Are you looking for love online, but want to find the perfect match yourself rather than trust some dating website to pick a partner for you? Read on…
Berlin-based Affinitas, the force behind the successful eDarling dating website, will launch a new service for romance-seekers at the end of June. Called betterDate, it will complement eDarling – giving singles the chance to control their own search for a partner.
Although at first glance the new service seems to be in direct competition with its stablemate, that is far from the case, according to Lukas Brosseder, founder and managing director of eDarling. “Despite the fact that more and more singles ask for a matchmaking based on scientific findings, there will always be two types of singles in the virtual world: Those who appreciate matches proposed by the online dating agency and others who would rather search themselves,” Brosseder said. “So far, we weren’t able to offer an appropriate service to the latter group. This will be different from now on.”
The new portal – with the slogan “Einfach bessere Dates”, or “Simply better dates” – will reach out to the public through a TV ad campaign. An independent platform, betterDates was built from scratch by Affinitas and test users will be given access to an alpha version including basic functions by the end of June at the latest. The launch of the beta version is scheduled for the end of July, and the website should go live in August.
Sabine Würkner, the head of the project, said: “We paid special attention to functions concerning completion and maintenance of one’s own profile as well as to those functions making browsing other profiles more fun.”
Like eDarling, betterDate will be financed through premium memberships in the medium term. During its launch, though, the service will be free of charge. Affinitas’ Jan-Pierre Richter said: “Our aim is to lead the photo personals market in terms of profile checks, security standards and customer service. That requires quite expensive operations. The standards we are aiming for cannot be supported by a mainly ad sales-driven model.”