Do you know online dating had first become the second highest online industry for paid content in 2007? Previously, we looked into the history of dating, today we’ll explain the indications on the ways we date online now.
First, take a look at these two actual personal advertisements on Classified from over 100 years ago, don’t they sound like a “Above the Line” marketing approach to “sell” yourself out in the spouse market? It sounds pretty hard to hunt a husband or wife in such a large pool.
Today with the varieties of online dating tools , dating apps are not just categorized by sexual orientation (Like Grindr or Butterfly), but also the types of relationships you look for (like SweetRing targets users who look for serious relationships/marriage), or even the way you stat a conversation.
For example, the different forms to initiate a chat. We judge a person but his/her (filtered?) profile picture on Tinder, or you can first hear a person’s voice message on Goodnight, or start a topic on heymandi (created locally by LIHKG!) to connect link-minded people. I personally enjoy the shift of gender power like Bumble which only female users can make the first contact with matched male users, while in same-sex matches either person can send a message first.
All the above autonomy is available even before you register an account or set up your filter to start swiping and reject or indicate interest. It shows how mutual the online dating industry has become - very targeted with personalized functions like “Below the Line” marketing.
Does network society opens up false hope to romance?
From the industrial society to our network society today, consumers no longer rely on or bonded to any authority or monopolized organizations, aka a personal advertisement or a dating company to set up blind dates. We can now take control with our fingertips, with hopes that our true love is just few steps away according to Six Degrees of Separation, like how happn matches you with the people you've crossed paths with based on your GPS locations.
Well what a romantic… yet dangerous thought, being able to meet an aviation engineer from Belgium who owns a winery and villa.
In a service-based society, a single product without Design Thinking is hard to sustain business growth in the long run. Thus, dating apps are well designed, allowing us to compare matches simultaneously, save a lot of time, offer convenience to swipe 24/7 anywhere, and set filters based on our bucket lists before actually meeting someone in person. People with specific non-negotiables can be benefited most, like height, religion, smoking/non-smoker, kids/no kid, etc.
And with COVID-19 sticking around, users can now even put a ‘I’m Vaccinated’ badge on OKCupid, and the badge is among the top three most popular on Grindr.
However, the more personal data you’re giving out, the more likely you have to pay a cost on privacy. How much have you enjoyed the autonomy so far on dating apps? Leave us a comment!
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