http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4584489.html

One of the largest and well-known online dating services Match.com (www.Match.com), has recently acquired two overseas online dating services, successfully increasing its social network by millions of people. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, “Match.com to Announce Overseas Expansion,” the French online dating service known as Netclub and the Chinese online dating service eDodo have recently joined the Match.com network.  Members of Match.com will now have the possibility of creating ties with even more people from around the world.  With the addition of these two networks, Match.com will expand its network by approximately four million users in France and 180,000 users in China. 

An interesting detail to take note of is that with the acquisition of eDodo, Match.com will have its first and only connection to China.  This newly created edge to China could be what we referred to in class as a “local bridge.”  It is a bit unlikely that the removal of this newly created tie to China would completely disconnect the nodes in China from the users of the Match.com network, resulting in two graphs that are completely isolated from one another.  Severing this tie would just significantly increase the distance between nodes of the Match.com network and the users in China. To connect a node from the Match.com network to a node in China, the path would encompass nodes of other countries before making the connection, in lieu of a path that travels over one direct edge connecting the two graphs.

Not only does Match.com have its first tie to China, it now has in its possession the second and third largest online dating networks in France.  Over time, it can only be expected that Match.com will expand its reach even further, creating ties between more and more people from around the globe.  With every new conquest Match.com makes, it will become one step closer to securing its foothold as the largest online-dating service in the world, a prime example of the idea that out of all the networks, there can only exist one “giant” network.  (According to comScore Media Metrix, Match.com is already the world’s largest online-dating service.)