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Take Match.com for example -- in the D.C. area, there are more than 163,000 members. On the newer start-up Chemistry.com, another 90,000 people in the area use the service.
As the numbers continue to grow, profiles slice across every demographic.
Dave Keyman, 51, met his fiancé online.
"I didn't think I wanted to hang out at bars," Keyman said. "Of all the couples we've known, especially couples like us who've met each other later in life, a lot of them met online. You have to put yourself out there and take some risks."
Still, despite its multiplying popularity, online dating can carry a stigma.
NBC 4 surveyed a group of young singles having a drink at a D.C. bar named "Lucky."
Here are three responses:
"It still has that kind of taboo."
"I'm a little skeptical."
"It's better to be face-to-face with someone."
Despite also being a skeptic, a woman who asked to be referred to as DJ said she wanted to give online dating a chance. She spent hundreds of dollars on her profile for months of service.
DJ said every time she got a match and went on a date, it never worked out.
She said the Web can be a blanket for deceit. She said she never clicked with any of the men she met online.
"They either have height issues, weight issues and hair issues," DJ said. "They give photographs that are 10 to 15 years old. It's hysterical."
Although everyone's tale of online dating is different, how they have come to tell them are the same: a search for love online, now more popular than ever in the Washington region.
According to dating psychologist Daniel Liberman, online dating is more popular than ever before worldwide.
"It will grow," he said. "And it's possible it will become the norm."
Like many things on the Internet, dating can be a gamble. Keyman said that gamble paid off for him, but it didn't quite pay off as well for DJ.
"I think I want my money back," DJ said. "It was a rip-off."
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