adults ages 25 to 34 years old have used online dating.

Lavalife (lavalife.com) has about 1.3 million total profiles worldwide, with the majority in Canada. The site’s new feature called “In Common” alerts users to common interests when searching profiles.

“Sending that first message to someone — the icebreaker — is always the hardest. If you know that you’ve got something in common, like sports or maybe food, it sparks an easier conversation and is not such a dry process.”

Dating sites and apps are often too focused on matching people based on looks, using complicated algorithms or promising love and marriage, she says.

“Not every date will end in a relationship — but on Lavalife you’ll have a great time expanding your social circle. We’re focusing on the journey as opposed to the end game. It’s not a race.”