Match.com started a free site to get plentyoffish's traffic, so plentyoffish starts a paid site to go after some match.com traffic, it's a pretty smart move in my opinion.
From what I can tell, while free and paid dating sites are largely the same, their market is different; most people if they can afford it and want to pay will choose Match.com due to its popularity; some may also setup a profile on plentyoffish and the other free sites, but since they paid for Match, they'll likely use it more.
Markus knows exactly what traffic goes out via his ads to third party paid dating sites, and how many of those never return, so if he can make that traffic and sales his, it can only be a smart move!
