"Falling in Love Is a Matter of Trust" - About the Importance of Trust and Information Substitutes When Offering Digital Paid Services on Dating Websites

Customers are increasingly demanding trustworthy paid services in the digital economy. While there is an increasing amount of scientific literature on the economics of the Internet and trust, empirical studies concerning paid services can scarcely be found. This paper discusses research in the field of trust and reputation on paid services for dating websites. Considering the literature and examining an extensive data basis, we deploy two hypotheses to highlight reputation mechanisms of the supplier as well as the reputation of the consumers and the number of purchase transactions and revenues of digital paid services on dating websites in this evolving field. Several statistics included in this paper underline a strong and significant influence of information substitutes such as a seller’s reputation or reputation mechanisms among the customers on the number of purchase transactions and revenues of digital paid services on dating websites.