In an earlier ranking of UK dating websites by rival online intelligence firm Hitwise, lagged behind and , but this data did not take into account visits from DatingDirect's white label dating service that it provides for sites including Handbag.com, Channel 4 and GQ.com.
Nielsen//NetRatings' list puts DatingDirect.com at number one with 414,000 unique users a month, followed by , with 391,000; uDate.com, which had 292,000 users in February 2004; MSN.co.uk's dating site, with 233,000 users, and Yahoo! Personals, at 230,000.
The figures have been compiled by measuring audiences on a monthly basis.
Roy Patel, director at Nielsen//NetRatings, said: "To maintain a lead at the top of any market place is tough but DatingDirect.com consistently leads a market noted as being one of the fastest growing and most competitive within the internet industry."
Hitwise research showed that traffic to dating websites rose by 17% during the first six months of last year, and Jupiter Research is predicting that the UK online dating market will be worth 拢47m by 2008.
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