By Alejandro Martinez-Cabrera
San Francisco Chronicle
In the online dating business, where new sites close as quickly as they open and only a handful have mastered the art of matchmaking, a new generation of services is courting the billion-dollar industry by leveraging all that personal information on social networks.
Their hope: that matchmaking based on social media such as
Facebook or
Twitter, which some argue provide a more accurate snapshot of users' lives, can lead to better connections.
"It's hard to fake a Twitter stream or
Flickr photos. That authenticity is what makes good and safer dates," said Steve Odom, founder of
Gelato, an online dating service in Texas that launched in September. "I'm surprised that no one had built it before me because it makes total sense."
Gelato is a service that lets users create their profiles based on information from services like Twitter, Facebook,
Hulu,
Netflix and
Last.fm. That way, other users can see in real time the last post someone made or the movies someone else recently saw.
An ongoing concern with online dating is safety, but some companies try to mitigate that by basing their services on users' existing connections.
Thread, a San Francisco site that opened in September, takes a jab at the awkwardness of navigating the Internet to meet strangers by helping Facebook users connect with the friends of their friends. Thread users can browse their friends' contacts, ask for introductions or play matchmaker by suggesting dates to other people.
These new startups could be appealing among those in their 20s who are more comfortable with sharing personal information publicly and more interested in casual dating and expanding their networks.
For instance, almost two-thirds of the 30 million users on
Zoosk, an online dating site in San Francisco, are younger than 30.
The Web site claims to be the first site in a new category: social dating, a combination of social networks and online dating. The pitch is, make your dating profile available to Zoosk users using the same social networks -- Facebook,
Hi5,
MySpace,
Friendster, etc. -- and let your friends write a good word for you in the form of testimonials.
Co-founder Shayan Zadeh said that the site's platform is the digital equivalent of going out to a bar with friends and meeting new people.
The appeal, Zadeh said, is that meeting people through social networks takes the pressure off going on the hunt solely for a meaningful relationship.
"In real life you're not in a mission to find your soul mate," he said. "Real life is about meeting new people and if it happens that I find someone I have a connection with, great. But otherwise, I'm not a loser if I don't find a date in six months."
BlackBox Republic is another newcomer that wants to turn online dating into a more lasting and meaningful experience.
On the one hand, the company offers a closed-door networking environment -- people must pay a $25 registration to participate -- for people who relate to the sex-positive community, which basically means being open to making friends with diverse sexual orientations and all kinds of relationship preferences.
On the other hand, the company, which also describes itself as a social dating site, aims to provide an environment where people can create networks they can retain even after finding new love interests. In a way, its goal is to challenge the shop-and-go spirit of the classifieds system, BlackBox Republic CEO Sam Lawrence said.
"Right now, none of the (online dating) sites grow with you," he said. "Sites are no longer helpful when you date someone, and it becomes a piece of yourself that can't stay with you. We built this from the ground up to really marry the social space and the dating space and making it about your personal life."
E-mail San Francisco Chronicle reporter Alejandro Martínez-Cabrera at amartinez-cabrera@sfchronicle.com. For more stories, visit www.scrippsnews.com.
