As companies continue to figure out ways to leverage location-based services, the dating industry has taken a few baby steps in promising directions. Yet the feedback I’m hearing is that the majority of singles are going to remain wary of dating services that let you find singes within your geographic area, at least for the near future.
Mobile seems to be good for browsing profiles and communicating with other members, but thats about it. I sure wish Match would release some stats on their mobile users. What are they doing, what aren’t they doing? Which features are the most popular, the least? When during the day does mobile usage peak? This is the stuff I’d love to hear about.
Last night I went to a nightclub for the first time in ages. Several people in the crowd were using Foursqure, Skout, Grindr and a few other location-based applications so I fired up a few on my phone to check out the action. Let me tell you, it was enlightening to locate people at the club and try to connect with them. Each service has its own clearly-defined demographic, in this case it was iPhone users and early adopters, young club kids and gays.
It’s one thing to talk about privacy, it’s another to be in a room full of drunk and high strangers dancing at 2am and watching my male friend get cruised by dudes using Grindr. That’s why a lot of younger gay people I talk to love location-based apps. Turn on phone, find partner and hook up. Free, simple and thrilling, location-based connection/hookups are clearly for the young and adventurous.
It’s only a matter of time before someone creates a Missed Connections site based on mobile phone checkins on apps like Foursquare.
My other friend just got her iPhone last week. She liked hearing about Foursquare and Bump, which lets you exchange photos, contact information and other files simply by holding your phone in your hand and bumping the other person’s phone. She’s definitely not the type that wants, or needs (she’s gorgeous) to use a phone to meet a guy. Who’s going to create the dating app that changes her mind?
At one point, I had Bump turned on and was dancing in a tight crowd. When I woke up I had someone else’s photo and business card on my phone. Not sure how that happened.
Just today Bump released an update today which enables you to friend people on Facebook. Custom profiles too, so you can have your more anonymous out-at-the-bar profile and a complete and authentic work profile, and anything in between.
Keep an eye on the companies I’ve mentioned, they are leaders in the location-based services sector (along with many others) and I think there are a lot of ways the online dating industry can leverage and learn from them.
