Online dating doesn’t work. Sure, dating sites promote their success stories, but they’re few and far between. The odds of being left at the alter of online dating are far greater than the odds of finding true love.
After weeks of email chats, we’re still anxious about meeting in person. And when we do meet, research shows that, on average, we will end up liking the person even less. For romance, we want to screen people on experiential attributes such as sense of humor, likeability and rapport. Instead online dating sites force you to screen on searchable attributes such as income, education and religion.
Enter Weopia, the world’s first virtual world online dating service designed to fix just that. Weopia.com is an engaging virtual world experience where online daters, from any online dating site, can select an avatar and meet privately in a multitude of engaging dating environments. Dating advice videos, conversation starters and insightful questions aid them in getting to know each other in more meaningful ways.
“It will change the world of online dating. It will improve its effectiveness by leaps and bounds,” says Dave Wilkie, Weopia’s Co-founder and CEO. “Imagine you can now go further and deeper before you can decide to take it offline. And no face-to-face rejection or the need to get dressed up and spend the time and cash on a date with someone you only know by text chat.”
Researchers at Harvard and MIT have found that virtual world dating improves likeability and does make the real life dating experience much better. In fact, you’re twice as likely to have a good first date in real life.
“In Weopia, you run around together, fly in hovercraft, ride in sailboats, and then sit and watch the beautiful ocean from the top of a mountain,” said Wilkie. “You actually feel like you are there. You engage with voice and text chat and have fun and that’s where you start to see those things that make you realize that she might be the one, worth meeting for real. And if not…’Next!’ End the date with the Quit button and invite someone else in.”
Weopia’s purpose is to bridge the gap between traditional online dating and the first real life date, to help the millions of singles to find love faster and with less risk by allowing them to go beyond the written word and experience each other in virtual worlds. Weopia allows users to screen more potential mates in less time while protecting anonymity and providing another step towards ensuring a safe real life date. Virtucom Inc. began development of Weopia in 2008 with a team from Canada, US, Germany, India, China and South Africa.
