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Internet dating is one of those businesses that superficially seems like it makes sense; aka "hey, let's use data and statistics to fix people up" -but ultimate

Internet dating is one of those businesses that superficially seems like it makes sense; aka "hey, let's use data and statistics to fix people up" -but ultimately couldn't possibly work to the benefit of the people it purports to fix up. Two main reasons. 1) Histocompatibility -some people smell right. Some people don't. Chemistry isn't something you're gonna capture over the internet, even if you enjoy the online bantz and have tons of stuff in common. Barring breakthroughs in genetics and even more privacy invasions, the FBs of the world can't help here. 2) Principal agent problem: for all payment techniques thus explored for online dating, the interests of the dating service are not in alignment with daters who want a monogamous LTR. Dating apps who collect monthly fees want to continue to collect monthly fees. Dating apps that rely on advertising want continued obsessive engagement. Alignment of interests would look something like an old school matchmaker who only gets paid if they succeed in making a match -you're not going to pull this off with an app. Facebook, of course wants to keep you on their platform. The statistics, of course, back all this up, for example: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mating-game/201609/the-ugly-truth-about-online-dating https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-mating-game/2016...

SilasX 8y ago
Someone is working on matching by smell (saw previously on HN): http://smell.dating/ http://smell.dating/
bromuro 8y ago
I’m 40 yo and I’ve found most of my boyfriends and best friends via dating apps or website :)
121789 8y ago
Re: the principal agent problem - doesn’t this actually give FB an advantage? An effective dating app would just be another feature that may actually help with user retention. They don’t need to optimize for ongoing engagement for individual users.
baby 8y ago
Plenty of people find their SO via dating apps. Probably more than ever. In society like Japan thrse are killer apps.
icebraining 8y ago
(1) is like saying that job ads don't work, because you still have to interview candidates. Dating apps get you to meet more people so you can test that chemistry and have an higher change of finding a match.
- ken 8y ago
  Job matching is drastically asymmetric, though. For a company, it may work, but from a person's perspective, I wouldn't describe it that way. I don't want a dating website to treat me as poorly as any job website does. Simply meeting more people isn't useful unless you have reason to believe the people are good potential matches -- even if you're on the strong side of the asymmetry. Companies don't find their new CTO by going through the phone book in order and interviewing every person.
syrrim 8y ago
>Principal agent problem: for all payment techniques thus explored for online dating, the interests of the dating service are not in alignment with daters who want a monogamous LTR. The principle agent problem is a general refutation of the free market - why would a lawyer try to help you, when that means you won't need their service anymore? It is solved by the fact that people eventually realize when a service isn't working in their interest, and switch to another, and tend to recommend those services that worked best to their friends. For facebook in particular, they are interested not in having you use their service as a dating platform, but having you use their platform for anything. If you use facebook to meet people, you will be more likely to use their service for other tasks as well, like messaging your new friends, or organizing events with them. Purposefully handicapping their service would lead to people leaving all of facebook in despair when they find themselves unsuccessful. >the statistics back this up and yet you've failed to recognize the statistics related to replication in psychology. >1) Histocompatibility -some people smell right. Some people don't. Chemistry isn't something you're gonna capture over the internet Presumably AI could be used to filter for this. The way someone smells is no doubt related to various other factors - their family, their diet - which facebook could pull in as datapoints. By analysing the history of all successful relationships in america for the past decade, they can see which datapoints predict a successful relationship and which don't. This would then be used to suggest potential partners. If not, then this will have to be figured out on the first date instead.
chillacy 8y ago
Before online dating there was dating by mail in video, I don’t think it included pheromone samples.

SilasX 8y ago

Someone is working on matching by smell (saw previously on HN): http://smell.dating/ http://smell.dating/

bromuro 8y ago

I’m 40 yo and I’ve found most of my boyfriends and best friends via dating apps or website :)

121789 8y ago

Re: the principal agent problem - doesn’t this actually give FB an advantage? An effective dating app would just be another feature that may actually help with user retention. They don’t need to optimize for ongoing engagement for individual users.

baby 8y ago

Plenty of people find their SO via dating apps. Probably more than ever. In society like Japan thrse are killer apps.

icebraining 8y ago

(1) is like saying that job ads don't work, because you still have to interview candidates. Dating apps get you to meet more people so you can test that chemistry and have an higher change of finding a match.

ken 8y ago
Job matching is drastically asymmetric, though. For a company, it may work, but from a person's perspective, I wouldn't describe it that way. I don't want a dating website to treat me as poorly as any job website does. Simply meeting more people isn't useful unless you have reason to believe the people are good potential matches -- even if you're on the strong side of the asymmetry. Companies don't find their new CTO by going through the phone book in order and interviewing every person.

syrrim 8y ago

>Principal agent problem: for all payment techniques thus explored for online dating, the interests of the dating service are not in alignment with daters who want a monogamous LTR. The principle agent problem is a general refutation of the free market - why would a lawyer try to help you, when that means you won't need their service anymore? It is solved by the fact that people eventually realize when a service isn't working in their interest, and switch to another, and tend to recommend those services that worked best to their friends. For facebook in particular, they are interested not in having you use their service as a dating platform, but having you use their platform for anything. If you use facebook to meet people, you will be more likely to use their service for other tasks as well, like messaging your new friends, or organizing events with them. Purposefully handicapping their service would lead to people leaving all of facebook in despair when they find themselves unsuccessful. >the statistics back this up and yet you've failed to recognize the statistics related to replication in psychology. >1) Histocompatibility -some people smell right. Some people don't. Chemistry isn't something you're gonna capture over the internet Presumably AI could be used to filter for this. The way someone smells is no doubt related to various other factors - their family, their diet - which facebook could pull in as datapoints. By analysing the history of all successful relationships in america for the past decade, they can see which datapoints predict a successful relationship and which don't. This would then be used to suggest potential partners. If not, then this will have to be figured out on the first date instead.

chillacy 8y ago

Before online dating there was dating by mail in video, I don’t think it included pheromone samples.