Matchmaking

MATCHMAKING

CONCEPT

Matchmaking se define por la creación de uniones duraderas basadas en la compatibilidad. Los sitios especializados en Matchmaking ofrecen al usuario la oportunidad de encontrar personas compatibles en términos de personalidad, gustos y costumbres. La lógica es que, cuando esas personas se encuentren, las posibilidades de desarrollar una relación seria y afín sean mucho mayores que las que suelen darse en encuentros casuales… Estos sitios se orientan principalmente a personas solteras que quieren formar una pareja estable y seria.¨

MATCHMAKING

In some cultures, the role of the matchmaker was and is quite professionalized.

DATAVIEW

HISTORY

The Newspaper Ad

1870 A first newspaper for singles, The Matrimonial News, begins publication in post-Gold Rush San Francisco. Men pay $0.25 to place an ad (about $4.50 in today's dollars). Women post free. By 1900, there were no fewer than 20 similar publications.

1910s With growing acceptance of ads, "lonely soldiers" of World War I and women connect over personal ads. At the same time, authorities suspect that coded messages in The Link, the UK's first "lonely hearts" monthly, are promoting (then-illegal) homosexual activity. A trial finds the publisher guilty of gross indecency and the paper shuts down in 1921.

2000 San Francisco's Craigslist begins offering free personal ads. In 2010, the site closes an "erotic services" section after accusations it facilitates prostitution and sex trafficking.

1685 Thank Gutenberg! The first known personal ads appear in a British agriculture journal. The publisher immediately recognizes its novelty and commercial potential — "'tis probable such Advertisements may prove very useful."

Data & Dating

1940s A Newark-based company, Introduction, uses data as the foundation of a matchmaking service for "social equivalents." Contact information for a match costs $0.25.

1959 A Stanford student project becomes the first known computer dating
service when an IBM 650 determines similarities between 98 subjects based on a 30-question profile. There was little romance in the punch cards for participants, but the students received an "A."

1965Harvard student Tarr co-founds Operation Match.

It was used by more than a million daters in the 1960s.

"We're not trying to take the love out of love. We're just

trying to make it more efficient." — Jeff Tarr in 1966

1982 The electronic band Kraftwerk's single "Computer Love"

2004 40 years after Operation Match, four Harvard students launch what would become OKCupid. The site allows users to submit questions that others can weigh as important or not. OKCupid's popularity allows the company to correlate interests to dating actions.