<P> This is a timeline of online dating services that also includes broader events related to technology - assisted dating (not just online dating). Where there are similar services, only major ones or "the first of its kind" are listed . </P> <Table> <Tr> <Th> Year (month and date) </Th> <Th> Event </Th> <Th> Venue </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1960 </Td> <Td> Personal advertisements first appear in British newspapers . </Td> <Td> Newspaper </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1959 </Td> <Td> Happy Families Planning Services launches . Started by Jim Harvey and Phil Fialer as a class project at Stanford . Used a questionnaire and an IBM 650 to match 49 men and 49 women . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1963 </Td> <Td> Ed Lewis at Iowa State University uses a questionnaire and an IBM computer "to optimize the meeting potential at dances". </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1964 </Td> <Td> St. James Computer Dating Service (later to become Com - Pat) launches . Joan Ball started the first commercially run computer generated matchmaking company . The first set of matchups was run in 1964 . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1965 </Td> <Td> Operation Match (part of Compatibility Research Inc .) launches . Started by Jeff Tarr and Vaughan Morrill at Harvard . Used a questionnaire and an IBM 1401 to match students . There was a $3 fee for submitting a questionnaire . "By the fall of sixty - five, six months after the launch, some ninety thousand Operation Match questionnaires had been received, amounting to $270,000 in gross profits, about $1.8 million in today's dollars ." In the 1960s there still was no stigma about computer - assisted matching . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1965 </Td> <Td> Eros (Contact Inc .) launches . Started by David Dewan at MIT . Used a dating questinnaire and Honeywell 200 . "In one distribution of questionnaires, he drew eleven thousand responses at $4 each, or $44,000 in gross profits, about $250,000 in today's dollars ." </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1965 </Td> <Td> The New York Review of Books personals column makes a comeback . Slater writes: <P> Classifieds made a comeback in America in the 1960s and 1970s, encouraged by the era's inclination toward individualism and social exhibitionism . "Everybody was letting it all hang out in other ways," said Raymond Shapiro, a business manager for the New York Review of Books, "so suddenly it was okay to display oneself in print . It was very important to be' self - aware .' So you'd get ads like:' Astrologer, 27, psychology student, desires to establish non-superficial friendship with sensitive, choicelessly aware persons who are non-self - oriented, deep, and wish to unearth real, personness relationships ."' </P> </Td> <Td> Magazine </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1968 </Td> <Td> Data - Mate launches . Questionnaire - based matching service started at MIT . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1970s, early </Td> <Td> Phase II is founded . A "computer - dating company" started by James Schur . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Cherry Blossoms' mail - order bride catalog launches . Slater calls Cherry Blossoms "one of the oldest mail - order bride agencies". Started by John Broussard . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1976 </Td> <Td> Great Expectations is founded . Video dating service started by Jeffrey Ullman . The service achieved some notability, but it never overcame stigma . There were also apparently other video dating services like Teledate and Introvision, but it's nearly impossible to find anything about them online . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1980s </Td> <Td> messageries roses (pink chat rooms) are launches . Chat rooms for dating (using the Minitel network) started by Marc Simoncini . France . <P> Rumours of Kingston upon Thames used a Fox pro database Computer Matching System developed in house by Elwyn Jones to generate lists for mailing based on client preferences . Today some 33 years later Elwyn Jones has produced his own online contact service which also uses a similar but much more comprehensive system . This is found at https://www.friends2lovers.co.uk </P> </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1984 </Td> <Td> Matchmaker Electronic Pen - Pal Network launches . A bulletin board system for romance started by Jon Boede and Scott Smith . Matchmaker grew to 14 local BBSs throughout the US . Eventually people lost interest as BBSs lost out to the World Wide Web, and Matchmaker was superseded by Matchmaker.com . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Scanna International launches . Mail - order bride service focusing on Russia and Eastern Europe . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 1995 </Td> <Td> Match.com launches . Started by Gary Kremen . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> JDate </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2000 </Td> <Td> eHarmony launches . Online dating service for long - term relationships . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Ashley Madison is founded . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2003 </Td> <Td> Proxidating launches . Dating service that used Bluetooth to "alert users when a person with a matching profile was within fifty feet". </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> OkCupid launches . </Td> <Td> Web </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2006 </Td> <Td> Badoo launches dating - focused social networking service </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2006 </Td> <Td> SeekingArrangement launches . A sugar daddy / sugar baby site in the US . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2007 </Td> <Td> Skout launches . A "location - based social networking and dating application and website". </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2007 </Td> <Td> Crazy Blind Date launches . Blind dating service started by Sam Yagan . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2008 </Td> <Td> GenePartner launches matching service based on "DNA compatibility". </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2009 </Td> <Td> Grindr (initial launch) </Td> <Td> App </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2011 </Td> <Td> LikeBright launches . Online dating site by Nick Soman . By 2014 the site shut down . </Td> <Td> Web </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2012 (?) </Td> <Td> Highlight launches . Slater calls it a "location - based dating app". </Td> <Td> App </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2012 </Td> <Td> Tinder launches . </Td> <Td> App </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2014 (December) </Td> <Td> Bumble, a location - based mobile app that permits only women to start a chat with their matches, launches . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2015 </Td> <Td> Ashley Madison hack Personal information of Ashley Madison users stolen and released; see Ashley Madison data breach for more . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 2015 (November 19) </Td> <Td> Match Group, which owns and operates several online dating web sites including OkCupid, Tinder, PlentyOfFish, and Match.com, goes public . </Td> <Td> </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th> Year (month and date) </Th> <Th> Event </Th> <Th> Venue </Th> </Tr>

When did the first online dating service start