My wife and I met through a dating app. Since 2000 the percentage of US couples who met online has grown from 10% to >50%. In that time, the divorce rate has s

My wife and I met through a dating app. Since 2000 the percentage of US couples who met online has grown from 10% to >50%. In that time, the divorce rate has shrunk from 4% to 2.5%. There's a lot of complaining about dating apps. When offline dating was the norm people complained about it endlessly as well. Offline dating also produced an enormous number of unhappy couples. The online dating experience has its own set of frustrations and poor outcomes - many of which don't occur offline - but people continue to choose it over offline alternatives. I've been reading articles like this one for years. They haven't stopped the percentage of couples who met online from increasing. People tend to aim their complaints about online dating at companies like Match Group. When they complain about offline dating, though, those complaints can only be directed at the culture - there is no corporate entity who is responsible for making approaching strangers at a bar intimidating and potentially humiliating. > In Tokyo, the city government is even releasing its own dating app, part of a campaign called Tokyo Futari Story ("futari" means couple). The service, which the city has budgeted several million dollars to develop and promote, will require users to verify their income, prove they're unmarried, sit for an interview with the app's staff, and sign a statement saying they're intent on getting married. The last sentence is the critical one. Matchmakers who vet their clients intent tend to have much higher success rates than those who let anyone participate. A city government can also enact consequences on liars in ways that private companies cannot. We'll see how Tokyo's experiment plays out.