Views on Online Dating - US vs Taiwan | Syno
Where did you meet your husband, wife, boyfriend, or girlfriend? In recent years, with the spread of the internet, the answer to this question has been changing, and more and more people are finding success in love online. We recently had a chance to ask people in the US and Taiwan their views on this topic, and came up with some surprising results.
Where is the best place to meet a future girlfriend / boyfriend?
The first question asked was regarding people’s preferences for finding a partner. Do people prefer meeting someone online? Or at work or school? Surprisingly, the results were very different by country.
As you can see from the chart above, Taiwanese are much more likely to go online or use matchmaking apps to meet someone than Americans, at about 45% to 15%. They are also more likely to meet someone at work or school than Americans. On the other hand, most Americans prefer meeting someone through a friend. Surprisingly, despite Asia having a reputation as being a filial society, Americans actually prefer meeting someone through their parents more than Taiwanese do.
When broken down by gender, the results between men and women are rather in lockstep, especially for Taiwan. In the US however, men were twice as likely in general to prefer apps and online dating sites than woman, though both genders still vastly preferred meeting someone offline.
Next, we looked at this question by age. In the US, while all age groups prefer to meet someone through a friend, a large group of those 18-29 also feel they can meet people in school. In addition, online or apps are most popular in the 20-39 age group.
The figures for Taiwan however, look remarkably different. In all age groups, meeting through a friend is relatively unpopular. In contrast, large numbers of young people prefer meeting someone at school or work, whereas older people vastly prefer websites and apps. Clearly, comfort levels for online dating are very different between Taiwan and the US.
Which App or Dating Site is Best?
Finally, we asked respondents to share which dating apps or site they have used. Because apps differ by country, we separated the charts, as below:
In the US, Tinder was the overall market leader, with roughly 10% of respondents saying they have used it. Other websites, such as Coffee Meets Bagel or Bumble, all ranked less than 6%. In general, men were twice as likely as woman to have used online dating sites, a fact that may contribute to their overall limited popularity.
In contrast, the most popular dating app in Taiwan was Beetalk, with nearly 25% of respondents saying they have used it. Close behind it was Pairs, at just under 20%. Furthermore, in Taiwan, while more men are more likely than women to use apps, the ratios are much closer, suggesting that there is greater success for those who use them.
Takeaways
When it comes to the online dating market, there are clear differences between the US and Taiwan. Not only are Taiwanese more likely to go online for their dating needs, but the likelihood of them doing so increases with age. It seems likely then, that for an online dating app to succeed in Taiwan, developers should target older generations more.
Furthermore, the great gender gap in online app usage is probably a large contributing factor to why online dating hasn’t picked much yet. For the US market to take off more, it might be wise for developers to look at what Taiwan as done, and try to emulate some of their successes.