<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
<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
when did the first online dating service start
when did the first online dating service start
1984
1984