Online dating site Match.com is releasing a native iPhone application for its 15 million members to date on the go. The app allows users to edit their profile, upload photos, and even has an opt-in to a location based feature that allows them to see singles in their area.
The last feature seems to be the most innovative one-there is definitely a market for location based dating on iPhones and other smart phones. We wrote recently about Skout, a location-based dating iPhone app, and said that location based dating might be more successful and appealing via big dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony. Now that Match has unveiled its new app, we think this could become really popular amongst its exisiting member and perhaps even draw new ones.
Match.com hasn’t been slow to jump on the mobile bandwagon. In 2007, the dating site launched its MatchMobile service, which provided subscribers with text messages to their phones when they received an e-mail from other Match.com users.
I think this will be huge. Sure some bumps and refinements, but as Leena said, “there is definitely a market for location based dating on iPhones and other smart phones”.
Follow me now @ http://twitter.com/IanMikutel
How much did Match.com pay for this post? What a fucking schmoooooooze…
Yeah! This whole blog is probably just a big front for Match.com! We’re on to you, Leena, if that is your real name.
Still long way for me to use it..I m not 18. hehe
http://www.smartbloggerz.com
this location based dating stuff is going to be a huge business.
I absolutely agree on that. As in …
>> Next block, first building on the left: Susan invites tall and handsome millionaires to her party tonight. Enter your net income here [*******.**] to see if you are invited.
For hook-ups. Not dating.
For stalking. Not dating.
I think newsworthy since its the first big dating site to do this.
HotorNot has had a native iPhone app for a long time.
Speeddate.com also has an iPhone app for a while.
I was wondering how long they were going to take to do this.
Hmmmmmm…
Pretty smart idea to build this app for iPhone. I’m sure all major web services will come out with their own apps within a year or two.
I guess this app will be popular and it’s a really great app for a lot of people.
Mohammad Afaq
Free Website Traffic
15 millions match.com users
maybe at max 0.5 million users have an iphone and willing to share location.
spread 0.5 million users across the country.
now, consider the odds of finding anyone at your location.
People will check their profile on their phones, but the location feature will be a bust.
This will make for some awesome confrontations. “Why didn’t you wink back at me?!?”
San Francisco isn’t that big. This has happened to me a few times already – even without the iPhone app.
“um, because you seemed confrontational?”
Awww. It isn’t you, it’s the app.
If forgot the factor time. Only a fraction of the users will be online when you are online.
It will be interesting to see if this increases their membership or just helps the existing Match.com users. At our website we are working to offer the first online speed dating via Twitter! Easily accessed on a mobile device as well.
Am I the only one that thinks most women will find location based dating services creepy. Women are already nervous enough meeting someone from a dating site!
Actually, a lot of women use Match.Com, etc for hookups and are desperate enough to bring it on :0
Ever heard of meetmoi.com? Match.com doesnt seem so innovative…
They have location-based matching on their website. Why would anyone need to do this on the fly via the iPhone? I can’t see many women buying into this, lol.
locked into my verizon contract and phone i can only sit on the sidelines and watch these cool apps come about and not be able to participate. when will we be included?
Love on the iPhone, everything and anything you can think of that has been tried out on the web will soon be available on mobile devices too.
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you definitely cant go wrong with location based dating apps. it may be creepy, but there is a large market for it – especially for the couch potato iphone user
i myself created a simple yet fun love based app that seems to be drawing quite a crowd on the app store – app is called Love Crush
http://itunes.c...m/app/lovecrush
I’ve always wondered why the missus hankered after an iPhone – now match.com have given her another reason to be all cagey about her motives.
I think it’s a great idea, especially if they factor in GPS tracking so you can stalk your next date.
All fine and good but I know very few women with an iPhone. If I want to find potential dates, I’d rather not have candidates filtered that way.
We didn’t build Locle as a dating service but people can of course use it that way. We have automatic location updates figured out for about 70% of the other (non-smart) phones.
Pieter
http://www.locle.com
I’m a student at Parsons School of Design, and for my Design at the Edge Class, with Bruce Nussbaum, we’re examining how new social technology is affecting the we establish relationships.
This match.com app seems to further accelerate the pace of online dating from browsing at home, to browsing as a bored habit. Dating online is nothing new, or easy, but putting ourselves out there like meat to be consciously judged as an expense for someone’s bored thrill seems to make the flame of dating ignite, burn, and diminish all too quickly.
I cannot agree more, actually I wrote a similar post weeks ago
Edward
Frontier Blog – No one ahead, no one behind
http://www.hwswworld.com/wp
Brief summary of the comments already made:
Peter Urban/Sammy/Trae Dorn/Jason/AcaKaliman/Dave Thackeray: Probably not for Dating maybe for hook-ups or stalking
Mogilny/Facebook User: Maybe ownership of an iPhone and membership of Match.com is a bad way to filter a potential date because dates need to be on AT&T network, have an iPhone, be on Match.com. in your area, online and posting their location at the same time as you.
Peter Reis/Brad L./Mogilny: Mobile Location awareness could potentially lead to unwanted
real world confrontations
Jackie: “am i the only one that thinks most women will find location based dating services creepy. Women are already nervous enough meeting someone from a dating site!”
bacchusPlateau: “locked into my verizon contract and phone…. when will we be included”
Jordan: seems to think it’s a boring pastime for a single person to look at the small adverts of other singles.
What i think:
1) This type of service needs to work on a much wider range of mobiles and mobile networks
2) There has to be some way of assuring users that members are real and as advertised
3) The service needs to be fully moderated by humans to stand any chance of beating the scammers
4) The service needs to be billed like a mobile service, ie. per use and with no subscriptions
Why would someone who has so little time to seek a mate that they need to do it from their mobile be relationship material for any rational human?
@Nosaj: it’s actually the complete opposite…
It’s not that the singles who use their mobiles for dating are particularly “time poor” it’s just that they have better things to do with their time than sit at home alone with their PC trying to connect with other singles who are sitting at home alone doing the same.
It might surprise you to find that “relationship material” often includes people who use their free time to socialise with friends, visit their family when not at work, spend lots of time in airport lounges or take evening classes.
Mobile Dating is invaluable to those who work long/inconvenient/unsociable hours such as Doctors, Nurses, Police and Fire Officers.
Congratulations Match.com. Skout thinks its great. Great for the community, and Great for Dating. It’s just another validation for all of us in the space.
http://www.skout.com (dating from your iPhone with chatting) shameless plug
Love on the iPhone, everything and anything you can think of that has been tried out on the web will soon be available on mobile devices too.