SINGAPORE, Oct 2 — Public officers signing up for Singapore’s new government dating pilot will reporetedly, not be matched with colleagues from the same government agency, GovTech has said.
Singapore’s The Straits Times reported today that the Government Technology Agency (GovTech) confirmed the restriction while providing further details about its FirstDate pilot.
GovTech also said FirstDate was limited to unmarried public officers aged 21 to 35 because its team expected them to be “most likely to be actively dating and interested in trying the service”.
Keeping the pilot within a defined age range would also allow the team to test the service with a more focused group of users, the agency said.
“No decision has been made on whether to launch or expand FirstDate beyond the pilot stage,” GovTech was quoted as saying.
Malay Mail reported yesterday that FirstDate is a Singpass-verified dating platform being piloted among public officers, who provide information about their interests, habits and relationship preferences.
The platform originated from GovTech’s annual hackathon and uses questionnaire responses and the Gale-Shapley Stable Marriage algorithm to offer participants one match at a time.
Public officers were informed about the initiative on September 29, with registrations closing on October 5 and the matching process to begin after that.
Only a participant’s match can view their profile, while contact details are shared only if both parties agree to connect.
