Exclusive apps become dating boom
By Lee Suh-yoon
The screen of SKY People dating app captured in the Google app store. Male users must be from the nation's top universities to become a member.
Dating apps for a group of people with certain academic backgrounds or occupations have been booming, reflecting the trend that Koreans are increasingly selective about whom to date.
Before accepting male users, app operators pore over documents submitted by the user to prove his “dateabiliy” – such as an address in upscale Gangnam, employment at a chaebol, or a graduation certificate from one of Korea's “top” three universities (SKY); Seoul National, Yonsei and Korea.
Female users, on the other hand, are usually assessed solely on their looks.
SKY People, a dating app with 145,000 users, only accepts men who have graduated from top universities. Women are simply required to post pictures of themselves that male users can swipe through.
“SKY People was the most openly sexist app I used,” said a 26-year-old graduate student surnamed Lee who recently experimented with three different dating apps. “It was a blunt exchange of a man's economic ability for a woman's looks.”
Depending on the selection process enforced, each dating app caters to a slightly different customer base, carving out niche markets that reflect the class and gender hierarchy in Korea.
Gold Spoon, a smaller app with around 3,200 users, looks at more explicitly wealth-related traits like income level and ownership of a foreign car.
Amanda, which means “I don't just meet anyone” in Korean, has 4 million users. Its male users are usually younger than other smaller dating apps that require its male users to go through a meticulous screening of their economic background.
To join, potential users must post photos to have one's looks evaluated by 20 existing users. Though both men and women are evaluated by their looks, Lee says the app still reinforces gender stereotypes in subtle ways.
“According to the affiliated blogs, to pass the selection process, men are advised to look hardworking in the photos whereas the women are told put on radiant smiles,” Lee said.
The online dating industry grew by around 40 percent to reach 70 billion won this year, according to industry estimates. There are currently around 170 online dating services catering to 3.3 million users, based on figures from the Korea Consumer Agency.
According to Park Seung-hee, a senior researcher at the Korea Trend Research Institute, the reason why a wide variety of dating apps rising in popularity here is their relative efficiency compared to traditional matchmaking services.
“People find the matchmaking services provided by big offline companies too cumbersome and limited in choice, not to mention the membership fee,” Park said. “In an app, the process is more convenient and it is also easier to reject someone who does not satisfy one's standards.”