Online dating

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Online dating signifies the range of matchmaking services offered on the Internet. Couples matches are usually search-based, providing users the ability to generate potential partner lists based on preferences such as age, location, ethnicity, and beliefs--from the mundane to the devout. A combination of computer dating, personal advertisements and the trademark Web collaborative spirit, Internet dating services have altered the face of matchmaking, its public perception and its techniques.

Online dating represents the single-most popular subscription service on the Internet. One study showed that eHarmony alone accounted for 2% of US marriages in a year, that is, 120 marriages per day. More than 40 million Americans have used online dating services and 120,000 marriages per year are attributed to dating matches from these sites. In 2006, US residents spent over $600 million and studies show spending will continue to increase.

History

Dating has changed drastically since its inception. It once consisted of first date proposals and fathers making deals with other fathers about whom their daughters will marry. But recently, in the past three decades, dating has become more of a process; during this process daters weed out people who they feel aren’t marriage potential even if the discarded numbers are large. Even more recently, the combination of these generational changes resulted in one type of service that caters to all types of daters, the Internet dating service. The first online dating service (www.Match.com) was created in 1995 and, as of 2002, has had 27 million people registered. The services were initially very simple and only matched people based on profiles of likes and dislikes but now many dating services have evolved, having specific requirements for memberships. For example, www.stdmatch.net is an online dating service that caters specifically to STD-infected users and requires a specification of the STD when setting up a personal profile on the site. In America alone thousands of Internet dating services exist and all of them have the same purpose, to give everyone in the world the freedom and flexibility to date who they want and when they want.

In August 2003 alone, 40 million unique users visited online dating sites in the United States alone, according to U.S. News & World Report -- that's about half the number of single adults in the U.S. Given their prevalence, it seems likely that online dating systems have begun to influence not only individual lives but also cultural notions of love and attraction with their overflowing catalogues of potential partners and their sometimes idiosyncratic choices of personal characteristics to highlight.

Algorithm

Online dating has turned searching for possible partners similar to other e-commerce websites, like online shopping. To enable this, many different algorithms have been created. Each online dating company boast about their superior technology to show and create better matches. All possible approaches incorporating psychological to mathematical theories have been used.

Though each company may take a different approach, matching personalities is broadly divided into three stages which all companies use :

• Collection of User Information
• Matching Users
• Communication between Users

Collection of User Information

This step starts the moment a person joins an online dating service. Some people don’t use online dating services for this very step of sharing private information about themselves. . The data is used to create a 'user profile'. Such a profile is a webpage that provides information about a user and can be viewed by the other members of the dating service. The users indicate various demographic, socioeconomic, and physical characteristics, such as their age, gender, education level, height, weight, eye and hair color, and income. The users also answer a question on why they joined the service, for example to find a partner for a long-term relationship, or, alternatively, a partner for a “casual” relationship. In addition, the users provide information that relates to their personality, life-style, or views. The data collected are basically of two types: characteristics data and criteria data.. Characteristic data essentially describes the user; while the criteria data is what the user expects out of a possible partner.

Services collect data via various types of questions. There are some direct fundamental ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions which all services use. Some ranking questions, where a user must rank various choices according to his preferences. Some questions where a user is given two possible extremes and he/she may choose anywhere between one extreme to the other and indirect questions which calculate the compatibility of a person. There are also options for users to ask their own constructed questions and also define themselves. Match.com and Yahoo! Personals use this form of data entry to describe themselves and what kind of person they want to meet.

Once all this data is collected it has to be converted using mathematics to allow various algorithms to match people.

Matching Users

The most basic matching is done by the users themselves, when they search the database manually. This gives a lot of control to the user but it is tedious. So to do this automatically, all the responses of the users are converted into compatibility scores (which is relative strength of each match) to mathematically match people. Services look for both complementing and similarity between users to be matched. Some services, like eHarmony.com dont let you search the total database manually and only let you search compatible users. However, match.com, Yahoo! Personals and other services do allow you to search through the database.

All dating services claim trade secrecy of their particular matching algorithm. However, all matching consists of these vital steps that all the services incorporate. Firstly, the data is saved into the data base and converted to numerical scores. Compatibility scores are then calculated. A range is then formed around a person’s compatibility scores to see which other users fall into his/her range. If a person is easy going then his range will generally be higher than a difficult person. If there is very less people in someone’s compatibility range, then they may be asked to change some answers to questions from the previous ‘user information collection’ stage to get a higher volume of possible matches.

