Category: Featured Articles

Global Love Report – December 8, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Sanusi, a 79-year-old man in the district of Blitar, in East Java has become a viral sensation.  A TikTok user originally posted about Sanusi’s services in early November, attracted by an advertising banner. And by the 12th of November, the post had already received over 403,000 likes and over 4,000 comments.

Sanusi had put up a large red banner in front of his house that advertised his services, stating that he had only done so two to three months ago. However, he revealed that he has been an informal matchmaker for some time now.

His method is quite simple. He asks that clients give him a copy of their ID card and a picture of themselves. On the back of the picture, the client needs to write their name and phone number. He shows the photographs to singles who are looking for a match. And if they’re interested in the person, he tells them to jot down the phone number at the back.

In the last two and a half months, this 79 year old matchmaker revealed that he matched five couples. And these five couples ended up marrying. Of course, there have been more couples who ended marrying after he matched them but this happened well before he put up his advertising banner.

Currently, he has seven clients that are still unmatched—two women and five men.

Sanusi revealed that most of his clients have been male, which he finds baffling. Though he did state that there were times that he received only female clients for a couple of days and then after that, he will get only male clients for days and days.

According to Sanusi, for the most part, women don’t want to be too obvious that they’re actively looking for a partner. He also stated that those who came to him tend to be widows and widowers.

Originally published by Kompas

(Image source: Pexels, Tom Fisk)

Global Love Report – December 1, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Singles in Bordeux are turning to matchmaking agencies in Bordeaux to find long-term relationship partners.

These singles include Sandrine (45). They are lonely and looking for a life partner. And discouraged by online dating. Sandrine explained that misleading profiles on dating sites and apps have been disappointing for her. Especially because she’s impatient in terms of meeting and connecting with someone.

According to Valérie, the co-owner of Unicentre, one of the matchmaking agencies in Bordeaux, her agency is getting a lot of younger people who are disappointed with online dating.

Her agency, like other matchmaking agencies, verifies each client to make sure that they’re really who they say they are. Valérie explains that the first time she meets with a potential client will be at their home. This is to check if their standard of living matches with what they’ve stated. She also asks for a copy of their livret de famille or family record book or a proof of their marital status.

What’s interesting to note that before 2019, 80% of her agency’s clientele were over 60 years old. Today, however, the over 60s represent over 60% of her clientele. She also revealed that now she also has clients under 45 now (15%), which she didn’t have before.

Originally published by Actu.fr.

(Image source: Pexels, Monstera)

Global Love Report – December 1, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Marriage agency Sunmarie, part of IBJ’s group of matchmaking agencies, has opened a “Single Parent Support Center”. The main purpose of the center is to provide support for single-parent families. Additionally, they are now offering a “single-parent family special plan” which offers lower matchmaking agency rates.

The IBJ group saw that that single-parent households have a much lower annual income compared to other households—slightly more than the average (55%). Furthermore, the poverty rate of children in single-parent households is more than three times of other households. And these are all numbers before the Covid-19 pandemic, which has worsened conditions.

Sunmarie’s agency has put together a group of specialists who will help ease the “financial”, “time”, and “mental” burdens for single parents at the Single Parent Support Center. This will leave single parents who are looking for marriage with less things to worry about.

To address these three issues, Sunmarie will have 3 experts to help: a legal counselor who is a board member for a children-focused non-profit, a professional matchmaker with a background in law and a family mentor license who has successfully matched 500 married couples, and the last is a mental health counselor who use to work for a project with the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. This new team are there to provide support for single parents.

Sunmarie is offering a special plan for single parents who are beginning their journey into their matrimonial search. For example, while normally the starting fee is ¥187,000 (around US$1,600), it will be reduced to ¥55,000 (around US$470). The monthly fee will also be reduced from ¥17,600 (around US$150) to ¥11,000 (US$95).

Originally published by PR Times.

