FT: We fell out of love with dating apps

I've always said that the mid 2000s - when I met my spouse through online dating, and several other stably married couples that we know also met that way - was a sweet spot for online dating.

Much earlier, it was so esoteric that it was dominated by (mostly male) geeks.

Much later it became interesting to the mainstream.

And mainstream means big profits! And big profits become their own objective. Why have some innocent system that matches up people for the long term? That destroys your own customer base.

The rest is history.

And for the love of God, why bring AI into this? Online dating already has a fake profile issue. You want to match up humans for their human characteristics. Oh wait, profits.

The honest and smart in-group that knew of and used free classifieds/apps 10 and 20+ years ago...enjoyed a golden age...

...sadly I don't think that era will repeat anytime soon.