Singapore's government dating app, FirstDate, utilizes a Nobel Prize-winning game theory algorithm known as the Gale-Shapley algorithm, originally developed in 1962. This algorithm, which earned the 2012 Economics Nobel Prize, is still used today for matching hospital residents and kidney exchanges.
How it works:
- Users input their preferences and dealbreakers to create a ranked priority list.
- "Proposers" offer themselves to their top choice. "Receivers" accept their best offer and reject others. Rejected proposers then move down their list. This process repeats until stable matches are formed.
- The outcome is mathematically stable, meaning no two individuals exist who would mutually prefer each other over their assigned partners. This design inherently prevents the scenario where two people who might have preferred each other were never shown to each other.
User Experience:
- One match is offered per cycle, eliminating endless scrolling.
- There is a 72-hour window for decisions.
- Contact information is only revealed upon mutual acceptance.
- The app uses Singpass verification, ensuring users are who they claim to be.
Unlike commercial dating apps that aim to keep users engaged, FirstDate is designed to facilitate users finding a partner and leaving the platform. Singapore has created a dating app whose primary success metric is its users deleting the app.
(A note on game theory: The Gale-Shapley algorithm results in proposer-optimal outcomes, meaning proposers achieve their best possible stable match, while receivers get their worst.)
Currently, the app is available only to public servants aged 21-35. It will be interesting to observe if state-sponsored game theory can outperform the free market, or rather, the existing dating apps like Tinder and Hinge.
