A study of user behavior on an online dating site

Online dating sites have become popular platforms for people to look for potential romantic partners. It is important to understand users´ dating preferences in order to make better recommendations on potential dates. The message sending and replying actions of a user are strong indicators for what he/she is looking for in a potential date and reflect the user´s actual dating preferences. We study how users´ online dating behaviors correlate with various user attributes using a real-world dateset from a major online dating site in China. Our study provides a firsthand account of the user online dating behaviors in China, a country with a large population and unique culture. The results can provide valuable guidelines to the design of recommendation engine for potential dates.