Dating site OkCupid removes decade-old workaround for its paid version

Enlarge / OkCupid put blinders on a longtime site feature on Friday. (credit: OkCupid)

On Friday, online dating service OkCupid introduced its biggest change since its 2009 paid "A-List" add-on package. Starting today, the site's users no longer see a major data point that has been standard for nearly a decade: the "visitors" tab.

"What's the value of a visitor?" the company wrote in an e-mail to users. "Short answer: zero." However, that valuation is shaken up by a follow-up sentence, and it may explain why the Match.com-owned company made the change. "A person who visits your profile and chooses not to follow up with a 'like' or a message probably (read: definitely) isn't worth your time."

To understand this "visitor" tab's potential value, here's a brief explainer. OkCupid works differently than GPS-fueled dating apps like Tinder, since it's a product of an older dating-service generation. Its users can sort through potential matches with a variety of metrics, particularly a "match percentage" determined by the site's questionnaires. The service's reliance on questions, data, and match metrics (broken down into categories like sex, ethics, and religion) differentiated the service from its '00s peers (and gives it less of a "hook-up" reputation than the photo- and location-focused Tinder).

Read 5 remaining paragraphs | Comments