Page 32 - AVN May 2015

STOP, THIEF | |By Nate Glass
The History of Dating On its sixth anniversary, Dating Factory looks back—way back
On March 24, Dating Factory celebrated its sixth year in business. To mark the occasion and celebrate its accomplishments, the Dating Factory team looked back beyond its
own 2,191 days of existence to peer into the very beginning of online dating and the evolution that has taken the industry to the present day. And in this essay, the team also
envisions what the future of online dating may look like.
In the Beginning…
Online dating in its current form first reared its head around 1994 with the
registration of the domain name Kiss.com, with Match.com following a year later.
There were of course some other methods of meeting or communicating with
people online before that. Using computer bulletin boards accessed via modem,
chat rooms were previously used as a way of meeting strangers and would often
result in relationships forming. People would join chat rooms in their local city or
even shared-interest chat rooms, making them an ideal place to meet people of the
opposite sex as you had either a common interest or you lived near each other.
Some people may be surprised to find that the first-ever chat room software was
launched in around 1980. Yes, that’s not a typo ... actually in 1980. It was created
by CompuServe (you may have heard of them) and it used the electronic Bulletin
Board System (BBS), allowing people to join chat rooms or chat privately, much
like the popular CB radio systems that many people talked on back then, but using
a computer with a modem instead of the radio.
Telephone chat rooms were also used to meet people in the early 1980s and still
exist today. So, we have used technology in the past for dating to an extent.
And, of course, we must not forget newspaper classified ads, which, while not
necessarily high tech, did form the basis of what has now become online dating.
So, back to internet dating. By 1996 there were still less than 20 dating sites
in existence, but things were beginning to shape up. Dating sites were allowing
advantage of the technology within the smart phones such as GPS and touch-
screen capability, you get an idea of how the device is now the new focal point
with these new dating apps.
As a provider of white label dating services, it is important that Dating Factory
also evolve to fit the trends and for the past couple of years we have adapted our
dating platform to suit the device, regardless of whether the user is on a smart
phone or a tablet. By embracing responsive web design standards across our
templates, any site created with us will give the user an interface specifically for
their device type.
And it’s not just the technology that has changed—it’s the people too. There
are more and more people using online dating services to meet somebody, with no
signs of that slowing down. The stigmas of the past are gone and people are now
happy to confess that they met their partner online.
Most dating sites will provide a subscription service where the member will
pay a monthly membership fee in exchange for the services of the dating site. In
a very clear indicator that online dating is now mainstream, the U.K. government
includes a dating subscription in its cost-of-living calculations.
One in ten Americans have confessed to using online dating sites, with nearly
70 percent of those people taking it to the next stage and going on a date with
someone they met through and online a site. A similar picture is seen in the U.K.
with over 5 million people using dating sites there.
people to build reasonably detailed profiles of themselves, sharing their interests,
hobbies, likes and dislikes as well as sharing their most flattering photos.
Since those early days of online dating the evolution has seen the introduction
of advanced matching algorithms and learning engines that can learn from your
that the first-ever chat room software
use of the sites what you are really looking for and show you relevant profiles.
We have also seen the introduction of video, voice and various technologies that
enhance the experience such as emoticons and virtual gifts.
”Some people may be surprised to find
was launched in around 1980.
Their Own Devices
Yes, that’s not a typo.
However, the biggest development has been the shift in device usage. The
Responsive Sites, Apps and the Future
evolution of dating has gone from the desktop PC to the mobile device and we
As more people get access to fast internet and mobile devices, the online dating
have truly seen that come to the fore just in the past few years. After a fairly
industry will adapt. Technology is where substantial change will be seen. Clearly
stagnant period of time where the main development in online dating was to
as the shift to mobile devices increases and fewer people use desktop PC the focus
enhance the software, we have recently seen hardware become the focal point of
will be on smartphone and tablet users and specifically around what these devices
how the dating experience will be played out.
can offer in terms of technology. Yet again we are seeing that even in the future
These vast shifts in technology have led to companies like Dating Factory
the developments in online dating will be driven by the hardware. The camera,
growing from small operations to substantial development teams covering the
touch screen, voice recognition and location features of a smart phone are likely to
multitude of skills required to create a large, complex network.
play a significant role in the evolution of online dating.
And during those “growing up” years substantial investment has been piled into
So, whatever the smart phone manufacturers decide to include in the phones of
research and development to specifically keep the private label dating platform up
the future, this will determine how the dating industry evolves. We could see 3D
to date and functioning with the current devices, operating systems and various
holograms projected from the screen (think Star Wars).
other related technologies that affect the online and mobile dating experience.
And, of course, it is not only phones that will contain software designed to
In fact, as the internet itself and its various vertical industries “grew up and
complement our lives, but watches and glasses. Augmented reality is likely to play
matured,” so too did the need to find an entirely new pool of talent. Which is
a part in how online dating as we know it evolves. The ability to include digital
exactly what we have done to date. By tapping into an exclusive pool of talented
elements in a real-world environment could be the next stage in virtual first dates.
and experienced individuals we have created a team with a broad range of
Of course we are not all going to adorn wearable gadgets in mass, so phones are
experience across so many disciplines.
definitely here to stay and the online dating industry will likely focus on those as
White Labels, Private Labels
being the platform on which any new developments will be made.
So, here we are with almost half of online daters using a smart phone and a third
There are exciting times ahead and the future of online dating will go through
using a tablet device for their online and niche dating experience, we are firmly set
periods of evolution and revolution. We intend to be right there at the heart of it.
in an era of dating revolution compared to the previous years of evolution.
We fully intend to continue our program of investment and growth and expect to
If you look at the success stories of more recent times such as Tinder and
be here for many years to come while contributing to the very changes the online
Grindr, where the service was designed specifically for smart phones and to take
dating industry will see along the way. See you all in 2191 :-)
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