Dating

Facebook has officially entered the dating app game, launching its new feature Facebook Dating exclusively for users in Colombia. Since the announcement of the new service in May at the company’s annual developers conference, the online dating industry has been anxious for how Facebook might upend the market.

Facebook chose Colombia because online dating is a “pervasive behavior” there according to Nathan Sharp, product manager for Facebook Dating. The country has a population of 48.6 million, giving Facebook the opportunity to see how people use it and how it compares to other dating apps. There are about 200 million single Facebook users globally, according to Sharp, a huge population to reach.

The service is currently available only through the social media giant’s mobile app, and users have to opt in to the service to use it. Also, Facebook Dating is separate from the regular Facebook service, so a user’s dating activity will not be visible to friends on social media. Facebook intends to compete directly with dating apps, but the company’s focus is on connecting people to form relationships, moving away from superficial swiping that’s popular on apps like Tinder.

Online dating has become the most popular way for people to meet, but according to a recent article in Forbes, this doesn’t mean they’re are satisfied with the experience. Many are skeptical that technology will help them find love – and in fact, might make it harder.

The Forbes article focused on ghosting, a practice that has become ubiquitous among online daters. Ghosting happens when one person stops communicating with another with no explanation.

The problem with ghosting according to the Forbes article, is not the act itself, which has been around for a while, it’s how prevalent it has become. It has become such a problem among online daters that Plenty of Fish did a study, and reported that 78% of its users admitted to being ghosted at least once.

Online daters aim high when it comes to hooking up and finding love. According to a recent study published in Science Advances, both men and women aspire to date partners who are “out of their league.”

Researchers from the University of Michigan and the Santa Fe Institute analyzed heterosexual dating habits in four major U.S. cities – New York, Boston, Chicago and Seattle – using messaging data from a popular unnamed online dating service. The results of the study revealed that singles pursue partners who are, on average, 25% more desirable than themselves.

A person’s desirability was determined in part by the number of initial messages they received. The most popular individual in all four cities was a 30-year-old woman living in New York, who received 1504 messages during the period of observation, equivalent to one message every 30 minutes, day and night, for the full month of the study.

However, desirability is not just about the quantity of people contacting a user - the quality of people also matters. Those who receive messages from highly desirable people are presumably more desirable themselves. To account for this, the researchers looked at the aggregate desirability of those sending the initial messages using PageRank scores.

Summer: the season of swimsuits, sunscreen, ice cream, state fairs, outdoor movies, park picnics, umbrella drinks, bonfires, BBQ, trashy beach reads, and road trips.

This year, Match.com celebrated summer by teaming up with travel planning platform Roadtrippers for a one-of-a-kind survey on the perks, perils, and pet peeves of road tripping with a romantic partner. Over 1,500 singles shared their insights on making it work (and the turn-offs that guarantee your automotive adventure will be a wreck).

Nearly a third of singles (33%) agree that a road trip is a very significant milestone in a new relationship. But not all singles take it so seriously - an impressive 60% think it’s ok to attempt a road trip after just one month of dating a new partner.

Dating services are invaluable resources for scientists interested in unraveling the mysteries of human relationships. Countless researchers have turned to these digital matchmakers to extract information about how we mate in the modern age.

Sometimes the dating companies themselves get in on the action. Sites like Zoosk and Plenty of Fish regularly release the results of small-scale polls and surveys, while OkCupid earned widespread acclaim for the edgy investigations of its OkTrends blog.

Coffee Meets Bagel is the latest industry player to share insider insights gleaned from six years of observing singles in action. Dawoon Kang, a CMB co-founder and the company's co-CEO, recently revealed to Business Insider that men and women use the app in distinctly different ways.

Coffee Meets Bagel introduced ‘#LadiesChoice’ in 2016, a new format that offers men and women customized user experiences more in line with their preferences.

Once upon a time, singles met by grinding on dive bar dance floors, playing footsie under the conference table, or shyly making eye contact at the church picnic.

Then online dating hit the scene. Dating apps and websites completely changed the dynamics of finding love, turning footsie and furtive glances into a series of swipes and winking emojis.

Or did it?

According to a recent survey from ReportLinker, modern dating looks decidedly less modern than pop culture would have you believe. Only 19% of adult singles in the US say they are registered on a dating service -- a surprisingly small percentage considering the size of the buzz around online dating. That leaves a whopping 81% who prefer doing things the old fashioned way.