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Here’s how it can work, as told through the experience of 27-year-old Juston Payne:
Headed to a bar in Manhattan recently, he was in the mood to get to know someone new. So he logged on to Meetmoi, a mobile dating service.
He then scrolled through a list of profiles on his mobile phone and found a like-minded stranger in the area. The two swapped text messages and soon met up for a drink and a game of Skee-Ball.
“It’s simple and it’s immediate,” said Payne, 27, who checks in with Meetmoi, once a week. He’s already been on two casual, on-the-go dates in the city.
“It just takes away the whole kabuki dance that goes on with Internet dating,” he said.
Of the nation’s estimated 213 million mobile phone users, 3.6 million used a mobile dating service in May 2007, according to M:Metrics, a Seattle-based mobile research firm. Mostly used by men ages 18 to 34, use of such services has grown with the services themselves.
“For younger folks, the phone plays a very different role in their life than it does for older Americans,” said Mark Donovan, an M:Metrics analyst. “To them, it’s a tool to entertain, to connect with their friends, to flirt and meet new people.”
Some “traditional” – meaning Internet – dating Web sites like Webdate and Match.com are rolling out mobile services, and there are a handful of stand-alone ventures such as Meetmoi, Zogo and Jumbuck Entertainment’s Fast Flirting, as well.
All work similarly, allowing users to scan profile and contact potential dates, using various screens to protect identities. (Geography is not necessarily always a factor.)
Most are free to register. Meetmoi charges 99 cents for 10 back-and-forth messages. Though now free, Zogo might soon be starting a monthly subscription. And for about $3 per month, users can chat on the Fast Flirting service for up to 10 minutes.
Users beware: Some cell phone providers charge per text message, sent and received.
Safety always is key. All connections are made anonymously, and only users can reveal their true identities if they choose. And should a meet-up occur, it’s always advised to do it in a public place, such as a bar or coffee shop.
“There’s a paradigm shift in dating,” said Meetmoi’s founder Andrew Weinreich, who declined to disclose how many have signed up with his new service. “With online dating, you’ve got to sit in front of a computer, email someone, get an email a week later, arrange a date, pick the place Too much hassle.
“Now you can flirt with or meet someone instantly.”
Zogo, with about 6,000 members, was launched last year by Gabby Golan, who also wanted to take Internet dating to a new level.
“You can do it on the go,” Golan said. “You can be spontaneous, you can be out and about and meet someone, right then and there.”
It worked for Sara Salas, a 21-year-old from Anderson, Calif., who met her fiancée, Travis Sapp, last March through Zogo.
“I had been on a lot of the dating Web sites – a few of them I actually paid for – and I wasn’t too impressed,” Salas said. She turned to Zogo, found that Sapp, from Sacramento, was a match, and the two started having text. That led to phone calls, a meet-up and real-time dates.
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