(Image source: Pexels, Ketut Subiyanto)

Global Love Report – November 24, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Korean matchmaking agency, Duo, recently revealed that hotels and private rooms are the most popular dating spots during Covid (37.6%). In second place is outdoor places such as parks, historical sites, mountains (22.2%). And third is in a car, while on a drive (19%).

The survey also asked about outdoor vs indoor dates. The results are as follows: 53.2% of men prefer indoor whereas for women, 56% prefer an outdoor date.

For those who prefer indoor dating spots, their reasonings were: “weather won’t be a factor” (48.1%), and also things like, “less tiring” (30.9%) and “prefers indoor activities such as watching a movie or eating” (18.9%).

And for those who prefer outdoor dates, the reasons were: “prefers outdoor activities such as camping or walking” (39.7%), “to enjoy the weather (38.5%), and “less stressful because it’s not crowded (12.5%).

As for post-Covid? The most desired dating spot for singles post-Covid is “a tourist destination overseas” (57.8%). This is followed by “domestic tourist destination” (18.4%), amusement park (11.2%), “cinema” (4.6%), and “performance hall” (3%).

Originally published by 경상일보.

(Image source: Pexels, Volkan Vardar)

Global Love Report – November 24, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Couples who meet on dating apps are more likely to divorced in their first three years of marriage. This is according to a survey commissioned by Marriage Foundation, a UK-based organization.

The study shows that 12% of online couples are more likely to head for an early divorce compared to couples who meet through friends (2%).

It should be noted, however, that the longer a couple stays married—up to 10 years in this study—it’s the couples who meet at work surpasses couples who meet online in the likelihood of divorce.

By ten years of marriage, 24% of work couples are divorced, followed by couples who meet online (20%). The lowest is couples who meet at school or university, at 13%.

Originally published by New York Post.

(Image source: Pexels, Rodnae Productions)

Global Love Report – November 24, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Matri 2000 is a matchmaking agency in Mauritius, founded by its director, Gérard Bibi. It has been around for 23 years—though its journey has been far from smooth.

According to Bibi, when social networks began to appear, people actually stopped turning to his agency to meet people. When this occurred, he had actually been in partnership with another agency in France.

Due to the drop in demand worldwide, the French agency eventually folded. Bibi himself decided to slow his business down and took a break.
However, clients eventually got back in touch with him a few years later.

It’s easy to lie on the internet and Bibi stated that many people were fooled by fake profiles. He added that Mauritians in general don’t trust digital technology and thus, clients returned to matchmaking agencies.

Since the demand was back, Bibi decided to resume his business. His agency became a safety net for singles.

As for his clients, Bibi revealed that the majority of his clients are male, with the age range of 25 to 65 for women and 27 to 65 for men. However, most of his clients are between 41 and 65. Most of them have already been in long-term relationships that ended and are now trying to build a life with someone else. Most of his clients are graduates—especially the men.

Bibi stated that his male clients are managers, doctors, and many of them have a degree. However, most of them aren’t looking for women who are loaded with diplomas. And unfortunately, most of his female clients don’t fit the bill because, according to Bibi, the types of women who don’t have degrees don’t come to his agency.

Originally published by Defimedia

(Image source: Unsplash, Jonathan Borba)

Global Love Report – November 17, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

A marriage industry-focused Japanese research organization conducted a survey on 200 men and women who are serious about marrying. The aim for the survey was to gauge the outlook of the marriage industry in Japan post-Covid. Furthermore, they wanted to assess any changes in people’s awareness of the marriage industry. And they wanted to see what type of marriage-seeking “activity” people are participating in.

Results

The survey revealed that although dating activities such as spouse-hunting events are in decline because of Covid, people’s willingness to marry has increased. 70% of the survey’s respondents expressed this.

Respondents were also asked the reason why their feelings have changed. The most common answer for both men and women was: “desire to be with someone has increased”, with “desire for emotional support has increased” in second place.

