Virtual avatar-based dating has always been a curiosity in the online dating industry. Meeting potential dates in a browser-based virtual chat environment is absolutely a great idea. Virtual dating is about as niche as you can get. The usual argument against virtual dating is that the phone is a lot easier to use, you don’t have to download anything, and it just works.
I have plenty of questions about monetizing virtual dating, usability issues, feature enhancements, in-environment advertising, and let’s not forget effectiveness. Are people going out on more dates after participating in virtual ones? There is research, but I’m talking about hearing from dating sites that say that virtual dating was a big hit and had a measurable positive impact on efficiency, site metrics, etc. I’d be all over that, believe me, because virtual dating is a fantastic idea, in certain circumstances.
Personally, I think the lack of interest is partially due to the fact that the environments are not engaging enough. I used to spend a lot of time in SecondLife and was involved with developing virtual worlds back in the 90′s, so I a little about what a compelling interactive environment looks like.
Longtime readers know that I’ve been talking about Omnidate for several years. I’ve hoped they would evolve the service into something more along the lines of what singles are willing to use on a broader scale. Perhaps I’m too extroverted to understand just how important virtual dating could be to that slice of society that feels uncomfortable picking up the phone.
As with any uncontested market, competition tends to make an entrance at some point. Weopia is the most comprehensive competitor to OmniDate I’ve seen. Built by Canadian IT shop Virtucom, the downloadable application (Mac/Windows compatible), mirrors the real world, providing engaging environments and experiential situations where you can further explore compatibility and the likelihood of a positive real-life date.
Throughout the environment are a number of heart-shaped tokens. in the application are clickable, leading to a list of dating advice links, which link to various YouTube videos by dating coaches and seemingly random people. Most of the advice is generic stuff pulled from YouTube, I’d like to see the videos embedded in the environment itself.
The bottom navigation bar performs various system duties, from chat to vehicle selection. I jumped in a hovercraft, which made is much easier to get around quickly.
There are portals that take you to other areas to explore. Basically this is SecondLife, and I wish it ran in Flash in the Browser, because the download and resulting 1/2 gig application runs the risk of turning people off.
Lot’s of people date who met in SecondLife. I know people who are married that met in SL. The question for Weopia is, if SecondLife has millions of people, why would they use a stripped-down clone instead of simply looking for a date in SL and figuring out how to monetize that?
The graphics are fantastic on their maximum setting, but made my laptop fan sound like a jet plane. Speaking of jet planes, nothing says I’m hot like rolling up on someone while driving a cherry-red hovercraft.
I need to invite someone into Weopia and run through the rest of the environment together. Hopefully there are some quizzes, games and other interactive features to explore. Right now the space feels very large, whereas with Omnidate you’re sitting at a bar right across from someone, which feels more intimate and focused and I didn’t have to learn how to drive a hovercraft to impress a woman.
Rebuild in Flash, stick it in the browser, make it more interactive, throw some advertising into the environment and maybe Weopia will have something down the road. Gotta go, my hovercraft is overheating.
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi David,
Loved your article.
We’ve had fun making Weopia. It fills a need as you’ve said. What we wanted to do was provide a companion tool to the whole world of online daters so that we could help bridge the gap between text chatting and that scary first meeting.
Second Life is a fun place. But, Weopia is peer-to-peer, where you date with the person you invite only (actually you can get more people in and we’ll implement that soon). There are no distractions and griefers and people trying to steal your date!
Meeting someone to date in Second Life is like real life. Your options are limited. Few ways to find compatible people. Online dating expands that world dramatically and Weopia gives them a place to go and build a deeper relationship.
Research shows that virtual daters like each other more in their first offline date and are more likely to have a second date, so we think it will work.
We looked at flash and browser-based, but it limited our ability to produce great graphics and stability. Video is coming and so is internal voice. Also, we have a lot of new interactive features coming very soon on our next releases.
Thanks,
Mark
http://www.weopia.com
I read your blog. This is very helpful for dating people. Really the virtual dating is a fantastic idea, for dating.
Hi Dave,
I welcome Weopia to the industry and wish them success! The practice of virtual dating is clearly gaining popularity and there is room for a number of players and business models.
You raise good questions about monetization, usability, and effectiveness and I too, look forward to seeing more dating sites experiment with virtual dating and share their results. As with any innovative technology, it takes time to iron out all wrinkles and answer all questions. The good news is that the data we have to date speaks consistently to the effectiveness of virtual dating, including the Harvard University study you mention in your blog, but certainly more research would be great!
Paradoxically, while from the perspective of an industry analyst/commentator additional research is exciting, from the business perspective waiting for more public research equates to missing out on a major source of competitive advantage – the First Mover Advantage. In our industry, the biggest success stories belong to those who were decisive enough to move confidently with an innovative model… try dislodging eHarmony or Plenty of Fish now.
Btw, I’d like to share with you the results of a survey we had recently conducted with several hundred singles about their virtual dating experience. Three-quarters of respondents stated that they “prefer dating sites that offer virtual dating” and 89% of respondents indicated that they would “recommend virtual dating to a friend” http://www.free-press-release.com/news-survey-online-daters-enjoy-avatar-dating-1263328502.html .
Again, my congratulations to Weopia.
Best regards,
Igor
The Weopia client download is going to kill adoption rates. Doesn’t matter how great it is once you’re in the environment. Cloning SL and making it “safer”, make it beautiful, transportation, portals, maps etc is all overkill.
Igor, forget about research.
Doing a self-published survey of your own existing users doesn’t mean much. What are singles saying in general? As I said, I want to hear from dating sites saying they are making more money with virtual dating. Otherwise, they’re not going to offer it, plain and simple.
I want to see virtual dating take off, as it should, in a niche market. I’ve outlined much of what you need to do to get closer to success, time to go do it.
SecondLife just came out with a a simplified version of their previous feature-overdone browser.
http://secondlife.com/beta-viewer/download.php