Dating website Cupid hits the target by catering for most tastes

Half-year results by Cupid, the online dating outfit behind websites that span the traditional to the racy, show revenues have doubled to £38.6m, with new markets such as Canada, France, Italy, Spain and Germany all growing.

Profits are flat at £5.9m, but the chief executive, Bill Dobbie, and a growing legion of City fans think the business has a bright future.

Floated on Aim two years ago, Cupid now offers sites to cater for most tastes such as flirt.com, benaughty.com, datingforparents.com and maturedating.co.uk.

Mr Dobbie said: "Online dating is much more socially acceptable than it used to be. And a third of new registrations now come from mobile phones. People enjoy using the sites on their phones.

"Chatting, flirting, looking at photographs is something you can do easily on a phone."