More people meet and date through Offline vs Online Methods, but Customization is creating a competitive advantage for online sites

What is Personalization, Customization and Agency

Personalization refers to the extent to which content is tailored by a system to meet the needs of the user. An example of this is Apple creating products to try and meet the needs of their customers. This contrasts customization, which is the ability that the user has to modify or add content to meet their needs. A customization example is Android, allowing users to edit the open source code to create products for themselves. The agency model refers to how the users are the source or sender of all content, the premise of the psychological effects of customization technologies. 

The ability to customize on Online Dating Sites is creating a competitive advantage

One idea of personalization vs customization can be seen in AditiPaul’s article, which researches whether online dating or offline dating is better for meeting partners. This study is relevant to the personalization and customization, because online dating usually involves the user customizing a profile of them, which is then matched with another user. The ability to customize a profile is what gives online dating a competitive edge, as it allows users to a) have a large selection of matches; b) find someone with similar interests (profile customizations); and c) allow users to achieve quick intimacy with matches. Overall, users customizing their profiles (as opposed to a site personalizing a profile for a user) provide an avenue to facilitate online dating.

Results of a study show that many more people date Offline than Online

Aditi Paul’s study of 2923 adults showed that the majority of people are still using offline methods to meet each other. 2643 of the adults in relationships said that they had met through offline methods, while the remaining 280 adults said they met online. These results are visualized through Figure 1 below. This encourages the idea that people are still more trusting of traditional methods to meet new people, though this trend is on the decrease. As people are having more and more ability to customize their dating experience, so the popularity for those selected methods is increasing. 

People meeting online are getting married less than those meeting Offline

Contrasting this initial result, Paul’s study also revealed that more than 60% of couples met online was in non-marital relationships, with only a minority reporting to being married. Paul presented three reasons for this situation. Firstly, people dating online know they have a huge number of potential matches (based on their customizations), so they are reluctant to commit to one person. Secondly, online relationships take longer to develop compared to offline initiated ones. Lastly, because of people’s distrust of online sources, it takes a longer time for a trusting relationship to develop. Paul says this is because 86% of users have reported to be concerned about people falsifying their personal information and being deceptive about themselves. This is where a problem with customization takes place, as people have the power to present themselves however they want. This contrasts with a system that would work on personalization, as the system would make create a correct representation of the user based on information that it could gather about the user.

The trend for Online Customization is on the rise

Thus, Paul’s studies reveals some interesting ideas about using customization in online dating, and the ways that it can be beneficial for certain people, but detrimental for others. What is evident is that the trend for people to use customization through online methods is on the rise, but whether the information is completely correct is another matter. Each user will have to make their own decision as to whether they want to use customization (over personalization methods) when using online systems.