Obviously, something for the singletons and not if you are home with your significant other. Speeddater.co.uk is pushing out its Virtual Speed Dating platform during the coronavirus outbreak. In short, you have quick speed dates online with people in your area. Perhaps you can find some ready-made romance, once the lockdown is over The cost? £5.
SpeedDater - The UK's Favourite Singles Events Site for Speed Dating, has more dating events, attendees & matches than any other site, was founded by Simon Prockter and Ben Tisdall in 2003.
As the brainchild behind Speeddating in the UK, the pair scaled the idea from Simon's kitchen to become the largest Speeddating events company in Europe, later selling it to Cupid PLC, in 2008, who now continue to run the company, some 12 years later.
COVID-19 has created a number of economic challenges for events companies and in particular dating platforms, where the end goal is, of course, to physically meet. To counter the decline in usage of these platforms, the rise of video dating has taken centre stage. With platforms such as Hinge, Bumble and others, now offering inbuilt video dating capability the questions remains, how will this impact the way people meet up once the lockdown ends?
Simon Prockter, co-founder of Speeddater, commented:
'Covid-19 has taken away the ability to meet physically, so virtual dating has provided a welcome way to communicate with potential partners. It could be the way people choose to meet in future as new habits during lockdown become normal behaviour. Virtual dating is certainly a fun and creative way to meet and arguably a safer way to begin a relationship'.
E-Man partnered with Speeddater in 2003 when on-line dating had greater authenticity. There is no doubt that smartphones, real-time location and the 'swiping' culture has had a huge impact on the dating landscape, creating new behaviours that may ultimately have left many people feeling empty, tainted and feeling hopeless where dating is concerned. It is perhaps time for a re-think into on-line dating and perhaps COVID-19 has provided a catalyst for having these conversations. One step back to take a giant leap forward, maybe?
Only time will tell and here at E-Man, we view the challenge of building an authentic online dating experience to be an exciting problem, that we are eager to solve.