Looking for a date? See you in the Cloud!
Summary
Cloud providers create and manage the platform and
infrastructure for online dating, where enable people to develop relationships
in the virtual world. Comparing to
face-to-face communication, online dating allows people to talk to anyone at
anytime in anywhere as long as one has a computer or a mobile device. Plus the
globalization effects, social networking or online dating has never been
easier.
7 Key Questions for Online Dating
1. What?
Online dating is a new channel for people to build up and develop
relationships in the virtual world. With the development of cloud computing and
online technology, one can easily find friends, lovers, or even soul mates
through the flooded sites or apps for online dating or social networking. It
doesn't stop people eventually pursuing relationships in the real world, but
instead it is a good way to widen social circle which enables people to conduct initial search and filtering process which
perfectly fits the fast-paced lifestyle for modern people.
(Source: Certainly Her)
2. Who?
People who are single and lonely that do not have the time or
opportunity to make friendships through conventional social activities, or
those simply seeking for excitements, may be the users of online dating. For
whatever reasons, there are always a large pool of people that have similar
situations and the same target: I want a date!
3. Why?
Online dating allows people to take active moves to chase for
their own happiness in a more convenient way, as contacts or conversations can
be easily started via internet with less fear of embarrassment or rejection.
What’s more, most of the online platforms nowadays allow users to create their
profile and optimize results, which can lead to more efficient matching
comparing to the face-to-face social activities. Not to mention the large pool of
candidates means more opportunities to a successful date.
(Source: Statista)
4. When?
Whenever! Online dating allows people to look for a dating
partner anytime, and it takes less time to communicate with more people, even
in different time zones. Thanks to online dating, people already built up a
certain extent of mutual understanding of each other before they finally meet
in person, which significantly boosts the development of relationships.
5.
Where?
Wherever! No matter where you are, you are free to talk to
anyone through the sites or apps for online dating or social networking, despite
the geographical distances. It provides more chances for people to get in touch
with each other as one can choose to talk to someone from the local or from a
different region where traditional ways of meeting people just wouldn't work.
6.
How?
As long as you have a computer or mobile device that could
connect to the internet, welcome to the online dating world! In addition to the
online dating sites like OKCupid, Match.com, different social media like Facebook
and Twitter, also inadvertently lead to an online relationship.
(Source: Brozermo)
7.
How much?
Online dating is much cheaper than the offline ones. While
there are abundant sites and apps for free online dating or social media,
membership fees may be charged if one wants to have advanced services and better
experiences. No matter how, it would be much cheaper than the expenditures on
clothes, dining and transportation for a real date. Considering the cost of
money and time, online dating can be said cost efficient.
Technical Support from Cloud
Computing
A.
Deployment Model - Public Cloud
Considering that online dating services are open for public
use, and resources are shared for maximum cost-efficiency, public cloud is
applied to run the sites or apps. Public cloud service providers like Amazon AWS
owns and operates the infrastructure for online dating at their data
center and access is generally via the internet. By leveraging such social
networking platforms, people can gain access to huge user communities.
However, security is the most common consideration and
drawback of public cloud. As users' data are stored on the cloud provider's
server, there might be unauthorized access to the data. For this reason, online
dating sites and apps are increasingly adopting intelligent third-party key
management systems to help secure their data.
Another important element is stability. In 2012, an online
dating site named WhatsYourPrice.com dumped Amazon AWS because of its
services outage which took a whole week to recover. As the dating site’s CEO
and founder stated, "dating is all about the serendipity of meeting the
right person at the right time. If an online dating service is not available, a
user may lose the chance to meet his or her soul mate forever".
(Source: skaliGroup)
B.
Service Model - Software as a Service (SaaS)
Online dating is an application of SaaS model of cloud computing.
Cloud providers operate and manage the infrastructure and platforms for online
dating in the cloud and users are provided access to application software and
databases. On most of the online dating software, people can create quite
detailed profiles about themselves for easier matching. To support users’
activities, like uploading and posting photos and videos, as well as
text/voice/video chatting, capacity of cloud is essential.
