General News

People's Park in Shanghai, China has become something of a legend.

What appears at first glance to be a flea market is in fact something much more unusual: a marriage market. Ageing parents crowd the walkways, examining personal ads, meeting with matchmakers, and hoping to find partners for their unwed children.

There is, of course, another way to find a spouse in 21st century China - a much more familiar one. Online dating has exploded in China, and is expected to break two billion RMB ($318 million USD) in total annual revenue by 2014. Online dating promises to revolutionize the way singles in China meet, and modernize the way China regards relationships.

The primary players in China's online dating scene - Jiayuan, Zhenai, and Baihe - all advertise specifically as marriage websites. The mean age of marriage is rising in the country, but marriage is still nearly universal and competition for partners is fiercer than ever.

Eligible partners are expected to have similar educational backgrounds and economic standing. Age and height are also importance considerations, as is residency. Those who hold a residency permit in a top-tier city have access to public services and employment opportunities that others do not, making them extremely desirable as spouses. Men are also expected to own a car and hold the deed to an apartment.

Thanks to China's infamous One-child Policy, it's becoming increasingly difficult for city dwellers to meet and marry. Fewer children means fewer potential partners. It means more parental attention focused on each child, and the pressure to perform well in school and at work that comes along with it. And it means fewer opportunities for children to socialize and develop their interpersonal skills.

Add all that up and you get a very competitive dating market, one that is well suited to the modern marvel of online dating. Chinese men and women, who are expected to be hugely successful educationally and professionally, have little time left for relationships. Online dating offers the perfect platform for stressed, overworked Chinese singles to connect.

Like any online dating site, the profiles of sites like Jiayuan, Zhenai, and Baihe provide snapshots of users' lives. In China, however, profiles focus on key screening criteria - like height, weight, monthly income, education level, marital history, and home ownership - instead of less the quantifiable characteristics like interests and personality that are commonplace on Western dating sites.

But as the online dating market explodes for entrepreneurs in China, all of whom are hoping to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities in the industry, major social change is coming along with it. Single men and women in China now have more freedom to choose exactly where, how, and when they find partners, allowing their decisions to be based on love rather than external factors.

For a list of dating sites with Chinese singles you can check out our Asian Dating category.

The Harlem Shake has been sweeping the nation and the world. Everyone from universities to Jimmy Fallon have released a video. So how did these Harlem Shake viral videos become a YouTube craze?

It looks like the first Harlem Shake video was uploaded on Jan. 30, 2013 (see Video). As of today it has over 24 million views. The video that really got the ball rolling and set the format for future videos was this one released on Feb. 2, 2013 by a group of teenagers from Australia calling themselves TheSunnyCoastSkate. Basically a Harlem Shake video is about 30 seconds long with the first 15 seconds of a lone masked person dancing with people around him not paying attention. The video then cuts to the entire group of people doing a crazy dance with most dressed in costumes. During the video samples of the 2011 song "Harlem Shake” released by Baauer are played.

By Feb.11, 2013 approximately 4 thousand Harlem Shake videos where being uploaded to YouTube everyday making 12 thousand total videos with 44 million views. By this time companies had started to take notice and where releasing their own videos. When February 15th rolled around there was a total of 40,000 videos that had been viewed 175 million times. The song “Harlem Shake also reached number 1 on iTunes in America.

Not to be left out a number of dating sites and social networks have also released their own Harlem Shake videos. Here they are:

Match.com does the Harlem Shake

Plenty of Fish does the Harlem Shake

Mate1 does the Harlem Shake

Facebook does the Harlem Shake

For more on the Harlem Shake phenomena you can check out Wikipedia.

In a bit of a marketing stint SugarDaddie.com offered a city in the great state of Texas called Sugar Land $4.65 million to be renamed “SugarDaddie.com, U.S.A.”. The initial offer of $500 thousand was turned down. It is SugarDaddie’s 10 year anniversary and Steven Pasternack, CEO of SugarDaddie.com was looking for a way to celebrate his dating service’s milestone.

If the deal is agreed to not only would the city be renamed but local landmarks as well for up to 10 years. The local Fire Department and Airport would also carry the Sugar Daddie name. The mayor of Sugar Land is expected to tell the media his decision this Tuesday at noon.

For more on this story you can read Time. For more information on this dating site you can read our review of SugarDaddie.com.

While Americans are wrapped up in the online-love-gone-awry tales of MTV's Catfish and football player Manti Te'o's real life story of being conned by a fake date, Britain is in talks to develop a new code of conduct for online dating.

The pan-industry effort includes the company behind The Times and The Daily Telegraph's dating sites, The Dating Lab, as well as Lovestruck and Christian Connection. Other dating services are also part of the discussion, but have so far declined to be publicly associated with the talks.

It's peak season for the online dating industry, so there's no better time to talk about the important issues plaguing users. Heather Heber Percy, chairwoman of the Association of British Introduction Agencies, told The Observer: "What worries me is that the bigger the market gets, the more it gets all about money rather than emotions and helping people." As a result, online dating scams are becoming increasingly widespread.

