POF (Plenty of Fish)

Are you a Trump supporter looking for love? PlentyOfFish has some bad news for you.

The dating site recently surveyed more then 4000 American singles over the age of 18 to examine how love lives can be affected by political affiliation. It’s often said that politics (along with religion and exes) is not a first-date discussion, and POF’s research confirms it.

According to the data, singles are hesitant about dating someone with drastically different political views than their own. Twenty-five percent steadfastly refused to do so and thirty-one percent said they are unsure if they would even attempt it. Cross “the U.S. election” off your list of conversation topics if you don’t want to rock the boat.

According to The New York Times’ story last year on the current (and dismal) state of dating culture - dubbed the “Dating Apocalypse” - most Millennials using dating apps are just looking to hook up. In this feature story, we read several personal anecdotes from New York singles who were struggling with Tinder, ghosting, and meeting people who had a general lack of interest in serious relationships, which left us feeling like the world of online dating was scary and hopeless.

Turns out, this isn’t a very accurate portrayal of today’s dating culture.

A new study from one of the largest online dating services Plenty of Fish (POF) released a report this month based on over 800 survey respondents ages 18-33 (who also happen to be Millennials). These findings reveal that an overwhelming majority – 75% of Millennials to be exact – are looking for a serious relationship. This means, most are not looking for one-night stands, but real relationships.

In addition, another recent article in The New York Times flips this notion of hook-up culture on its head. Instead of taking Tinder to task for promoting hook-ups in dating, the reporter interviewed couples who had met on Tinder and later married, and even some couples who were expecting their first child after meeting over the notorious app. The conclusion is that Tinder is much more than a hook-up app, and yields successful matches for many members despite its reputation.

Tinder has been associated with hook-ups and the downfall of dating culture, but single people gravitate to it to meet people outside of their own social circles. It is the app with the largest user base, the app that most people have heard of, and because of its unique position, most people are willing to give it a try – simply because there are so many people using it.

The irony is, while some people are using it as a hook-up app, the majority of daters – including Millennials - are using it to seek out serious relationships. Despite the media claim that daters are stuck in a “casual dating” culture whether they like it or not, singles these days are still looking for good old-fashioned love. Dating apps are just a way of finding the right person, despite the superficial methods of swiping left or right based on a few photos.

Dating app culture might just be about convenience – we are always on our phones, and it’s easier to just swipe through photos rather than spending hours reading lengthy profiles. In fact, most of the long-standing dating sites have now launched apps that are more convenient and user-friendly, with photos front and center.

So the next time you are hesitant to try a dating app because you think that people are only looking for hook-ups, remember that 75% of the people you swipe through are looking for love, just like you. For more on the dating services mentioned you can read our POF review and our Tinder review.

Ghosting is becoming a familiar term in dating. It’s a passive-aggressive way of breaking up with someone, where one partner goes completely silent by not returning calls or answering texts, offering a not-so-subtle rejection of their partner. While this behavior existed long before dating apps were created, it’s only become more common as dating apps have taken off.

A recent survey confirms this trend. Dating website Plenty of Fish (POF), one of the largest dating sites in the world, surveyed 800 Millennials between ages 18-33 in both the U.S. and Canada to understand attitudes and behavior patterns among young daters. Results of the survey showed that an overwhelming majority - 80% of Millennials - have at some point in their dating lives been ghosted.

There are many reasons behind the trend of ghosting. Dating apps do make it easier, since people can be anonymous. Most daters don’t have mutual friends in common when they meet over apps, so they aren’t really held accountable for their actions or behavior. It’s also much easier to ghost someone you may not know very well instead of confronting them directly. The assumption is that it’s easier to ghost someone than than to reject him outright (like it's easier to text than to call), or that the relationship was a casual one and therefore it’s “not a big deal” to just let it disappear.

In fact, “ghosting” seems to be the new trend when ending a relationship, and daters know it will happen. Fifteen percent of survey respondents admitted to scheduling multiple dates in one night, assuming that at least one date wouldn’t work out.

Some other interesting trends the survey discovered:

There’s no “Dating Apocalypse”: Contrary to popular belief, an overwhelming majority - 75% of millennials - use dating apps because they’re looking for a serious relationship. Forty-nine percent identified “just looking to hookup” as the biggest misconception about singles under the age of 30.

Financial difficulties factor into dating and relationships: According to the study, 30% of millennials live at home with their parents, and not surprisingly, 50% say this living situation negatively impacts their love life.

Savvy Singles: 50% millennial singles over the age of 24 have already been dating online for 5 years or more, with the majority of respondents currently using more than one dating app. Twenty-three percent visit an online dating site or app 3-5 times every day. If a date goes well, 20% of millennials won’t even wait one day to set up a second date.

Millenials aren’t just looking for hook-ups and are serious about finding relationships, which is good news. However, many dating app users need a few lessons when it comes to improving their dating behavior. Ghosting isn't the best way to end a new relationship.

