Francesca Salcido went on 300 dates in 24 hours without breaking a sweat. Her encounters with aspiring beaus happened online at SpeedDate.com, a US start-up built on a belief that it need not take more than 90 seconds to find a life partner.
“We may be using Web cams and Internet technologies, but you’re still trying to find that chemistry,” SpeedDate co-founder Dan Abelon said. “And if it isn’t there, you just move on to the next person.”
The Web site and its competitors apply the latest Internet technology to speed dating, a phenomenon that started a decade ago with men and women darting from table to table to chat in rapid-fire succession at a time keeper’s signal.
“If people decide they don’t like someone, they usually know within 30 seconds,” said Stephen Stokols, chief executive of SpeedDate rival WooMe.com.
“If you meet someone you like, three minutes isn’t long enough. If you don’t like them, 30 seconds is too long.”
Automated timers at SpeedDate and WooMe cut off online video chats after as little as 90 seconds or as long as three minutes. Those that felt romance kindling during curt exchanges can later reconnect to fan the flames.
The speed-dating formula differs dramatically from the format of most dating Web sites, which require users to detail their lives and interests in intricate profiles or extensive questionnaires.
Love seekers on those sites are matched based on their profiles and then chat via e-mail before deciding whether to meet in person.
“We’re more like dating in real life,” Abelon said. “If you see someone you like in real life, you don’t go up to them with your resume and compare. You just talk.”
Instead of sitting at a coffee shop or a bar, speed dating Web sites let potential mates meet using Web cams and microphones.
“I wanted to be a little ridiculous and put myself out there,” Salcido said.
“My mom said the more places you put your resume, the better chance you have for finding a job. I figured I’d do the same thing with dating.”
When SpeedDate went live a year ago, it hosted 1,000 dates its first night.
Now it is a setting for from 100,000 to 120,000 virtual dates daily, with most of those online encounters orchestrated by Web applications in profile pages of social networking Web sites MySpace and Facebook.
SpeedDate boasts users in nearly 200 countries.
WooMe.com reports that 1,000 to 4,000 registered users are logged into the site at any given time.
Stokols says that while users of SpeedDate.com are trying to find romance, most WooMe.com users have learned that true love may be fleeting but real friends are forever.
“Eight to 10 percent of our users have been to real dating sites,” Stokols said. “We’re more about meeting new friends, not necessarily meeting new dates.”
In this spirit, WooMe sent two of its users on a US road trip to meet in the flesh 1,000 of the new friends they made on the Web site.
The duo’s bar-filled adventures are being memorialized in text and video on the aptly named WooAroundAmerica.com.
“The dating stories are good to hear, and we’ve got plenty of them,” Stokols explained.
“What interests me are the stories that are unique to our platform where we’ve come up with a new way for people to extend their social network.”
It’s only half the size of its more famous counterpart in Taipei, but the Botanical Garden of the National Museum of Nature Science (NMNS, 國立自然科學博物館植物園) is surely one of urban Taiwan’s most inviting green spaces. Covering 4.5 hectares immediately northeast of the government-run museum in Taichung’s North District (北區), the garden features more than 700 plant species, many of which are labeled in Chinese but not in English. Since its establishment in 1999, the site’s managers have done their best to replicate a number of native ecosystems, dividing the site into eight areas. The name of the Coral Atoll Zone might
The US war on Iran has illuminated the deep interdependence of Asia on flows of oil and related items as raw materials that become the basis of modern human civilization. Australians and New Zealanders had a wake up call. The crisis also emphasizes how the Philippines is a swatch of islands linked by jet fuel. These revelations have deep implications for an invasion of Taiwan. Much of the commentary on the Taiwan scenario has looked at the disruptions to world trade, which will be in the trillions. However, the Iran war offers additional specific lessons for a Taiwan scenario. An insightful
On Monday morning, in quick succession, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released statements announcing “that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and General Secretary Xi Jinping (習近平) have invited KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) to lead a delegation on a visit to the mainland” as the KMT’s press release worded it. The KMT’s press release added “Chairwoman Cheng expressed her gratitude for the invitation and has gladly accepted it.” Beijing’s official Xinhua news release described Song Tao (宋濤), head of the Taiwan Work Office of the CCP Central Committee, as
Polling data often confirms what we expect, but sometimes it throws up surprises. When examined over time, some patterns appear that speak to something bigger going on. In this column, whenever possible, Formosa’s polls are used. Despite the sometimes cringeworthy antics of Formosa’s Chairman, Wu Tzu-Chia (吳子嘉), the data produced includes detailed breakdowns crucial for analysis. It has also been conducted monthly 11-12 times a year for many years with many of the same questions, allowing for analysis over time. When big shifts do occur between one month and the next it is usually in response to some event in
RSS