Culture and Close Relationships: A Psychological View

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Culture and Close Relationships: A Psychological View
Professor Susan E. Cross
(Department of Psychology, Iowa State University)

" .... perceived similarity on personality dimensions was less strongly related to commitment and satisfaction in the relationship for Taiwanese respondents than for US respondents (Wu, Cross,& Tey, 2012). Our hunch is that this may be due, at least in part, to differences in beliefs about the malleability of the self. East Asians tend to believe the self is malleable and changeable, and in close relationships, the individual should adapt to fit into the relationship. Americans tend to believe the self is relatively fixed and stable, so that one needs to find romantic partners who "fit" – whose personality fits with ones own. Because similarity is self-enhancing and allows one to predict the behavior of the other, Americans are more satisfied with a similar partner."

FBI wants access to social networks

FBI wants access to social networks, e-mail providers.
Requesting backdoor access; wants them to be wiretap friendly.

Badoo Hits 150 Million Users??? No way

Badoo Hits 150 Million Users, Techcrunch reported today.

Conversion rate is less than 1% in South American countries, and database is 95% men an 5% women. There were complaints about up to 8 hours delay when you pay via SMS using your cell phone to put your profile in first place. And in some countries they had created lots of  fake profiles. They will be under fraud investigation soon.

The Internet's impact on aspiring countries report from McKinsey

The Internet's impact on aspiring countries report from McKinsey

Country profiles: Argentina at pages 68 to 80
Argentina, which has high individual wealth for an aspiring country in Latin America, leverages the Internet effectively for economic and social impact.
While some entrepreneurs have successful Internet businesses, entrepreneurship broadly remains constrained by difficulties in accessing capital. However, Argentina does have the human capital needed for Internet entrepreneurship, leading its regional peers in both the per capita number of R&D researchers and tertiary science graduates.
The costs of Internet access in Argentina are about 25 percent lower than the Latin American average. These low access costs, coupled with a highly urbanized population, have helped to drive Internet penetration in Argentina—today this stands at 64 percent. Residential use is healthy. The penetration of broadband into households is 37 percent, higher than the 33 percent in Chile and 22 percent in Brazil.

Argentina has a relatively high number of mobile subscriptions compared with the rest of Latin America. The popularity of mobile devices has led to a distinct Internet usage profile: high levels of social networking and the development of mobile applications are unique traits of Argentina's Internet ecosystem.

E-commerce in Argentina has significant room to continue growing. (Exhibit 44)
The maturity of Argentina’s Internet ecosystem lags behind that of Brazil and Chile but is ahead of Mexico's. (Exhibit 45)
Argentine users, despite being older, use the Internet more than their regional peers. (Exhibit 47)

IAC's Q1 2012

The IAC had increased its paid subscribers database thanks to acquiring companies, like SinglesNet, Meetic, OkCupid and others, but if they acquire is a sign they can not innovate.

Lack Of Innovation & Decadence can summarize the Online Dating Industry since years.

Worldwide there are less than 7 million paid members (adding up all the ones at eHarmony,  Match, Chemistry, Meetic, MeeticAffinity, OkCupid, PeopleMedia's Communities, PlentyOfFish, Parship, eCift, etc). The market remains enormous for new players.
Online Dating for serious daters does not need to be more social, it needs to be more effective, more efficient.

It is clear to Match, if they want to grow, they will need to increase their non-Meetic international operations (The unexploited Latin American Market remains enormous: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and many countries in Central America) or launch a new site to replace Chemistry. Or is the IAC going to acquire eHarmony soon?


Compare to Q4 2011.

See also IAC 2011 annual report.

MEETIC 1st quarter of 2012

 MEETIC 1st quarter of 2012,

Meetic 10 years, old and obsolete site.

10 years scamming members with automatic rebilling and other credit cards trickery.

 compare to MEETIC 1st quarter of 2011

The number of subscribers at 31st March 2012 was 757,332

The number of subscribers at 31st March  2011 was 872,047

Lack Of Innovation & Decadence can summarize the Online Dating Industry since years. Innovations are not adding more bells and whistles to actual online dating sites. Or launching new ones with the same stupidities as the old ones.


The Online Dating Industry needs Innovations, but the innovations the Online Dating Industry needs will come from only one source: the latest discoveries in theories of romantic relationships development with commitment.
Only 3 major discoveries can help to revolutionize the online dating industry.
I) Several studies showing contraceptive pills users make different mate choices, on average, compared to non-users. "Only short-term but not long-term partner preferences tend to vary with the menstrual cycle"
II) People often report partner preferences that are not compatible with their choices in real life. (FORGET Behavioural recommender systems or other system that learns your preferences)
III) What is important in attracting people to one another may not be important in making couples happy. Compatibility is all about a high level on personality similarity between prospective mates for long term mating with commitment.

Chemistry's Free Communication Weekend

Match trying to resurrect Chemistry with a Free Communication Weekend?

Chemistry is a 7 years old & obsolete site based solely on a proprietary ipsative personality test developed by Dr. Helen Fisher. It is not scientifically proven, a fraud, a hoax!