A female client had asked dating agency Lunch Actually to match her with a possible candidate.

The agency found a match who fitted her list of requirements. But after the first date, the woman opted not to go on another date with the man whom she was matched with.

The deal breaker? The man was shorter than her.

Lunch Actually's annual Regional Dating Survey indicated that out of 640 Singaporean respondents, 70 per cent of the women surveyed said they will not date a shorter man.

This is despite the fact that the Singaporean men surveyed said they are happy to date a taller woman.

The survey also found that Singaporean women also prefer to date a man who is better educated and have higher salaries as compared to them.

While such results may appear to show that Singaporean women are demanding, Lunch Actually CEO Violet Lim explained the reason for her female clients' requirements.

She said: "I think it is understandable that women have high requirements when it comes to dating because as women are getting more educated and doing better for themselves when it comes to their career, they feel that they have achieved a certain comfort level in their life, and they are not willing to compromise on their quality of living."

The survey of about 1,900 people across markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia also revealed that online dating was becoming a popular method for singles to find their match.

Ms Lim said that tech savvy Singaporeans have not been put off by the bad press of online scammers using dating websites to con unsuspecting victims.

She added that Lunch Actually's online services eSynchrony.com and Eteract.com run stringent checks on their members using information from the Registry of Marriages and Immigration & Checkpoints Authority of Singapore to verify their identities, and blacklist suspected scammers.

She said that 75 per cent of her clients who went on dates Lunch Actually arranged for them through eSynchrony.com were satisfied with their first dates.

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