Some of the differences between pre-Covid dating activities and activities during Covid: more people are using dating apps. A lot more people are also turning to matchmaking agencies to find themselves a spouse. Whereas in-person events are understandably in decline due to the contact limitations.

What’s Next?

The survey seems to indicate that respondents are more willing to use online dating services. 66.7% stated that they already use or want to use them. However, only 18.6% of respondents said they were already using online dating services.

One of the reasons for this is because a lot of matchmaking agencies are still very much focusing on offline matchmaking as opposed to moving parts of their services online. Additionally, for a lot of people, offline events tend to be cheaper in comparison to matchmaking services.

Currently, many marriage agencies are trying to expand their services online. This is so potential clients will be able to join an agency without having to go to one of their offices. It will also make it easier for clients to have regular meetings with their matchmakers and to arrange for online meet ups.

The survey stated that there’s expectations that dating mixer events and spouse-hunting events will be on the rise again post-Covid. However, because more people are seeking to get married, matchmaking services will also see an increase in activity. This is because singles have begun to realize the convenience of using such services.

Originally published by PR Times.

(Image source: Pexels, Anna Shvet)

Global Love Report – November 17, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

Aleeza Ben Shalom is a dating and relationship coach and matchmaker, as well as owner of her business, Marriage Minded Mentors—she moved to Israel from the United States less than one year ago.

As an American relationship coach in Israel, Ben Shalom has conducted workshops for singles in Jerusalem. For these workshops she gives tips on the do’s and do not’s of dating. She revealed that her work hasn’t suffered because of Covid. If anything, she actually had more work to do because of lockdowns. And fortunately, her work leaned heavily on remote working instead of face-to-face.

Prior to entering the industry, Ben Shalom worked as a Hebrew school teacher and in sales. Fortunately, the nature of her work as a coach and matchmaker made the transition from America to Israel relatively easy in this aspect.

Originally published by Jerusalem Post

(Image source: Unsplash, Andrew Neel)

Global Love Report – November 17, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

A study done by Match showed sought to find out what singles seek in a partner. And emotional maturity is at the top of the list.

It’s interesting to note that looks, in particular is no longer as important. A year ago, 90% deemed it important. This year, it has dropped to 78%. Additionally, more people find open-mindedness (83%) and being a good communicator (84%) as being more important.

Security and stability have become more important to singles, according to this study, because it raised by almost 20% this year compared to last year. Lisa Clampitt, President and Founder of Lisa Clampitt Matchmaking and Global Love Institute, explains that the pandemic has made people re-examine what they really want: “People have had so much time to reflect and they want to be with someone who’s reflecting on similar things.”

Another trend that is revealed by this study is that men are more interested in a relationship than women—22% of men said they wanted to marry, whereas for women 14% stated the same.

CEO of Agape Match, Maria Avgitidis also added another difference this year: women are no longer willing to waste their time with partners who are incompatible. They’re more willing to walk away from toxic behaviors.

Originally published by Time, read the full article to find out more about what singles seek in a partner.

(Image source: Pexels, Vlada Karpovich)

Global Love Report – November 10, 2021
A review article by Pamela Stephanie

China’s population imbalance in rural areas are causing low marriage rates and low fertility rates. It has become such a problem that the Chinese government have had to intervene. Unfortunately, their plans so far have been unsuccessful. With on particular plan to marry off women in urban areas with rural men proving to be controversial, especially among women.

Because of this, matchmakers have been offering their services to help the unmarried men in rural China.

One such matchmaker is Chen Changqin, a 60-year-old matchmaker in a village in Henan Province. His matchmaking center is new—only established in mid-October and yet he said that dozens of people have registered for his service. These clients are between 30 and 60-year-old and a vast majority of them, more than 80%, are men.

However, the underlying problem still exists—most of the young women have left these rural villages to work in the city. Which means that the marriage rate is still quite low. This is further exacerbated by the fact that men outnumber women in China, by almost 35 million, according to national statistics in 2020.

Originally published by The Japan News.

(Image source: Unsplash, James Wheeler)