During this phase mathematical correlation is used too. Various types of factor analysis are also done. All characteristic and criteria data are considered factors. All factors are given different mathematical values and then depending on how important that particular factor is for the user, it is multiplied by a weight.

Once potential matches are listed, communication between users is facilitated.

Communication between Users

Communication is started at a maximum privacy-protected stage or communication level. The users sometimes don’t even reveal their names. Pseudonyms are regularly used. Instant messaging, emails, private voice messages, etc. are the commonly used tools for communication. Once the users show enough attraction to each other, they enter another level of communication where they reveal more of themselves. This process of communicating at different levels continues till at a very close level of communication the users decide to meet. At any communication level users may also decide to end contact if they please.

Marketing

One reason why some dating sites are successful is their marketing strategy. There are endless possibilities for market segmentation. For example, eHarmony.com specifically targets Christians who are looking for a relationship with someone with shared spiritual beliefs. This company is fairly well known due to their unique marketing orientation. eHarmony has a relatively narrow market segment, and is considered more financially successful than most other sites. Profitability appears to be more directly correlated with the ability to customize market segment while still taking advantage of the convenient broadcasting aspects of the internet.

Present Trends

• Niche dating sites have become incredibly common and they are expected only to increase in popularity.
  • Matrimonials.
  • Religious-oriented sites, though less formal than matrimonials: Jdate.
  • Sites that offer short-term arrangements such as one-night stands and cybersex. These run the gamut of the sexually mild to the most adventurous.
  • Sites that cater to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual couples and encounters.
• Virtual Dating – Incorporates the use of avatars in online encounters. Research has shown that interactive meetings are more strongly correlated with successful experiences.
• Cellular Dating – Check profiles and request meetings over a cell phone connection.
• Handwriting Analysis – Uses handwriting samples to assess compatibility.
• DNA Testing – Preference-matching based on genetics.
• Web 2.0 Technologies –Allows family and friends to browse for potential matches on dater’s behalf. Rating technologies are also being incorporating, such as date politeness overall quality Facebook and MySpace are already beginning to enter the online dating arena as well.
• Background Checkers - Perform checks to verify not only criminal background but personal profile information.
• Code Builders – Script kits and hosting tools to build own sites.
• Online Martimonials - Very common to eastern cultures where marriages between individuals must fulfill some socio-religious conditions. Shaadi.com, India's premier matrimonial website boasts 10 million members and a million marriages in 11 years.

Issues

• Asymmetric Information:

• No users can accurately determine the qualities and subjective attributes of a potential match through examination before matching is made.

• All potential matches can more accurately determine their own subjective attributes prior to sale.

• Adverse Selection:

Adverse selection describes a situation in which the mere fact that a good is available suggests its undesirability – the classic “market for lemons” problem. Consider a new car’s resale value, which plummets as soon as the car leaves the lot. Just as a prospective buyer has to wonder why the previous owner wants to sell, those of us fortunate enough to find ourselves online in a romantic pursuit might ask, "If this match is so great, why isn’t he already taken?"

• The Lake Wobegon Effect:

The Lake Wobegon Effect, is the human tendency to overestimate one's achievements and capabilities relative to others; this is also called the above-average effect. In the case of online dating, this would be a consequence of adverse selection and information asymmetry. Daters tend to lie on their profiles or steal other profiles to avoid adverse selection, which only exacerbates the effect. Interestingly, it has been found that 69% of men and 73% of women reported better than average looks on dating sites, and only 1% admitted to being below average.

• Lack of Subjective Knowledge:

Dating sites use a “shopping” interface like that used by other commercial sites. Thus, like any commodity, daters are classified by different searchable attributes like height, weight, age and race, which can be filtered in any way the shopper desire.. The problem with this approach is that romance requires subjective knowledge (e.g. since of humor) about the potential match and not only objective knowledge, which the online dating experience a bit disappointing for some users.

• Other Issues:

There are still many issues related to online dating services. The most common issue is the social stigma that comes with it. It is viewed as selling one self. And there is data that state the fact that most internet users who are married or in committed relationships met each other offline. The report also states that a lot of the users on these websites lie about their marital status. Another major concern with this service is the loss of privacy and few cases of identity theft. Due to the volume of data one must reveal, they are very vulnerable.

There have even been cases of online dating being used as a tool for prostitution. In Japan, online dating has been tainted by allegations of teenage prostitution through the services. The practice is known as enjo kosai, or ‘compensated dating,’ the victims offer sexual services in exchange for money or gifts. According to Japanese police, nearly 800 crimes in the first half of 2002 were related to online dating.