“Online dating is a killer." How Much Would You Pay to Find a Partner?

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Would like to meet: Man who is tall, dark, handsome, has a good sense of humor and a well-paid job in professional services.

Young, single, ambitious professionals working in the City of London are flooding matchmaker Siobhan Copland's inbox with such requests. They've spent their 20s graduating from highly competitive universities and pushing themselves through punishing late nights in the office. By their 30s, many have built impressive careers, yet something is missing from their lives: love. But having soured on endlessly swiping through Hinge, Bumble and Tinder, these men and women have become fussier than previous generations about choosing a partner to share the years with.

The clients who show up at Copland's agency, Cupid in the City, present her with stringent criteria: As well as looks and personality, finding someone who is just as ambitious is very important, particularly for women.

“They've worked hard to get to a position in their career, so their standard gets higher,” said Copland. And clients are willing to put their money where their mouth is: One offered her a £25,000 bonus if she found him a wife.

The Dating App Paradox

Of course not everyone is paying such sums to get an introduction, as over the past quarter-century, dating apps have exploded, entirely changing how romance works.

When one of the first online dating sites, Match.com, launched in 1995, the closest equivalent to the Internet matchmaking we have now was classified ads in newspapers. As dating sites spread through the nineties and aughts, and then the first dating apps like Grindr in 2009, it became increasingly acceptable to meet someone through an online profile. As of 2022, more people have met their current partner online than via mutual