Dating sites seem to be popping up everywhere from TV commercials, billboard ads and social media sites. According to Review (n.d.), the first online dating site was founded in 1986 through what was known as the bulletin board system. Bulletin board systems were the original social media sites, where people who had a computer with a modem could connect to the service for games, chats, and file sharing. Founder Gregory Scott Smith and programmer Jon Boede, as cited by Moore (2008), envisioned Matchmaker as a pen pal network, with no membership fees and instead operating on user donations. The system was based in Houston, operated on four dial-up lines, and soon expanded to include San Antonio, Texas, and San Jose, California. The website is still in operation today. There are online dating sites that are one hundred percent free and others that are paid sites. Both free and paid sites have a unique service feature, intangibility. This means that the service cannot be touched, seen, tasted, heard or felt in the same way as it was a good. Customers of online dating sites are involved in producing the service they are purchasing by filling out questionnaires to help find a potential match. This gives it the characteristic of inseparability. It could be argued that online dating sites are heterogeneous because they are less standardized and it is difficult to have quality control, especially on free sites. Online dating sites also have the fourth service characteristic, perishability. The service provided may not be stored, warehoused or inventoried. Online dating sites are similar in how they market their service. Most online dating sites have a free version that most people can sign up for. A......middle of paper......ech Cocktail. Tech Cocktail LLC, January 7, 2014. Web. April 20, 2014. .How to Market Your Dating Site?. (March 27, 2009). Dating site builder. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://www.datingsitebuilder.com/how-to-market-your-dating-website-blog-47.htmlMoore, S. (2008, December 12). Who invented Internet dating?. eHow. Retrieved April 18, 2014, from http://www.ehow.com/about_4671785_who-invented-internet-dating.html"Options: A customized offline dating service for those seeking quality, long-term relationships." Options. Options Inc. and Web. April 20, 2014. .Wesley, Daniel. “A Business of Love: Online Dating by the Numbers.” Visual economy. Np, nd Web. April 20. 2014. .