Focusing on ethnic dating is the natural evolution of the online dating process. Originally, online dating was pretty much a free for all. Sure, you could note your ethnicity in your profile, but you were still part of the vast expanse of the original major sites. But as online dating grew, such focused sites became more commonplace, and in fact are now the norm.

Consider the FriendFinder network, whose main site boasts some 20 million people, but which runs roughly a dozen ethnic sites such as AsiaFriendFinder.com, Amigos.com and GermanFriendFinder. Spark Network snatched up SinglesConnection sites for virtually every ethnicity, while several sites – most notably BlackSingles.com – target the African-American audience. And any scientific matching site, such as EHarmony or Match.com, will include multiple profile questions regarding religion and ethnicity, working on the scientifically supported stance that people are more likely to bond with their own.

Find love at AisaFriendFinder.com

A common thread among the FriendFinder and Spark ethnic-focused sites is that there really isn’t a great deal of original content provided by the site itself that differentiates it. The FriendFinder sites are a bit better about this, but the real strength of both groups is the membership. It varies by ethnicity (Asians are, generally, a very active membership, whereas Germans don’t really burn up the boards), but message boards, chat rooms and blogs are where the bulk of focused information is found. You can find current events, targeted businesses or entertainment recommendations through these sites, but again, it’s provided by the membership. The negative is that you would like to think your membership to a site buys you some effort from the providers. But the positive is that, with membership being the basis of the information, you have a built-in channel to connect with other members.

Find love at German Friend Finder

BlackSingles.com sports a sleek layout leading to detailed profiles and a similarly energetic, involved community. There’s perhaps no tighter community among the ethnic sites than here, and subjects from religion to music to careers are covered. The site’s personality test, while not as scientific as EHarmony and Match.com’s, draws strong reviews.

EHarmony or Match.com travel much the same road. Because of the level of detail of profile questions, the full personality is really taken into account. While there are race and religion-based questions (and multiple ones, not just token identification questions), the general sense seems to be that similarities borne of these common grounds will manifest themselves through the profile options. Hence, there’s no real targeted content to be had, but the emotional depth that serves as the basis for connection is far more analytical than the other sites.

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