Many people may have concerns that online dating is dangerous
as people may lie about their age, weight, height, job, income, and marital
status, seems that everything goes unreal on the internet. However, it is just
the same as meeting someone in the real world, fraud happens and creepy weirdo
exists. Online dating itself is neither positive nor negative, it only provides
a platform, so it is the users’ own responsibility to be more careful and wary
for safe dating, just as one should do in any real life situation.
On the other hand, in order to improve such image, it is not
at all uncommon that online dating users are required to register with real
names and other personal information, and also charged for member fee. By doing
this, fraudsters and scammers will be kept out of the software as much as
possible and therefore their adverse impacts can be minimized. In fact, such
charges are not only for premium services, but also for the expenditures on maintenance
of the software as SaaS itself is usually priced on a pay-per-use basis or
using a subscription fee.
(Source: CRMnext)
Online dating benefits from the development of cloud
computing technology as there are more capacity applicable with less cost due
to cloud’s abundance and flexibility.
First of all, according to Gartner’s forecast in 2013, public
cloud services market will reach $200 billion by 2016, while SaaS will achieve
a 19.5% CAGR through 2016 with therein social software attaining a 10.9% CAGR in the same period.
Based on the continual expansion of computation and storage clouds, there is no
doubt that the platform for online dating software will become larger, which
enhances the users’ chances and possibilities for successful dates, and enables
more convenient accesses as well. Apparently, the abundant resources and
capability in relation to greater stability are advantages comparing to
non-cloud computing online dating.
(Source: Gartner)
In addition, while future requirements should be considered
and planned in advance in the old model, application of cloud’s SaaS model is
scalable and adjustable. Therefore, online dating agencies, usually being small
to medium start-up businesses, can be particularly beneficial by given incredible
levels of agility which lead to significantly reduce on operating costs, and thus
encourages investments to the online dating industry. Users on the other hand, are
expected to benefit from using less money but getting more chances to make new
friends in return.
The Impact of Globalization
Online dating is also a reflection of the social change and
economic transformation because of the impact of globalization.
> Positive Effects
More
Application Driven by Spread of Culture
Online dating was born in the western and has been spreading
all over the world rapidly. It has not only provided more options for internet
surfing, but also enabled people to have more opportunities to get connected
with the social networking that one may not be able to reach in the real world.
There is no doubt that people all around the world have dating needs with no
exceptions, but it is thanks to globalization that people have become more open
minded and the acceptance level of online dating has been therefore increasing.
Especially for the eastern countries where people are comparatively restrained,
more and more online dating software can be seen and more and more people are
involved in the current decade.
(Source: Statista)
Business
Opportunities Driven by Huge Demand
Online dating, applying the emerging technology to an
emerging industry, has been targeting the huge global market. Due to
globalization, the social media have seen massive growth, with millions of internet
users actively participating across various social networking sites and apps. The
huge online dating needs brings business opportunities to the online dating
software for collaboration, or even cooperation with other industries, which leads
to better innovations, technological upsurge, successful cost effective
strategies, as well as fast information processing, distribution and sharing.
(Source: Statista)
High
Standard Driven by Increased Competition
Globalization has also facilitated the implementation of the
survival of the fittest system for online dating. As service providers, online
dating agencies have to keep improving the quality and quantity of the online
dating services in face of the intense global competition, by making the sites
or apps more user-friendly, convenience and stable backed up by more resources
and capabilities. And an external cloud environment which is being audited
regularly and subject to global standards and regulations will have higher
security for online dating software.
> Negative Effects
While globalization has brought people together and online
dating enables variety of dates from all over the world with different
understanding, living styles and customs, risks like virus spreading should
always be born in mind if the virtual dates become real.
All in all, the positive globalization effects for online
dating are far more than the negative ones. So it can be said that online
dating benefits from globalization overall, and its development trend and space
can still be tremendous driven by globalization.
References:
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cloud services, Computerworld, Retrieved from:
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from:
10) CRMnext, What is Cloud Computing? Retrieved from:
11) Digital marketing, Brozermo, Retrieved from:
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