By Jane Han
Staff Reporter
Matchmaker Park No-hyang started putting in more hours at work after she got assigned 16 more clients in just one month. This is the busiest she's ever been since she started a career in the business four years ago.
``From simple membership inquiries to detailed questions about tomorrow's date, I'm bombarded with phone calls all day these days,'' said Park, who works for a local matchmaking firm that has about 1,300 members.
She said most of her new clients are women, and extended consultations point to their insecurity during times of economic hardship.
``Many of our newbies are graduating college seniors or 20- to 30-something jobseekers,'' said Park, explaining that many single women are turning to marriage as a form of escape from the economic reality.
Another matchmaking firm, Wedian, says a surprising number of mothers and fathers are taking the liberty of signing up their single sons and daughters. The company's data shows that parents signed up 70 percent of its 800 new members last month.
Shin Yong-sung attributed the latest rush to corporate restructuring and layoff fears.
``Moms want their kids to wed while their future husbands have a secure job,'' he said, adding that the matchmaking industry as a whole was showing impressive growth despite the external economic factors.
According to Rankey.com, an online traffic analysis firm, the number of unique visitors at various matchmaking Web sites has consistently gone up since September, when Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers went bust.
Take Duo, the nation's No. 1 matchmaker, for example. It saw 23,820 visitors in the first week of September, but the figure shot up by 40 percent to 35,214 in the third week of November. Likewise, Sunoo, another marriage broker, saw a two-fold jump over a two-month period.
Duo spokeswoman Kim Sun-ah said that when the future is unclear, people want to grasp something solid and trustworthy. Basically, they want to eliminate any uncertain factors.
``Matchmakers make sure all the questions are answered, which is one big merit of the service,'' she said, adding that single women and men ``know exactly what they want in their spouse.''
Both want job security from the other, compared to the past, when it was women who stressed career status. A recent Duo study showed that singles mostly sought partners with a government job, a career traditionally known to be stable.
Sign up fees run anywhere from 100,000 won to two million won depending on the service, but the booming business demonstrates that singles are willing to spend the money on finding their perfect fit.
jhan@koreatimes.co.kr
|
yistory@koreatimes.co.kr
