SINGAPORE - The majority of singles looking for love here carry out online checks on their potential dates before meeting them.
The findings of a new survey revealed that about 70 per cent of singles go to online platforms, such as social-media website Facebook and search engine Google, to track the digital footprints of potential dates.
The results of the biennial regional dating survey conducted by home-grown dating agency Lunch Actually were released at a press conference yesterday.
It was conducted in January and involved interviews with more than 1,900 singles in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. Respondents were aged between 21 and 45. There were 788 respondents from Singapore.
Ms Violet Lim, chief executive and co-founder of Lunch Actually, likened the finding to how employers and headhunters check up on potential employees through their social-media profiles.
Which is why, she said, that it is only natural that singles do the same for dating, since "finding the right one is such a big part of someone's life".
The top-rated way that singles here "e-stalk" their potential dates is to check their Facebook profiles - 36 per cent of women and 33 per cent of men here admitted to doing so.
Ms Lim said: "It's important to know what your social profile says about you."
At the same time, singles should not make decisions based only on what they see online, she said.
With the highly-wired lifestyles Singapore residents lead, more people are going online to search for love, she said. The proportion of Singapore residents open to trying online dating has surged from 26 per cent in 2009 to 51 per cent this year.
Ms Lim said the greater number of reputable online dating services has helped spur singles "to give it a try".
The survey also found that men in Singapore are more open than women when it comes to conventional ideals of salary, education status, height and age.
For instance, while 43 per cent of men said they would date a taller woman, only 13 per cent of women here said they would date a shorter man.
IT analyst Foo Ce Zhi, 27, who is single, told My Paper: "It's the 21st century. I'd dated an older woman, and I would say it's an eye-opener."
[email protected]
Get My Paper for more stories.