For more information on this dating service you can read our POF review.

It’s no secret that scammers flock to dating sites. Lovelorn singles are easy targets for con artists looking to lure victims into financial fraud, and over and over again, we hear tales of hackers stealing sensitive personal information to sell to the highest bidder.

What we don’t hear about nearly as often are infractions from the dating sites themselves. In fact, many popular dating services have a poor track record of security vulnerabilities and privacy violations.

Signing up for anything online puts you at risk, but dating services may be some of the most dangerous online destinations. Dating sites regularly collect data on users, then sell the information to marketers. Profiles can remain on company servers for years after subscriptions are canceled. Profiles may also be indexed by search engines, allowing services like Google Image Search to link photos on your profile with your real identity.

Even well-known, trusted dating sites have been guilty of privacy violations over the years. Here are some breaches:

Last month on the Canadian TV show The Disruptors, an unlikely interview took place between host Bruce Croxton and Markus Frind, the founder of popular online dating site Plenty of Fish. (Broxton was the founder of dating site Lavalife, which raked in members until POF’s free service hit the market.)

For the first time, the two former rivals were sitting down together to discuss the current state of the dating industry, and the history of their two companies.

Broxton noted the quick success of POF, which because of its free service, quickly gained a lot of users – many of whom hadn’t tried online dating previously. Typically, dating sites made their money through selling subscriptions to members, but POF tried a different model to attract a larger audience, and it worked. Instead of selling subscriptions, the site made its money by selling ad space. After all, they had an engaged audience.

At its peak and before its sale in 2004, Lavalife had over four hundred employees. Frind launched POF in 2003 and operated the service alone from his apartment for the first five years, without hiring another employee despite the service’s rapid growth. He managed to turn it into the largest dating site in the world by focusing on the US market (even though he was based in Canada), and by keeping the service free despite the naysayers.

Frind’s experience wasn’t in the dating industry when he first thought of the idea for POF. In the interview, he admitted that he just needed to learn a new programming language and the best way to do that would be through creating a dating website.

Croxton was complimentary in the interview, admitting that Frind was incredibly innovative in the dating space, despite the endless number of dating apps launched in the last few years claiming to change the online dating industry. “I find it ironic because many of the tech ideas on the show really emphasize that it’s not about the technology anymore because you can be up and running very quickly, it’s really a marketing barrier to entry. But you were pioneering that back in 2003,” Croxon said.

Frind Agreed, noting that he sold his company (for $800 million) because he was tired: “There isn’t really much innovation in the dating space; the features we have today are the same features we had five years ago. It just got kind of boring and I wanted to do something new.”

You can watch the whole interview here. To find out more about POF you can read our review on Plenty of Fish.

With Valentine's Day come and gone and spring fast approaching, romance is still on everyone's mind. Plenty Of Fish and Amazon both decided to celebrate the most loved-up day of the year by finding the most romantic places in the United States.

POF began by processing the interests data of 5 million US singles. To determine which states and cities are the most romantic in the country, POF looked at the percentage of singles within that region who listed romantic interests on their profiles. Key phrases included “walks on the beach,” “candlelit dinners” and “cuddling by the fire” (which begs the question of whether POF found the most romantic places or just the cheesiest, but never mind).

The site found that Southeastern states are by far the least romantic in the US, with the exception of Florida. In contrast, the Northwest and pockets of the Northeast are home to some of the country's most romantic states. The top spot was claimed by Michigan with Vermont coming in at a close second.

City-wise, Portland clocked in at 34% more romantic than the national average. Seattle came in second and El Paso pulled up the rear.

Highlights from the POF analysis include:

• Single US women are on average 36% more romantic than their single male counterparts.
• Washington DC is the only state in the country where men are more romantic than women. DC women are 38% less romantic than the national average.
• Single women who live in large cities are much less romantic than their rural and suburban female counterparts.
• Michigan is the most romantic state in the country. Michigan singles are 55% more romantic than the national average.
• Single men in the state of New York are 12% more romantic than the national average.
• Single men in Michigan are 74% more romantic than the national average.
• Louisiana is the least romantic state. Singles in Louisiana are 25% less romantic than the national average.

Amazon also got in on the V-Day action with its annual list of the most romantic cities in the US. The retailer assessed cities with more than 100,000 residents per capita, ranking them based on yearly sales of items deemed romantic (like romance novels, romantic music and “sexual wellness products”).

According to Amazon's data, the South, Southwest and Pacific Northwest are the regions most alive with love. Amazon users in the Northeast aren't feeling the prick of Cupid's arrow this year. The top five most romantic cities are:

1. Alexandria, VA
2. Miami, FL
3. Knoxville, TN
4. Orlando, FL
5. Vancouver, WA

Here's hoping that, in 2017, Amazon and POF combine their powers for the romance study to end all romance studies. To find out more about the dating service which performed the study you can read our review of Plenty of Fish.