This article stems from interdisciplinary research in the social sciences and is based on the results of a quantitative and qualitative survey in the field. The aim is twofold: first, to identify the link between individuals' social characteristics and their use of the Internet as a 'relational medium'?, i.e. for meeting new people; and second, to identify the modalities of their construction of sociability via Internet, as well as their motives, and to relate these to 'real'? friendships. This two-pronged approach enables us to characterize the social profiles of the individuals who adopt this new mode of sociability. Internet appears to be an additional means for meeting new people and thereby enhancing a social life that is often already rich in the real world.