Last
week, I attended a speed-dating event, and was amazed, once
again, by the extent to which the Internet can change life as
we have known it. But before I get ahead of myself, flash back
to the early 80s when, travelling by train to Delhi every
summer, somewhere near Agra I would see miles and miles of
brick walls painted with ads for a Professor Arora’s
matrimonial service based in Delhi. Prof Arora probably
created one of the first organised matrimonial networks for
Indian families searching for eligible matches for their
offspring — all on dusty, brown brick walls.
Matrimonial advertising has evolved rapidly since then.
First came the era of matrimonial ads in the Sunday
newspapers. Then, matrimonial advertising went online. Last
week, I observed in Boston what could be the next big idea for
meeting a mate: a speed-dating event for South Asians. It’s
simple: Singles congregate at a local restaurant. Each person
gets to meet a number of people for a short time-period,
between three to 10 minutes. People quickly introduce
themselves and size each other up. Then, you pick and choose
those you would like to get to know better.
Speed
dating has evolved from Internet personals advertising. People
found that they could find other people on the Net but, often,
they exaggerated their virtues and sometimes, safety issues
arose from meeting strangers. Aish HaTorah, an international
Jewish educational network, came up with the idea — it owns
the service mark SpeedDating — of organising a real-life event
for people seeking partners on the Net. Soon, several dotcoms
jumped into the fray: Fastdates.com, Minidates.com,
3minutedates.com, 7datesin60minutes.com, and of course,
Boston-based 8minuteDating.com.
Last fortnight, 8minuteDating.com organised a speed-dating
event exclusively for South Asians at a downtown nightclub.
Most of the people who registered were 25-35 year old American
Born Confused Desis — torn between the travails of arranged
marriages and the pangs of loneliness. All were well-educated,
smart, professionals seeking lasting relationships. Everyone
felt awkward with the idea of talking to eight complete
strangers for eight minutes each — but, by the time four dates
got over, there was a huge buzz in the room.
No one was allowed to reveal their personal contact
information during the event; every participant used first
names and a code number. At the end of the evening, all of
them went back to the website and recorded the names of those
they would like to meet again. If the ones they chose also
showed an interest in meeting them, the website automatically
matched them up and sent them each other’s contact
information.
You know what I really liked about the idea? The fact that
the website didn’t have anything more to do with it. Since a
local franchisee organised the event, the dotcom didn’t incur
any expenses other than the costs of training him — in terms
of revenues, each participant registered for around $30. The
event took place on a slow work-night, so the restaurant was
happy to lend its venue for free. Everyone bought his or her
own drinks.
As the evening wore on, it looked like a win-win all
around. The bartenders grinned at the brisk business on a
Monday night, participants milled around excitedly chatting up
new people. And 8minuteDating.com was hardly visible, no
signage, no interventions, nothing. The dotcom simply faded
into the background — like all good matchmakers.
The dotcom thus created a platform for its users, and
allowed them to fulfill their needs themselves. And that’s the
core of a successful business model. Says Tom Jaffee, founder
of 8minuteDating.com: “Our business has grown over ten-fold
this year. We’re hiring more people, just moved into a larger
office and preparing for continued strong growth next year.
We’ve built a sophisticated Web-based system that automates
the many aspects of the business, and this, along with our
over 100 event organisers, enables us to run events now in 30
cities in the US.”
Don’t get too worried about finding a revolutionary new use
for the Internet. Instead, just take normal, old customer
needs, and find a more convenient way of meeting them. In the
case of 8minuteDating.com, that meant bringing matchmaking
back from clicks to bricks. Professor Arora would have
approved.
