Dating Websites: For Hooking Up or Getting Hitched?

June 13th, 2011

Online dating has always terrified me. And so I’ve never done it. But the BF did in a time before me, and so has pretty much every girl I’ve ever befriended. It’s beyond mainstream–it’s the norm. It seems to me that I hear about more people meeting online than offline, even in non-dating site spaces like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Hell, my sister even met her husband on MySpace back when that was a thing.

You go to Match if you want to hook up. You go to EHarmony if you’re looking to get serious. You go to JDate if you aren’t a goy. You go to OKCupid if you’re young, broke, and fabulous…

At least that’s what I hear on the streets. Each site has their own niche, their own target market of coupling commerce.

And then there’s Shaddi.com, based in India, whose whole mission is marriage. The company prides itself on matchmaking and just scored a nod from FastCompany as one of the 50 “Most Innovative” companies of 2011. You go on with your bad self, Shaddi, for finding the nichest of markets and turning the arranged marriage system on its head by allowing couples to arrange their own matches.

From hooking up to getting hitched, there truly is something for everyone.