A new app ‘FarmersMatch’ aims to make dating easier for country singles. Derek Ma, who is based in Silicon Valley, claims the app has already approximately 200 Irish users.
The app, he says, was developed out of his personal experience of growing up on a farm, living in a city, and dreaming of meeting what us Irish might dub ‘a lovely girl’.
Dissatisfied with the apps available, Ma says he developed his own, which he launched on the Apple Store.
Features include Spark, whereby users swipe left to pass on a potential match and right to indicate a good match.
A right swipe activates the chat feature. A ‘moments’ feature allows “special points in time to be shared”.
Ma says he is always striving to make the app the best place for farmers, ranchers, cowboys and girls, animal lovers and other country singles to meet and chat.
When you live in a rural area, meeting people can be a challenge. Generally farmers live in small communities where everybody already knows everybody. Let’s face it; the sparks don’t always fly with people you’ve known all your life.
Another issue, says Ma, is time. “When country singles try the likes of Tinder, they all too often encounter people who don’t understand or appreciate their lifestyle,” he said.
As the percentage of country dwellers using mobile technology increases, rural singles are increasingly turning to online dating, according to Ma.
Founded just last year, FarmersMatch claims to have an equal ratio of men and women users. It also claims to already have more than 300,000 active users dotted about the globe – 51% women and 49% men.