It’s Valentine’s Day weekend. If you’re into that sort of thing. But what I do know, is that Love is everybody’s thing. This February 14th day of this year, had me thinking. Where are people finding that love connection these days? These days of accelerated digital? These days of the Covid-19 pandemic? What is the current state of online dating in the Caribbean since the last time I wrote about it, back in 2015? Are we looking for love local, regional or global? Are we using dating websites or dating apps or both?
The last time I wrote about Caribbean Online dating I listed about a dozen Caribbean founded dating sites that were in play at the time. I went to check on them and here’s what I found:
Hypedates.com – In the Dead Pool
Jampersonals.com – This good old forum style online place was started by Dwayne Black is the Jamaican entrepreneur and was in 2008 Jamaica’s largest online dating website with over 34,000 active members. IT’s been around since 2004. The site though very dated in its look and feel, is still alive. When I checked it had activity as recent as 2020.
Jamaicasingles.com – In the Dead Pool
Caribsingles.com – Alive and well. Started by Jamaican entrepreneur Leighton Scarlett. Caribsingles.com was in 2008 the largest singles site in the Caribbean with over 20,000 active singles at that time. It’s still going strong.
Caribcupid.com – Alive and well. On its active Instagram account, it says CaribbeanCupid, is a leading Caribbean dating site with over 800k members. CaribbeanCupid.com is operated by Cupid Media Pty Ltd, a company that specializes in the development of database-driven dating sites. Cupid Media was founded in 1999 and is based on the Gold Coast, Australia.
Caribbeanmatch.com -In the Dead Pool
Westindiandating.com – In the Dead Pool
Caribbeanconnections.org – In the Dead Pool
Caribnu.com – In the Dead Pool
NextComesLove.com – In the Dead Pool. This site was founded by Monique Powell, the Jamaican entrepreneur who is now the Founder and CEO of the super successful Online ordering and food delivery business – MyQuickPlate.com
RainbowVibes.com – In the Dead Pool. It was The Caribbean’s First Gay & Lesbian Social Network and Wass launched From Jamaica. At its peak int had over 10,000 members from primarily Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Guyana, The United States, Canada, and London.
With that out of the way, without question, time and technology have shifted the habits of people who have moved to fresh sites and mobile apps. Facebook/Instagram/Twitter Direct Messages (DMs) are now defacto dating sites. But in addition to sliding into people’s DMs, Caribbean people are also on Bumble, OK Cupid, HER, Tinder, and Grindr – where they are looking for love or a hookup.
Happy Valentine’s Weekend! And Have fun out there people! But please stay safe, we’re still in a pandemic.
