August 11, 2004
Mobile Phone Is Matchmaker in Singapore
The singles of Singapore have plenty of help: Phone chat-lines, dating agencies and even the government are all dedicated to pairing up people. Now a software company is turning the mobile phone into a matchmaker, reports the WSJ.
"Software company BEDD has launched a mobile-phone matchmaking service, also called BEDD. Subscribers download the software to their phones -- which are enabled with Bluetooth short-range wireless technology -- and key in some personal details, such as who they are and the kind of person they'd like to meet. When a potential partner is in the vicinity the phone alerts them.
The service can seek out other users within about a 20-yard range. It ranks them on a scale of one to five in terms of compatibility. After viewing the profile, the user must decide whether to take the next step -- usually sending a text message.
There are other mobile-phone dating services in Asia: Singapore Telecom's MyCupid and Bharti Airtel of India's TrackUrMate, for example. But BEDD is different from these because it uses Bluetooth phone-to-phone transmission, and not a central database. Service providers in the U.S. and Europe are also catching on to using Bluetooth's short-range radio signals for dating services.
In Japan, meanwhile, so-called proximity dating -- which relies on the relative location of would-be couples and wireless technology to bring singles together -- has taken off. Japanese service providers such as ImaHima use global positioning systems to help like-minded users locate one another. "
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