OkCupid is a free online dating, friendship, and social networking website that features

member-created quizzes and multiple-choice questions. The site supports multiple modes of
communication, including instant messages and emails. OkCupid was listed
in Time magazine's 2007 Top 10 dating websites.[2][dead link] The website is part of the "Match
Developing" unit of IAC's Match division.[3]
Contents
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1 History
2 Overview
3 Matching
4 Attractiveness and match results
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

History[edit]
OkCupid was owned by Humor Rainbow, Inc. OkCupids founders (Chris Coyne, Christian
Rudder, Sam Yagan, and Max Krohn) were students at Harvard Universitywhen they gained
recognition for their creation of TheSpark and, later, SparkNotes. Among other things,
TheSpark.com featured a number of humorous self-quizzes and personality tests, including
the four-variable Myers-Briggs style Match Test. SparkMatch debuted as a beta experiment
of allowing registered users who had taken the Match Test to search for and contact each
other based on their Match Test types. The popularity of SparkMatch took off and it was
launched as its own site, later renamed OkCupid. The current OkCupid Dating Persona Test
is still largely identical, in question and text blurb content and order, to the original Match
Test. In 2001, they sold SparkNotes to Barnes & Noble, and began work on OkCupid.[4]
In 2007, OkCupid launched Crazy Blind Date.[5][6]
In 2008, OkCupid spun off its test-design portion under the name Hello Quizzy (HQ),[7] while
keeping it inextricably linked to OkCupid and reserving existent OkCupid users' names on
HQ.[7]
Since August 2009, an "A-list" account option is available to users of OkCupid and provides
additional services for a monthly fee.[8]
In February 2011, OkCupid was acquired by IAC/InterActiveCorp, operators of Match.com,
for US$50 million.[9] Editorial posts from 2010 by an OkCupid founderMatch.com and pay-

dating were criticized for exploiting users and being "fundamentally broken"were removed
from the OkCupid blog at the time of the acquisition.[10] In a press response,
OkCupid's CEO explained that the removal was voluntary.[11]
In November 2012, OkCupid launched the social discovery service Tallygram,[12] but retired
the service, in April 2013.[13]
On March 31, 2014 any user accessing OKCupid from Firefox was presented with a
message asking users to boycott the internet browser due to new CEO Brendan Eich's
support of Proposition 8. Users were asked instead to consider other browsers;[14][15][16] on
April 2, 2014, the dating site revoked the Firefox ban.[17][18]
Rudder updated the "OkTrends" blog, which consists of "original research and insights from
OkCupid," for the first time in three years in July 2014. Entitled "We Experiment On Human
Beings!," the post discusses three experiments run by the website without the knowledge of
users. Rudder prefaces the experiment results by stating: "... if you use the Internet, youre
the subject of hundreds of experiments at any given time, on every site. Thats how websites
work."[19]

Overview[edit]
OkCupid claimed 3.5 million active users as of September 2010. According to Compete.com,
the website attracted 1.3 million unique visitors in February 2011.[20]
The site used to have a highly active journal/blogging community as well. Journals are not
available to new members and the feature is now "retired." Members have the option of
saving favorite user profiles, which display the favorited person's responses to questions and
profile updates on the member's front page.
Any adult may join the site and all users may communicate with others via private messages
or an instant messaging "chat" function. A-List (paying) members see no advertising and
have more filtering options and preferential placement in an "A-List Matches" section of
search results. A-list members can also browse openly while choosing whether or not their
profile is displayed to those they visited.[21]
OkTrends, the official blog of OkCupid, presents statistical observations from OkCupid user
interactions, to explore data from the online dating world.

Matching[edit]
To generate matches, OkCupid applies data generated by users' activities on the site,[22] as
well as their answers to questions. When answering a question, a user indicates his or her
own answer, the answers he or she would accept from partners, and the level of importance

he or she places on the question. The results of these questions can be made public.
OkCupid describes in detail the algorithm used to calculate match percentages. The site
notifies a user if someone likes that user.

Attractiveness and match results[edit]

Users who receive high ratings may be notified by email that they are in the "top half of
OkCupid's most attractive users" and "will now see more attractive people in [their] match
results". The email also reads "And, no, we didn't just send this email to everyone on
OkCupid. Go ask an ugly friend and see".[23][24]