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Illustrations: Bay Leung

Five new Hong Kong dating apps, from Coffee Meets Bagel to Tastebuds

More help to find that match made in smartphone heaven, from group dating to musical soulmates to a Tinder-like app for the less forward

Long gone are the days when online dating was the purview of the desperate and promiscuous. Today everyone knows someone who met their spouse online. A recent study reports that more than 90 million people use dating apps and the tell-tale swiping of someone lost in Tinder is as common on the MTR today as the incessant tapping of Angry Birds fanatics was a few years ago.

Of course, finding love is big business: many think Tinder will reach a US$1 billion valuation this year, and the Chinese equivalent has already broken US$3 billion. Still, as with all tech trends, the mechanisms of online romance are constantly changing: meeting a lover on OKCupid seems as outdated today as making a friend on MySpace. Want to know which app is right for you? With some help from our serial-dating friends, we check out the latest generation of dating apps and see what all the fuss is about.

Grouvly

Grouvly is the Hong Kong-based version of a dating app model that, with apps like Grouply, has proved extremely popular in the West. Instead of matching people one by one, it puts two groups of three in touch for a group date.

It asks for more personal information (job, height, race, religion) than other apps such as Tinder. People working for the app choose the location for your date, which is great if you don't like making decisions but not so good if you like to control these things. They also require you to prepay for the first round of drinks, the idea being that it helps ensure everybody shows up.

this model takes a lot of the pressure off the first date, and it is much safer than meeting a stranger one on one. That said, the process is a bit involved: we signed up and were told to wait for two weeks while they found a match. We're still waiting. All in all, it has a lot more moving parts than just swiping and hooking up, but the pay-off - when it finally happens - promises to be much more rewarding.

Paktor

If Grouvly is the Asian answer to Grouply, then Paktor is the Asian answer to Tinder. The Singapore-based company - is Hokkien for going on a date - has added a few features that distinguish the app from its most obvious competitor: you can apply filters for height, job and education etc. There is also a group chat function. The company that runs Paktor also has a bespoke dating service called GaiGai, with a focus on Southeast Asia, so you can get right to a match.

Paktor is still struggling to attract the number of users Tinder has; however, it might be a more rewarding prospect given some time. One of our anonymous serial daters didn't find Paktor the right choice when looking for romance: "There are a lot of people who go on it to find friends, not f*** buddies or anything," she says. "I feel like most people on Paktor are missing the point of a dating app. In the end I didn't go on one date because no one was suitable."

Tastebuds

If you are looking for a more curated dating experience, Tastebuds might be for you. One crucial clue to future compatibility is the kind of music you listen to, and Tastebuds takes this concept and runs with it, letting users set up profiles based on their taste in music and then find people with similar preferences.

while often referred to as a dating app, Tastebuds advertises itself as a way to meet new people in general, both friends and romantic interests, and this can be frustrating for people on a mission for love. Our anonymous single dater warned us about false advertising. "On the app store, you'll find pictures of beautiful women, but you get on and it's all bearded fat nerds." There is also just a general lack of activity. "It's cold. People sign up for an account and it stays there forever, but they probably haven't touched it for years."

Coffee Meets Bagel

One of the newest dating apps in town, and one of the most popular in New York, is Coffee Meets Bagel. The app was developed by three sisters in New York and advertises itself as "The only dating app that women love!" It works a bit like Tinder in slow motion. Every day, at noon, you receive one match and you have only one day to decide if you like them or not before they are lost to you forever. If you both choose match, you can chat and set up a date; if not, a new match pops up at noon the next day.

 As it's brand new to Hong Kong, it has yet to gain the kind of traction it has in the West. That said, people we spoke to tend to really enjoy the experience of Coffee Meets Bagel, especially those who find Tinder too forward. The 24-hour time limit is good motivation for people who tend to second-guess when it comes to matters of the heart. One user we spoke to did complain that it depends too heavily on determining your type: "After a few days if you're only connecting with Asian girls, that's all you start seeing."

Scruff

For years the two kings of online dating have been Tinder for heterosexual dating and Grindr for gay dating and hook-ups. Scruff started as a platform for "bears" - older, hairier, stockier men - and the people who love them. Its popularity has exploded, and today it has even started to eclipse Grindr. For many, Scruff has become the dominant app for finding love and fun in the gay community.

Scruff is extremely popular and our not-so-anonymous gay serial dater, Ivor, says he appreciates Scruff because fewer people photoshop their pictures. "I've met people on it, maybe three," he says. "It's better than Grindr because people have specific tastes of what they like." But he says the downside is that because the market is so niche, you see the same people on it all the time. And the experiences? "They weren't so bad. There was one German guy I remember. He was smelly, so that's not so good."

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