I'm familiar with the third party, it's something that gets contracted out to different web sites with somewhat similar interfaces, and also somewhat steep price structures that make actually meeting anyone through the service rather difficult...
You get a lot of people who are interested in you, but I suppose the impetus of contacting someone who is intersted in you might encourage people to pay the money... but at $24 dollars a month, it's a bit much to spend when you don't physically get any extra features other than the possibility that you might be able to contact someone. But isn't this basically how dating sites opperate? That's how it works.
The problem is, it's billed more as a penpal service, and it's a shame too, as it seems to get quite a lot of traffic, its a shame that more friendships aren't being made at the expense of profits. Still, this is the internet, and this is how people make money. This stuff isn't free, and it's not free for them to opperate either.