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.