[eschulz]

This startup also faces a fatal problem when users find a great music teacher, and then they just cut out the startup for future dealings with the teacher. They lose both the parents and the best teachers. Similar to those startups that pair you with a maid.

[toohotatopic]

... or a soul mate, aka dating platforms.

[Johnny555]

Pairing people romantically is so hard to do that dating platforms can count on a long string of revenue from clients.

It's going to take many meetups before I find the woman of my dreams, but chances are pretty good that the first maid I get paired with will meet my needs (worst case, maybe I'll need to try one or two more), after a few successful visits, then I can offer to pay direct and cut out the middleman.

[woutr_be]

Don't people usually cut out the middleman on dating apps straight away? From my experience, after the initial connection, and before the first meet, you usually exchange numbers, and continue through anything else but the dating app.

In that aspect, I don't see how it's different than pairing with a maid.

[jmull3n]

You would only need to be paired with one maid though.

[woutr_be]

Correct, and if that maid is a match, you proceed. How is that different from a dating site? In theory they only have to match you with one other person.

But my main point was; on dating sites the middle man is almost always cut out instantly. Usually you try to immediately exchange numbers, and then proceed from there.

[Johnny555]

I don't know if you're tried online dating, but in my experience, it hasn't been "sign up for a month, find your wife and you're done".

I spent several years off and on with online dating (went on a lot of first dates, fewer several week relationships, and a few multi-month relationships) -- dating sites tend to give a steep discount for longer term (6mo, 12mo) subscriptions, so I was a subscriber for most of that time.

Ending up finding my wife offline though.

On the other hand, I found a housekeeper on Craigslist, called some of references (one was a neighbor), hired her, used her for a year, then when she moved out of the area, she referred me to someone else.

Turns out it's a lot easier to find a housekeeper than a romantic partner.

[r_deckard]

You probably need to go back to the dating site multiple times until you finally found "the one". Exchanging numbers and using the dating site service, again and again, multiple times.

Whereas when you're looking for a maid, you probably only need to exchange number once, and that maid will probably suit your need just fine for a really long time.

[toohotatopic]

Or is it not, and dating platforms make it difficult on purpose for people to return?

There was a comment some days ago along the lines of somebody being ordered to switch off a matching algorithm because it was too good.

[rchaud]

Dating platforms subsist on ads and the sale of user data. Subscription revenues are a tiny proportion of their revenue base.

[knlam]

at face value, this seems plausible. However, the dating dynamic is unique among other marketplace ideas. Case in point, tinder is profitable (whenever people find their soulmate through it, tinder loses customers)

[toohotatopic]

If they find a soulmate. Tinder is for casual sex, so people are returning.

[wolco]

or goes back after the heartbreak.