The Association of British Introduction Agencies already has a code of conduct, but until recently, few companies had signed up to it. And to make things even worse, the companies themselves are responsible for some of the suspicious behavior on dating sites.

An expose on Channel 4 in November revealed that one agency was employing people to create fake profiles and flirt with other members, to entice them to stay on the site. The investigation into white label dating site Global Personals, which powers sites like Dating Republic, Love2Meet, and FlirtNaughty, uncovered a host of allegations from former employees that Global Personals dupes consumers.

Global Personals claims it has stopped practices like creating false profiles, but they are just one site of many involved in similar actions. The new code of conduct under discussion will affect both users and the agencies providing dating services by ensuring the authenticity of profiles. It will also give companies the power to remove fake identities and cancel the subscriptions of users who are thought to be deceitful.

The talks will address how the industry should set standards around specific issues, like those mentioned above. Other topics to be covered are the protection of users' data and guarantees that adequate levels of customer service are available.

A statement issued jointly on behalf of the dating services involved states: "Online dating has come into its own and is now an entirely normal way for couples to meet. As the industry grows and expands, we want to make it as easy as possible for consumers to make informed choices and to identify the providers that are committed to the highest standards."

This just in, a little late: February 13-19, 2013 was International Flirting Week. I had no idea that was a thing until now, but I'm already fully prepared to jump aboard the Flirting Week boat. As far as I'm concerned, every week should be flirting week.

And as far as Zoosk is concerned, International Flirting Week (oh, and that little holiday called Valentine's Day, too) was the perfect opportunity to conduct a survey on flirting habits amongst 13,000 members of the site. Why do we flirt? How do we flirt? Who flirts best? And what better way to explore it all, than via infographic?

First up: the Battle of the Sexes. Who are the biggest flirts, men or women? Opinion appears to be divided on the issue. 53% of women say men are the more flirtatious sex, but 60% of men disagree and think women take the flirting crown.

Opinion is less divided over the reasons people flirt. Most, at 41%, say flirting is just playful fun. Others think it's a good icebreaker (20%), a way to keep the romance alive (18%), or a useful tool for attracting a partner (11%).

Flirting is popular for singles and loved up couples alike. 89% of men and women think it's important to flirt with your significant other when you're in a relationship. 54% of men will flirt even if they're not interested in pursuing a relationship, as will 41% of women (guilty as charged!).

What about when flirting goes wrong? Zoosk users think these are the Gravest Flirting Mistakes:

• Suggestive body language
• Corny pickup lines
• Inappropriate comments about one's physical appearance
• Coming on too strong and invading personal space

And who are the biggest flirts in the world? I bet you can guess this one...

Although 76% of American men think they're Cassanovas, the top flirting trophy goes to Italian men, 97% of whom say they are big-time flirts.

Two things are clear: flirting is exciting regardless of age, gender, or relationship status, and I need to move to Italy.

Says Robin Gorman Newman, founder of International Flirting Week: "As the Zoosk survey shows, many view flirting as fun even if they don't want to date the person, but it's also a way to jumpstart a relationship or rekindle romance. In our busy lives, flirting can be a quick and effective way to remind your mate that you love and are excited by them."

To find out more about the dating site which brought us this survey you can read our review of Zoosk.com.

First, The Atlantic said online dating is a threat to monogamy.

Then, The Atlantic said online dating is in no way a threat to commitment or marriage.

And then, just when it seemed like the fickle magazine couldn't make up its mind, The Atlantic said this: there is something hurting monogamy, but it definitely isn't online dating. Sure, online dating is a big deal these days, but, says Jordan Weissmann, "there are much, much bigger social forces at work in this country."

Just look, he suggests, at the huge shortage of college educated men in America. It's a subject The Atlantic knows well - Kate Bolick wrote a piece called "All the Single Ladies" back in November 2011 that promptly went viral.

In the article, Bolick argues that an eruption of male joblessness and a sharp decline in men's life prospects have have disturbed the "romantic market" in ways that significantly limit a marriage-minded woman's options. Women are left with two undesirable options: deadbeats (whose numbers are rising) and playboys (whose power is growing).

Weissmann agrees with Bolick's thesis. "Across the United States today," he writes, "young women are much more likely to graduate from college than their male peers, a trend that's been compounding itself for a few decades now." When you take into account the fact that college graduates overwhelmingly tend to date other college graduates, you find yourself with an enormous imbalance in the national dating pool.

Nearly two centuries of social science research suggests that, when the gender ratio is skewed and there are fewer men than women, men are less likely to commit. In 1938, Marica Guttentag and Robert Secord posited the theory that men are more promiscuous in female-heavy populations and more faithful in male-heavy populations. Other researchers found that, in developed countries, a higher ratio of men leads to more marriage for women, less divorce, and fewer illegitimate children.

More contemporary research has shown that "female college students are less likely to have a boyfriend or go on traditional dates, and are more likely to have bad feelings about the men on campus, at schools that enroll disproportionate number of women."

Something may indeed be changing our ideas about monogamy, but it's unlikely to be online dating. This brave new world also presents an opportunity: it's time for our ideas about romance, family, and commitment to evolve, and time to abolish "traditional" marriage as society's highest ideal.