Chances are big you have ever tried an online dating application. Or at least considered one. It no longer is a taboo if you met your fiancée through the world wide web. Online dating applications such as Tinder, OkCupid and Match have millions of users per day. They range from testosterone driven adventure seekers to incurable romantics. Nonetheless, they are all searching for the perfect match.
In the quest of finding this perfect match, users have many conversations and look at even more profiles. This creates an enormous amount of valuable data. But how can we use this data? Will data analysts become the new Cupids and brew love potions? Is it even possible to catch abstract concepts such as love and romance in algorithms, in order to find a perfect match?
According to Christian Rudder, founder of OkCupid, the problem is not in the algorithms, but in the data itself: “My intuition is that most of what users enter is true, but people do misunderstand themselves.” That is where big data comes into play. Why would we ask people to fill in questionnaires, would it not be better to find this data statistically?
Nowadays, we know so much about a person through analysing their behaviour on the internet. On a dating profile, one can easily state he loves classical music. However, his Spotify-history or iTunes purchases could reveal he actually listens to pop music most of the time. Everyone knows how important a first impression is. If you are not into snobs, why would a dating applications even bother to show people with a Ralph Lauren loyalty card?
Big data offer enormous opportunities to online dating application. At the same time, these opportunities raise serious issues. What about privacy concerns? How will such an influence affect people’s social skills? Would you like to be introduced to your future wife by your computer?
References:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26613909
