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Club Osmose is the brainchild of Montreal socialite Linda Thibodeau, who for 30 years has organized special events for corporations at the world's high-end destinations.
Members of the site, who pay $350 to sign up, can participate in company-sponsored dining, golfing trips and Botox seminars along with other lonely-hearts singles.
"I had all these high-level executives complaining about the same thing, that online dating is unreliable, that you never know who the people really are," Thibodeau said.
Combining this market need with her inside scoops on the upscale restaurants, boutique hotels and luxury spas was the obvious thing to do, she said.
"CEOs were always telling me I should share this knowledge with the rest of the world. This is how I'm doing that," she said during the website's launch at the Peel St. resto Cavalli, where women with impeccable skin admired an ice sculpture surrounded by a sushi buffet.
Online dating is a mature business, with a slew of specialized matching services catering to every taste.
Singles today can choose among dating websites devoted to Jews, gays, computer geeks and even people with similar diseases, like JDate.com, http://gk2gk.com or HIVpoz.net.
But unlike many dating sites, Club Osmose has no instant messaging between members, and no "wink" function for those too timid to start a full conversation.
Though members are encouraged to meet each other in the physical world, they can still browse profiles online - but only after presenting two pieces of ID, a requirement to discourage phony lurkers.
Potential clients who are uncomfortable with sharing personal information are asked to meet an Osmose representative in person.
In addition to the registration fee, members pay monthly bills from $30 to $50, depending on the length of contract.
"They have their work cut out for them if they want to create a successful business model," said Joe Tracy, publisher of Oregon-based Online Dating Magazine.
"The niche they're targeting is already filled by individual services. But making people think that they're part of an exclusive club just might work."
Also with high subscription fees and virtually no members so far, it will be tough to get new people interested, Tracy remarked.
While it may seem that Club Osmose has stiff competition with cheaper dating sites (some are free), serious daters are willing to pay up, research from eMarketer shows.
"The fact that subscription-based online dating sites not only are surviving, but in some cases are also charging higher fees, reveals that those who want such services will seek them out and pay a price for the service," eMarketer analyst James Belcher wrote.
Online dating in the U.S. is expected to garner revenues of $707 million U.S. this year, and to reach $932 million by 2011, according to JupiterResearch analyst Nate Elliot.
No figures are readily available for Canada, but 10 per cent of the U.S. number is a commonly used approximation.
Paying users are also expected to increase, but this is driven by a higher number of Internet users, not an increased interest in online dating, Elliot said.
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