Datemyschool.com, a new dating website, is popping up in select universities around the country. The site is founded on the premise that it’s HARD to meet people who understand your busy schedule as a college student, and yet aren’t necessarily in your department of study. That’s why Datemyschool (DMS) is a closed social network that operates within a small number of college student populations (you must have a .edu email address). It allows students to specify which departments can view their profiles. Right now, the service is available at Columbia, Berkeley, Stanford, NYU, and other colleges.
The site was started by Balazs Alexa and Jean Meyer, two Columbia graduate students. Balazs said that the site has attracted a different demographic of users. He explained that most online daters come to the table willing to sacrifice some of their privacy and security. But with DMS, you have more control over who sees your profile and all users are college students by default. As a result, they have seen a higher percentage of users who are new to online dating.
Balazs said a few core principles of the site are privacy, security, and efficiency. “We need to know who are our members. Our users need to know that they can trust other users,” said Balazs.
The no-embarrassment factor is a key feature of DMS. “A core value is that we make sure that you are not embarrassed by being seen by other family members,” he added, which is different than a site like Facebook. In addition, no one in your everyday classes needs to know that you are on a dating website. One user told us, “I do enjoy being able to select which departments can see my profile because it furthers DMS' promise of privacy and security. In other words, it allows an NYU student to create a profile that is not visible to others in his/her program; therefore, allowing the student to feel comfortable in his/her classes, while reaching out in other areas of the school.” This user has two scheduled dates this week.
Another user told us, “DateMySchool is the rare blend of privacy and community that skirts the awkwardness of online dating. Jean and Balazs recognized the stigma and DateMySchool is the reaction to it.”
Lonely bachelors from Shanghai to Beijing with big bank accounts need be lonely no more. If you want to become a member of the premiere dating site in China, Golden Bachelor, all you need is $44,000 and meet the qualifications.
This is not your typical dating site.Potential members are screen to come from wealthy families but that they're talented and beautiful. In other words a prize catch. Even with these restrictions, the site currently has 5 million members. Golden Bachelor also offers their clients access to psychologists and special matchmaking consultants to help their rich clients find love.
The dating site offered a matchmaking party—a more expensive speed dating event—which charged members $14,600 to get in. The party hosted 21 single women and 22 single men. The matchmaking party pulled in over $600,000 for Golden Bachelor on that one night. The only difference between this lavish party and speed dating is that women danced in wedding gowns, sing, and cook for the rich guy they like. Notice that one guy paid almost 15 grand and had a zero percent chance to get a girl.
While people in America are losing jobs people in China are paying big bucks for mates. But Xu Tianli, creator of the dating site, says this is how finding love in China could look. CNN's Lara Farrar points out that dating has become more competitive in China.
“In a society where 24 million Chinese men will find themselves lacking wives by 2020 because of the country's gender imbalance, according to a recent study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, it could get highly competitive.”
(via CNN)
China is definitely seeing lots revenue in dating sites. In 2008 their online dating market was worth $43.9 million and is expected to double in value by the end of this year.
