Dan Gainor, The Examiner
2007-02-13 08:00:00.0
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BALTIMORE -

Want to make money? Build a better mousetrap. Want to make great gobs of money? Build a trap for the heart. The whole world will love you for it.

Wednesday isn’t just about love — it’s about business. Big Business. The average American spends more than $100 on the holiday. That’s because Valentine’s Day symbolizes romance. Nothing says, “I love you” like presents — cards, chocolates, dinners, diamonds and more.

Americans are in love with being in love and will send about 190 million Valentine’s Day cards this year. One firm is even marketing anti-Valentine’s Day cards.

The Society of American Florists says Valentine’s Day is the top holiday for that industry, with roughly a third of sales this time of year. Those roses are the perfect product. They’re beautiful and fleeting, so you will need to buy more next year. And an estimated more than $2 billion in jewelry is sold in February. Diamonds are forever ... or at least until next year when you had better buy more.

Not bad for a holiday that, ironically, has initials more commonly associated with a sexually transmitted disease. (Editor’s note: Never have a single cynic write about Valentine’s Day.)

Nowhere is there more romantic electricity than online. There are an estimated 10 million daters on a wide range of sites such as Match.com, eHarmony, Lavalife and Yahoo! Personals. That’s a lot of lonely people paying to find someone special. Jupiter Research estimates U.S. dating sites will bring in $629 million by 2009. The company that runs Lavalife is purportedly up for sale, with an asking price of $640 million.

Marketing people would call online dating just another effective channel to get a message out. In other words, it’s like speed dating, blind dating, mixers and meeting people at the office — simply another strategy to meet the perfect someone.

But does that perfect someone exist? Is life all a remake of “You’ve Got Mail?” Of course not. The online world is just like the offline world. There are some wonderful people online who might be too busy to find their mate.

Liars also abound online. According to a Pew Internet & American Life Project study, nearly 60 percent of Internet users believe people lie about marital status online.

Thankfully, problems in one business can be solved by another.

True.com now conducts background checks on members — looking for the married and the criminal. Younger people avoid the problem entirely by focusing their energies on social networking sites like Myspace.

So enjoy your chocolates. Today, be certain that your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend loves you.

Just don’t forget that businessmen love you almost as much.

Dan Gainor is The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow at the Media Research Center’s Business & Media Institute, a career journalist and media commentator. He can be reached at gainorcolumn@gmail.com.