Online dating platform
Under online dating platforms Internet-based services are understood to allow an exchange of personal and private contacts between the platform users.
definition
The Anglicism "dating" describes a meeting or going out together, especially in the USA, to find out whether the other person is a suitable partner. Online dating is a special form of partner search that uses the Internet as a medium. Bruschewski (2007) provides a good definition approach, who defines online dating as "Internet-based interpersonal contact with the aim of establishing an intimate and passionate relationship". However, this approach seems too limiting, so that it sets the following definition: Online dating is the interpersonal process of getting to know each other via the medium of the Internet with the aim of checking a (initially unknown) partner for his or her suitability for a couple relationship .
history
Online dating platforms first emerged with the opening of the internet to the masses in the 1990s. Online dating was born on the Match.com platform, which was bought by Gary Kremen in 1994 as an insignificant email-based dating service, expanded to include a profile database and republished in 1995. In Germany, Datingcafe.de was launched in 1998, the first online dating platform.
term
Online dating platforms as a generic term encompasses all Internet-based services that enable personal and private contacts to be arranged. In this respect, all online dating platforms have one thing in common: their providers operate a database that can be used over the Internet, in which users can register and get in contact with other users.
Differentiating features
Nevertheless, some differences between online dating platforms can be identified, which result in several dimensions and ultimately lead to a differentiation from online dating platforms.
Mediation target
The first distinguishing feature of online dating platforms is the general orientation of the dating platform with regard to the advertised mediation goal. Correspondingly, a distinction can be made between dating agencies, single sites, casual dating (or adult dating) and special interest (or niches). Dating agencies tend to seek to establish a stable, long-term partnership, while dating sites tend to focus on providing social contacts that can lead to a partnership. Casual dating or adult dating ultimately serves to mediate relaxed, mostly sexual contacts and flirtations.
target group
The second differentiating feature is the target group addressed by the market positioning. A distinction must be made between a broad target group and a narrow, specific target group. Addressing a broad target group means that the dating platform by and large appeals to all users regardless of income, educational qualifications or special preferences, and therefore aims at the diversity of platform users. In contrast, a specialized dating platform positions itself more precisely with a focus on a defined target group, for example academics, people with higher incomes or users with special preferences such as vegans.
financing
The third distinguishing feature of dating platforms is the type of financing used by the platform. A distinction can be made between platforms that are free for users and those that are subject to a charge. In the case of free platforms, the platforms are regularly financed through advertising that is displayed on the platform's pages. Different forms of advertising are possible from display advertising to affiliate programs . In the case of paid platforms, users are offered a paid membership. Often parts of a paid platform can be used without membership (or with a free basic membership). However, the conclusion of a paid membership is required in any case if a user wants to make individual contact with another user. Mixed types of pricing are also used by dating platforms, so that women, for example, can use a dating platform free of charge, while men can only use it for a fee.
Brokerage service
The fourth distinguishing feature of dating platforms is the scope of the mediation service offered by the platform. All dating platforms have one thing in common: it is an Internet-based service that ultimately grants users free or paid access to a database with registered users. The exact design of this service is differently oriented. For example, some providers offer users a free search (open search) after their own registration, in which the user can search for other users according to their own search criteria such as distance, age or hair color. Other providers offer users partner suggestions either exclusively or in addition to the free search. The basis of the partner proposals submitted by the platform can be a preceding personality test or criteria such as location or age. Other mediation services, some of which are offered by dating platforms, relate to the protection of the privacy of users (e.g. displaying user images), the authenticity of profiles (i.e. checking whether users actually exist) as well as specific contact guarantees (e.g. ten partner suggestions are made per month guaranteed).
Classification of online dating platforms
Based on the differentiating features shown, three classes of dating platforms can be formed: matchmaking platforms (matchmaking platforms or online matchmaking ), dating platforms and casual dating platforms.
Matchmaking platforms
Dating service platforms and matchmaking platforms are dating platforms on which users are looking for a solid partnership and the platform can be so far considered a dating service as a "matchmaking" in the sense of an appropriate communication of users with the concurrent goal of long-term by the platforms in the first place Partnership takes place. The platforms do not act as a matchmaker in the classic sense, rather the platforms enable contact between suitable users. Matchmaking platforms put the possibility of a permanent partnership in the focus of their external presentation.
In dating platforms, after a user has registered, usually free of charge, an obligatory personality test is carried out in which the user has to answer various questions. The aim of this personality test is to create a personality profile that should reflect the personal attitudes and preferences of the user. The personality profile then serves as the basis for matching between users. Here, the personality profiles of two users are compared with the help of an algorithm in order to express the agreement between the users using a so-called matching score (another term: relationship quotient). The exact structure of the algorithm is not transparent for the user. Rather, dating platforms advertise with different scientific methods that are used when calculating the matching score.
After registering and completing the personality test, the user is given partner suggestions, which the user can filter using criteria such as distance, age, last login or matching score. Up to this point, use of the matchmaking platform is regularly free of charge. If the user now intends to make direct contact with another user, for example by sending a personal message, a fee-based membership is often required for this. The costs vary between the platforms, typically the monthly amount due depends on the term of the membership.
dating site
Single exchanges (often just called dating platforms) differ from matchmaking platforms, in addition to a modified mediation goal, in particular in the mediation service, which regularly includes neither personality tests nor partner suggestions. In dating sites, after registering, a user first creates his profile with his personal information (e.g. age, appearance, preferences). The user can then freely search for other, suitable users in the provider's database according to criteria they have chosen. No partner suggestions are made to the user, but rather the user himself determines which criteria, from his point of view, should be used to search for suitable users. Typical search criteria are distance, age, hair color, size and figure.
The different platforms have positioned themselves individually on the market for both dating platforms and dating sites. Broadly positioned platforms and closely positioned platforms can be roughly distinguished. A broad market positioning means that the platform in question wants to address a wide range of users without addressing a specific target group. In contrast, closely positioned platforms are aimed at a specific target group such as academics, vegetarians, followers of a certain religion or people from a certain region.
Casual dating platforms
Casual dating / adult dating platforms are aimed at users who are looking for a quick, relaxed flirt or mostly sexual contact. Casual dating platforms appear as erotic platforms, which are aimed at users with (unfulfilled) erotic desires, but also as fling platforms that particularly address users in permanent partnerships with (unfulfilled) erotic desires. On casual dating platforms there is more often a price differentiation between men and women. With a number of platforms, women can use them fully free of charge, while registration, profiling and searching for women are free for men, but direct contact is chargeable.
There are also differences in terms of the target group addressed on casual dating platforms. There are platforms that have positioned themselves broadly and want to address rather unspecific users who want a casual flirt or contact. But there are also platforms that are more closely positioned and address more specific user preferences.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dombrowski, Julia: The search for love on the net: an ethnography of online dating . transcript Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-8376-1455-8 , pp. 71 .
- ↑ Michaela Bruschewski: dating service on the Internet. Social and economic importance of online dating . VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, Saarbrücken 2007, ISBN 978-3-8364-0868-4 , pp. 13 .
- ↑ Christina Thieme: Send me your pretty smile :) - Online dating in the USA and Germany . Ed .: University of Leipzig, diploma thesis. Leipzig 2008, p. 53 .