Ask HN: how can the online dating industry be disrupted?

2 points by itmag ↗ HN
Disruptive online dating startups are on PG's list of things he would fund.

What are some general themes and idea for how to do this?

I'll post my own ideas as a comment in a sec.

4 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 20.3 ms ] thread
Here is my blog post on same topic -

http://blog.anujkumar.com/post/10513302814/online-dating-pas...

My idea is to not make a "dating site" but make a "hangout" site that focus on real world hangouts with real friends and fof. Recreate the atmosphere of college online.

Interesting.

Here's a random thought: a lot of people meet through World of Warcraft. Can that kind of experience be replicated and tailored towards dating?

I'm not much into role playing games so I don't have any idea about WOW.

I think the best approach is to focus online dating around these concepts :

1. Location based - same city. I personally feel long distance relationships suck.

2. In known social network - friends, friends of friends, colleagues, etc. much like google+, facebook. Friends of friends are good prospects to find potential dates you can trust(your friends know them). This will solve "trust" issue. Also, there will be some kind of social pressure to behave in a good way.

3. Things to do together(online or offline). Just match making isn't enough. Give them ideas and things to do together:

a) Online ideas - play games, chat, watch movie together(+video chat), etc.

b) offline ideas - Visit places (restaurants, amusement park, sea beach etc), attend events, do activities(cycling, walking, swimming, dancing etc). How about group outings (his friends and her friends) to get things started?