Are eHarmony and Match the Same Company?

No. The evidence points to two separate businesses. A ProSiebenSat.1 press release announced that its NuCom Group and PARSHIP ELITE Group were taking over 100% of eharmony, and it never mentions Match Group. eharmony's own website footer lists eharmony Inc. as the copyright holder, with the company based in Los Angeles. Nothing in either source ties the site to Match.

The release describes NuCom Group and PARSHIP ELITE Group taking over the whole of eharmony, which it calls the US online matchmaking pioneer.

It names Parship and ElitePartner as the two brands of PARSHIP ELITE Group. It describes them, like eharmony, as online matchmaking platforms for singles who want long-term relationships. It frames the deal as ProSiebenSat.1 expanding its Commerce segment internationally.

Match Group does not appear anywhere in it. If the two sites shared an owner, the announcement of a full takeover would be the place to say so.

The footer of eharmony's own site lists eharmony Inc. as the copyright holder and places the company in Los Angeles.

That tells you whose name is on the site's copyright, and it says nothing about Match. A company's own footer is also the easiest thing for a man to check himself, which makes it a better source than an article that repeats a rumor.

The confusion is understandable, and it has simple causes.

Both are long-running names in online dating. And the word "match" is all over eharmony itself, which sorts women into compatibility scores and calls the results matches. A man who sees "match" on one site and the name "Match" on another reasonably wonders whether they are the same thing.

They are not, and the similar vocabulary comes from the fact that every dating service talks about matching people.

The press release describes eharmony, Parship and ElitePartner as matchmaking platforms for singles who want long-term relationships. That is useful to know before you sign up, because it tells you what the site is for.

A man who joins eharmony wanting something casual is likely to waste his time and hers. If you want a relationship, the site's stated purpose matches yours, and you can say so plainly in your answers. If you want something else, choose a different service instead of fitting yourself to this one.

Ownership of a company can change, and an article cannot track it. Treat what is written here as what the sources above say, and nothing beyond that.

If it matters to you, for instance because you want to know who handles your data or your payments, go to the site you are using and read the terms and the footer. Those pages name the company you are actually dealing with at the time you sign up.

The practical effect is simple. Treat the two as separate services with separate accounts, and keep track of each one yourself.

Each site has its own pool of women, its own rules and its own terms. Do not assume that a subscription, a setting or a cancellation on one reaches the other. If you pay on both, put each renewal date on your calendar, because nobody else will remind you.

Running both can still make sense. a dating coach's advice on online dating is to test and to run more than one profile, using different sites to try different ideas and carrying over what works. Two services with different audiences give you two samples to compare, which a single site cannot.

Do not choose by who owns what. Choose by which one puts women in front of you who reply.

Give each site a fair week with a clear face picture and a few specific lines in your answers. Count the women who write back and the conversations that become a plan. Keep the one that gives you dates and drop the other.

A site with a famous name and no replies is worth less than a smaller one where women answer you.

Keep the test fair. Use the same pictures and the same style of opening line on both, so that any difference in replies comes from the site and not from something you changed between them.