This doesn't solve anything. The core problem is that women get tons of spam messages and men get very few responses. This means the matching algorithm is broken. This site is just a tweak on hot or not.
> <i>"I don’t think conversations start with “I don’t smoke, want 3 children, and am Catholic”. But this is basically what online dating sites do: they put a ton of information in a person’s profile, and ask other users to evaluate this data. There are certainly busy people who can’t be bothered with speaking to people, and want a dating service to run algorithms and find them someone. Maybe these people have played the dating game, and have had enough. They actively want something unnatural, and don’t mind if the computer sifts out people who aren’t their carbon copy."</i><p>I don't necessarily disagree with most of what else you say in the blog post, but if this is seriously your conception of how people use dating sites, then you are doomed to fail.<p>Speaking from the experience of <i>living</i> with various roommates who have done e-dating with the popular services, none of them have ever approached them in this mechanical way. The data helps refine the search, but they're still looking for attractive people to chat with.<p>And that data part <i>is</i> important. If you're a 20-year-old looking to have fun, you're going to want to weed out anyone who is in an age demographic that wants to have a life-long relationship. And vice versa. So <i>not</i> having that data is a disadvantage that you have to make up for.
Good idea, I'll check it out.<p>one comment:
"We thought about how most people meet. Generally, a person will see someone, be attracted to them..."<p>That's not the first step. The first step is context, e.g. you're at a party thrown by a mutual friend.<p>That first step is important, it's context and that's what needs to be fixed. In the real world "dating contexts" are fairly limited, e.g. there are only so many parties you can go to in a week, only so much time to participate in a hobby with someone else, etc, etc.<p>I look forward to seeing this app evolve. If you address the "context" issue it could really take off.
I think they underestimate how much of a role context plays in meeting people in the real world. You may not have an online dating style bio sheet on your t shirt, but that you and your crush are in the same place, likely doing the same thing, provides a lot of information that you might be compatible.
This sounds oh so very much like Loopt Mix. While it may seem to be working at first, as the app gains popularity the quality of the average match will fall, the attractive/desirable people will leave, and you'll end up with a sketchy hookup app where people pay for sex with iTunes gift cards[1].<p>I wish them luck, and would love to be wrong, but I'm skeptical.<p>[1] Yes, this actually happens in the real world. Nothing surprises me anymore.
This is essentially a mobile advertising-supported implementation of HotOrNot's MeetMe service.<p>My understanding is that MeetMe was hackable by 'liking' every single profile just to see who likes you back (although there is still a risk that people on the other side are also 'liking' every single profile which would make the match worthless); curious if this service handles this differently.
Since your idea is to recreate the experience of meeting in real life (I'm not sure if this makes sense, because people could then just choose to meet IRL - people date on-line for a reason), sell the same benefits that would convince cool people to attend a party and meet up.<p>Your app is party without a headlining DJ or popular promoter.<p>Sell the benefits that would convince cool people to go to a party:<p>- Convince females that your app discourages loser males who will spam them for sex.<p>- Convince males that there are plenty of females who are not justing wasting men's time.<p>It seems like those are the benefits you are comfortable offering. There are other benefits to users of dating sites, but it seems like date.fm isn't on-board with the things people normally look for from on-line dating: pre-qualified partners and easy sex.<p>I'd rather go to a party than meet girls on a phone app any day, but I'll def try out date.fm and give some more feedback, if it gets any traction.
Argh! If you want to improve dating using technology, stop focusing on how to arrange first dates. That problem is basically solved to 90%.<p>Focus on how to fix the real problems in dating, i.e. the things that happen between deciding to go on a date and agreeing you're in a relationship. No, I don't know how to solve this in a scalable way. Yes, you will create a lot of value if you can do this.
Online dating is a huge potential market.<p>Whichever service eventually "solves" online dating wont call itself a dating service. People don't use online dating because it is just that - online dating. The social stigma isn't going away.<p>Facebook can disrupt online dating by introducing you to Facebook users near you with common interests. Unfortunately, I am not convinced a startup can do the same, or I would be doing it.
We've posted some follow-up comments on how we're trying to improve the quality of Date.fm here: <a href="http://blog.date.fm/post/13881727508/how-quality-and-simplicity-make-date-fm-something" rel="nofollow">http://blog.date.fm/post/13881727508/how-quality-and-simplic...</a><p>Would love to hear your thoughts.
Is there some reason this is an exclusively iOS app? Seems like something generally desirable... if appropriately designed. Or is there some business reason for the restriction?