A 21st Century Love Revolution as Cupid Strikes Online

LONDON, 13th February 2009:

• 21st century love has found its home in the digital world with 66% of people admitting they would rather ‘type it than talk it’ on Instant Messenger (IM) this Valentine’s Day
• 1 in 3 have declared their love via Messenger and over half (55%) admit to flirting on it
• Over 67 million people (33%) across Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) have found love on the internet with 5 million relationships (7%) leading to marriage and a further 19 million (28%) resulting in long-term partnerships^[1]

Twenty first century love has found its home in the digital world with 66% of shy seducers and new age Casanovas in Europe admitting they would rather ‘type it than talk it’ on Instant Messenger (IM) this Valentine’s Day. The survey conducted by Microsoft’s Windows Live Group across 16 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa, explores the experiences and attitudes of over 78,000 people and highlights some of the online dating and flirting techniques of the 21st Century.

Reflecting its growing role as a social networking and communications tool, the internet is now the second most popular way of meeting new people according to the research, with nearly a quarter (24%) of Europeans agreeing this is the best way to meet new love interests. The internet is second only to meeting ‘through friends’ (46%), which remains the universal favourite.

Internet romance is growing rapidly in popularity. Turkey, Sweden and South Africa have the largest number of online lovers with more than 4 in 10 people having found love on the internet.

Overall, approximately 67 million people (33%) across EMEA have found love online, with 5 million relationships (7%) leading to a stable marriage and a further 19 million (28%) resulting in long-term romantic partnerships[2]. Over a third (37%) of cyber- couples have had short-lived love stories but remained good friends. Only 2% of internet relationships have resulted in a divorce.

A Cyberspace Love Revolution
More than half (55%) of Europeans have used Instant Messenger to flirt with someone. Instant flirting by Messenger is particularly prolific in Northern European countries like Norway (84%), Netherlands (82%) and Sweden (71%). While Arabia (35%), Belgium (36%), Spain (39%) and Italy (42%) are the least ‘virtually flirtatious’.

The majority of people across Europe (66%) admit that they find it easier to flirt over IM than face-to-face, with shy South Africans much preferring this method of flirting (78%) closely followed by Arabia (77%), Turkey (76%) and Ireland (72%). Saying ‘I Love You’ for the first time is never easy, so it comes as no surprise that 1 in 3 have actively declared their love for someone over instant messenger rather than face-to-face. Cupids in the Netherlands (61%), Denmark (42%), Portugal (41%) and Spain (40%) top the league table for saying ‘I love you’ in cyberspace.

Jean Smith, Relationship Expert, comments: “Romance is not dead – it’s just gone online! Economic instability often puts pressure on relationships and this is especially true at crunch times such as Valentine’s Day. It is commonly accepted that the key to maintaining good relationships is a good and honest dialogue. Services such as Windows Live Messenger provide an easy to use, and often less embarrassing, platform through which people can open up to each other. Most people find it easier to flirt or to profess their love in an online environment as it’s much less intimidating. It’s not unusual for shy people to come out of their shell and become more honest and forthcoming when they realise they are not in a face-to-face situation.

“Windows Live Messenger is a great way to keep the romance alive in your life. In general, people feel more comfortable expressing their true feelings when the pressures of direct eye contact and physical reactions are removed, so for some, the internet creates the perfect environment in which to open up to loved ones.”

Recession romance
Valentine’s Day is traditionally a time to splash some cash, but with consumers tightening their belts this year romance may be in for a rocky ride. Sadly, Cupid’s arrow is set to miss 13 million Europeans (5%)[3] who cannot afford to celebrate Valentine’s Day at all this year and a further 1 in 10 will be forced to make cutbacks as households rein in their spending to weather the economic downturn. Less than half (47%) of Europeans will celebrate Valentine’s Day as they usually would this year.

Furthermore, spending on Valentine’s Day will fall by almost 10% across Europe compared to 2008 - decreasing from an average of €75 spent per person down to €68. Hardest hit will be Spanish lovers, with a 45% drop in gift expenditure, followed by Israel (-22%) and Italy (-18%)4. Denmark continues to spend the most on Valentine’s Day with an average of €109 being spent on romantic gestures, while loved ones in South Africa may feel short-changed in comparison with an average of just €9 being spent.

Alex Dale, Marketing Director at Microsoft, comments: ‘Windows Live Messenger is becoming more and more popular because it’s an easy, free and fun way to communicate. It’s much more personal than email because the conversation is live – and the research released today shows that as we become even more entrenched in our digital lives and make better use of instant messaging it’s becoming a real alternative to either real or telephone conversations.

“Recently, we’ve also seen more and more people using video calls on IM to make communications even more personal than pure text exchange. It is now possible to carry on a long distance romance using the video function, or keeping the romance alive with a quick, flirty text to a long-term love. So this Valentine’s Day if you don’t quite have the nerve to say it in person, Windows Live Message it!”

For further information, please contact:

Ellie Moffat, Red on 0207 025 6564 eleanor.moffat@redconsultancy.com or Redcoiemea@redconsultancy.com

Notes to Editors

About the survey
All numbers and percentages come from a survey of over 78,000 MSN users, conducted by Microsoft MSN in conjunction with Cross Tabs across the following 16 EMEA markets: Arabia, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey.

About the Analysis
1] Calculations based on the total online population for all participating markets, totalling 203 million (source: EIU Economic Statistics) so 33% of the online population equals 67 million people. 7% of 67 million people who have started a relationship have got married, this equals 4.7 million. 28% of relationships have led to long term commitments totalling 18.8 million

2 Calculations based on the total online population for all participating markets, totalling 203 million (source: EIU Economic Statistics) so 33% of the online population equals 67 million people. 7% of 67 million people who have started a relationship have got married, this equals 4.7 million. 28% of relationships have led to long term commitments totalling 18.8 million

3Calculations based on a population of 260.8 million (source: EIU Economic Statistics) for participating European countries (excluding Arabia, Israel, South Africa and Turkey) – 5% of population equals 13 million people

4 Figures based on the average spend across all participating markets. Calculations based on money spent in 08 against projected spend for 09 – difference from €75 to €68 is 9%. Currencies have been converted into Euros to provide meaningful comparisons

Table showing Expenditure on Valentine’s Day across Europe

Country	Expenditure 08 (€)	Expenditure 09 (€)	% Difference(€)
Arabia	€24	€26	8%
Belgium	€103	€99	-4%
Denmark	€116	€109	-6%
Finland	€33.05	€33.32	1%
Ireland	€15.94	€16.23	2%
Israel	€125	€102	-22%
Italy	€92	€78	-18%
Netherlands	€62	€58	-6%
Norway	€101	€95	-6%
Portugal	€84	€77	-9%
South Africa	€8.23	€9.21	11%
Spain	€112	€78	-45%
Sweden	€66.30	€64.93	-2%
Switzerland	€84.69	€85.75	1%
Turkey	€91	€87	-4%

About Windows Live Messenger
Faster than email and easier than the phone, Windows Live Messenger is a free instant messaging (IM) service that allows people to connect with others in real time and express themselves in a rich, convenient and fun way. Windows Live Messenger is used by more than 294 million people each month, making it the world’s largest consumer IM service. The only IM service to offer full-screen video Windows Live Messenger was also the first to offer virtually unlimited file sharing. Every day over 2.5 billion Messenger messages are sent around the world and at any one time there are more than 15 million people using Windows Live Messenger – which is available at http://messenger.live.com.

About MSN and Windows Live
MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each other as complementary services. Windows Live Services can be downloaded from www.get.live.com MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com.

About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential.