FUCKING TECH!Design of mechanical sexualities in the age of sexbots

Dating Services and Ways of Meeting in the Context of Romantic Relationships

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by Maud Bourgeois

11 avril 2025

Evolution of dating services (1880–2024) and ways of meeting in the context of a romantic relationship (1930–2000–2024)

Over the past century, dating services have adapted to emerging digital platforms as soon as they appeared. While newspaper personal ads are still in use, dating apps and online services now overwhelmingly dominate the market in 2024. In fact, 60% of couples now meet online (compared to just 4% in 2000), whereas only 13% meet through friends (down from 23% in 2000), which is the second most common meeting context.

Since the widespread adoption of AI services in 2022, some platforms have integrated assistance tools (such as Flirtonic) and games (The Game Game, by Tinder) to help users make connections. Additionally, other services now enable different kinds of relationships through artificial intelligence: in 2017, the platform Replika allowed users to chat with an AI-generated character and develop a relationship with it.

New dating services are emerging, allowing users to create their own AI companion—addressing significant emotional needs and gradually transforming both the structure and the way romantic and erotic relationships are envisioned.

The following graphs show how this phenomenon unfolds.

Historical Development of Dating Services (1880–2025)

Sources: Based on How Couples Meet and Stay Together, 2017–2020–2022 combined dataset, by Michael J. Rosenfeld, Reuben J. Thomas, and Sonia Hausen. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Libraries, 2023.

References:

1 – French matrimonial ads. 1882.
2 – Dateline.Patterson, John Richard. 1966.
3 – Minitel Number “3615 ULLA”. Roncin, Louis. 1987.
4 – Match.com. Kremen, Gary. 1995
5 – Matrimonial ads. Journal Le Chasseur Français. 1995
6 – eharmony. Neil Clark Warren Greg Forgatch. 2000
7 – Meetic.fr. Simoncini, Marc. 2001
8 – Grindr. Simkhai, Joel. 2009
9 – Tinder. Match Group. 2012
10 – Replika. Luka, Inc. 2017
11 – Flirtonic. Olappilan, Mohammed. 2024.
12 – Gigi. Gold, Carla. 2024.
13 – Matrimonial ads.. Journaux du groupe Actu. 2025
14 – The Game Game. Tinder, Match Group. 2025

by Maud Bourgeois

11 avril 2025

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