Getting set up through family and friends was the original way of dating. Picking up a girl at a bar, so 90s and the second iteration of dating life-cycle. Swiping on an app or using online dating, so 2000s and the third iteration of the dating life-cycle. Dating has slowly migrated from an in real life experience to a digital experience but not without hesitation.
Amanda Bradford, Founder & CEO at The League - a dating app catering to the intelligent, educated, and ambitious – sees dating as three life-cycles. First is dating 0.0, the original family and friends sourcing whose life-cycle from sourcing, to calling and hopeful to first date. Dating 1.0 began with the integration of online dating with the life-cycle of long sign-ups, messaging, replies, shared interest to hopeful first date. In 2012, Dating 2.0 emerges with the advent of dating apps.
The difference between all three life-cycles is when the match or dual interest occurs.
With Dating 0.0, matching with dual interest happened after the first call Dating 1.0 life-cycle, matching with dual interest started after the initial message and in Dating 2.0 matching with dual interest starts with first swipe.
Since the Dating 2.0 life-cycle began to dominate the market, it has been updated to allow users to get matched earlier and smarter. Furthermore, apps like The League and others (Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge, etc.) send you profiles based on preferences and allows an algorithm to do the search for you. Furthermore, as an extra layer of security, Facebook and LinkedIn are connected to users profiles to enforce double authentication of all profiles. And in case of The League, the extra layer of security is the fact that their review team puts eyes on every profile photo and word on profile which has created a waiting list of over 100,000.
So now that the Dating 2.0 life-cycle is being perfected, what’s next? The League believes that first dates are more efficiently done in virtual reality, not dating in general. Daters can better assess the "X factor" (e.g. if there are sparks) via virtual reality, and only choose to meet people in person that the user feels will be a good match. Using this system is more efficient as it allows the user to gather all the mutual information over virtual reality before meeting in person on a first date.
As such, they plan to offer its busiest, most successful users the ability to date singles from any ‘live’ League city (NYC, LA, SF, DC, CHI & BOS) all from within the comforts of the latest Oculus Rift. This beta testing will be carried out with Oculus and River Studios for the first time at their ‘Love Without Limits’ Westworld themed Valentine’s Day parties happening across the nation – in SF, LA, BOS, DC, CHI & NYC – this Friday, Monday and Tuesday at The W Hotels
For those brave enough to date in virtual reality, users will be match The League’s algorithms to go on a ‘blind’ Virtual Reality first date – dubbed LeagueWorld internally – where they can experience set activities together for around five minutes, either alone or as part of a double date with a couple from a sister city. The two singles will only get to see, meet, and debrief with each other in person after they’ve taken their headsets off.
As first dates are often a waste of time with daters not connecting, Bradford believes that VR will show both sides, “mannerisms and appearance over video, hear their voice over headphones, and then, to top it all off, solve games and challenges together that can gauge personality compatibility to a high degree of accuracy.”