Where online dating works, and where it doesn’t

Any man living and looking for love and/or sex in the last decade knows at least something about online dating. Either that or he’s probably embedded in some group on the margins of society like the montagnards in Vietnam or the good old boys in the middle of Arkansas.

I have been doing the internet dating thing for many years. I’m not all that old but I basically grew up with a computer in front of me. Since I had a bone in my shorts from an early age it is only natural that I looked into online dating (and online porn) as soon as I had the chance.

I used to use the membership based sites early on but later I moved on to internet apps when smartphones became a basic part of life. Now I basically use a mix of the two for a variety of reasons. The main reason is that online dating is different in different parts of the world.

In some places membership based websites are still by far the most effective internet dating options. As I have explained in my posts on dating and having sex with Filipinas and Thai girls paid sites are still the best options in those countries. Things just haven’t gone over to apps yet. Or at least the people using the apps in those two countries tend more toward the flaky and spammy. There are exceptions but you have a much better chance at finding and meeting Thai and Filipina chicks on sites like Thai Friendly and Pina Love than you do on Badoo or even Tinder.

Tinder does work to some degree in bigger southeast Asian cities like Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, but I don’t know how long that will last. Too many guys are running too much game and spreading too much bullshit, and doing stuff like pipelining with Tinder gold, and the local ladies are catching on. Vietnamese chicks are still more innocent than Thai chicks, but Thai chicks in cities like Bangkok can be a little more modern and open to no strings attached one night stands.

In other southeast Asian cities like Vientiane, Phnom Penh and Pattaya apps like Tinder are more or less worthless. In Vientiane and Phnom Penh that’s due to the small sizes of the cities and the lack of technological awareness. In Pattaya it’s due to an overabundance of hookers and ladyboy prostitutes who think the app was made for them to find customers. In any of those cities websites are the better choice. You can set a profile and check in once in a while to see if you have any matches. It’s a much more efficient use of time.

Then there are other parts of the world where internet dating sucks in all forms. Europe comes to mind. In countries like Germany and Austria you can swipe through pictures until your finger falls off without ever really getting anywhere. Even the matches you get usually lead to nothing. The chicks don’t even respond. I guess they use Tinder to waste time. Apparently, they don’t use websites like OK Cupid at all. In Europe people still like to meet at places like cafes, bars, and house parties. That’s cool if you’re embedded, but it sucks if you’re new or just passing through. Luckily, there is no shortage of saunas.

Online dating also sucks in South Korea and Japan. You might expect it to work since those are two of the most connected countries in the world, but the truth is that it really doesn’t. In my experience it appears that overworked Korean and Japanese chicks just use Tinder to waste time on the trains and validate themselves with likes and sad begging messages from desperate guys. That’s probably one of the reasons why compensated dating in Japan is so popular. Paying for a date seems a lot more reasonable when it takes hours and days of swiping and texting to even meet a chick for coffee.

All kinds of online dating can work in America, but things are going downhill there too. Even if you can get through the herds of land-whales and man haters you might find that the rare fit and semi-sane chicks want nothing to do with you. The sites are still alive in the US but they are mostly filled with women looking for serious relationships. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but if I was looking to settle down I wouldn’t have the kind of regular experiences that allow me to make a site like this. I have been hearing about Plenty of Fish as a hook up spot for years but I don’t believe the hype. It looks like a spam laded shit fire to me and I have never met anyone there. In fact, I don’t even think I’ve ever even seen anyone there I would want to meet. Even some gay dudes in America tell me that Grindr is dying a slow death. If they’re having problems, I don’t know how much hope there could possibly be for the average hetero dude with a hard-on.

What do you think? Does online dating work well for you in your part of the world? Let me know in the comments below. Maybe I am missing something, but my horn-dog sense tells me I am pretty much spot on.