A decade back, if you talk about dating to anyone it would have resulted in a very “Surprising” kind of reaction. Dating was not very acceptable. But with the advent of technology and change in mindsets, people today are open to Dating since it helps them know the person before they may/may not delve into the most important decision – Marriage. With social media being on the rise, it has given way to another phenomenon called as “Social Dating” and “Online Dating”.
So, the next question that arises is “Which option should someone prefer – Online Dating or Meeting someone offline” ? Well, there is no single answer to this question but considering the amount of time that each one of us spend on Social Media sites like Facebook, Twitter etc.; Online seems to be an Ideal option. In fact, few years back I met my wife Janukin online and that early bonding definitely added trust in our relationship.
In fact, many matchmakers are incorporating Online in their offline business models which definitely proves that ‘The online formula is working’!! But as we have seen in movies and heard from many of our friends that Online relationships might not always work. It is true to a certain extent. Similar to Hyper-local Commerce (where Buyers are connected to Sellers in their close vicinity), startups like ShowMeInterest want to leverage the power of Facebook in order to find your Next Date 🙂
Features of ShowMeInterest [for online daters]
As mentioned earlier, online dating comes with it’s own share of advantages and dis-advantages. So, let’s look at some of the features of ShowMeInterest that might get your excited !!
Ease of Access – Facebook is a Vicious Circle since there choices can turn out to be un-limited so, it becomes an important decision that contacts are managed properly. With ShowMeInterest, you can log-in using your Facebook/Email account and narrow down your search for the next date with different filters like Age, Height, Weight, Area Pin-Code, Hair Color etc. Doesn’t this sound similar to Hyper-Local shopping 🙂
Anonymous Search – After you log-in to ShowMeInterest, you would be prompted with list of members out of which some might be your next Potential Date. Once you look at someone’s profile, the other member (whose profile has been seen) would be intimated which makes ‘Searching for Date real-time’. However, there might be some members who prefer to stay Anonymous (so that other member does not come to know that his/her profile has been seen) and ShowMeInterest takes this into consideration in a very elegant manner !!
Suggested Matches – Just like Matrimonial websites, you would receive emails of suggested matches in order to make your ‘Date Search’ easier. The powerful part about ‘Facebook Dating’ is that if you are interested in someone, than you can get to know about that person from ‘The friend’s Network’. This makes knowing the person much better before you can take the ‘Online’ meeting ‘Offline’.
It would be interesting if ShowMeInterest can leverage the power of Social Media and Analytics to connect Potential Daters (who are in close vicinity) with offline-joints (e.g. cafes, pubs etc). Though we are no guru’s in Dating business, but I know couple of my friends who could find their match using ‘Power of Social Media’ for online-dating. We may definitely argue that you can never know 100% of a person by just interacting online and that is what your end goal should be – ‘ Put an end to the Digital Dating and know more about the person with Offline medium’.
But before you take the ‘Offline Route’, you would have already known a lot about your date from his/her ShowMeInterest Profile 🙂