I came across this interesting website that allowed users to get to know each other via the web page. The aim of the creator of this website is to allow people to widen their social circle by interacting with each other through the site and if they are comfortable with each other, they can move on to online ‘dating’, slowly they can become couple in real life.
Here are some screen shots from the website:
In the main page itself, one will always see different artiste and promotions for each month as this will attract the fans of the artiste to join this website. Advertisements for those sponsors of this website are often seen all over in the website and they seem to be trying to get the attention of the users as their advertisements are always those flashing banners. I personally do not take much notice of these banners except for those event ones.
Next, in the setting page itself, the users can change the privacy settings and choose what are the information they want to show to people. This is also the main page where users are able to see how many ‘crystals’ they have earned from games and what is their membership like, be it VVIP, VIP or normal members. In this page, users can also see how many people is inviting them to go into ‘cohabitation’ mode, where they will choose to stay in either one’s ‘apartment’ and do things together like keeping a pet.
In this website itself, the users can also dress up their character to attract more views to their profiles and draw potential ‘friends’ or ‘future partner’ to them. One can choose a nice background to match his/her dressing style.Take for example,the character in the picture, dream-like background and nice dress and matching boots are used to show that she is the dreamy kind of girl.
The diary function also allows users on this website to understand one another better through the entries that they input into the diary.
Lastly, not forgetting the events that they are having every month. All these events are planned in a way to encourage the users to interact with one another. Through these interactions, the creator aims to help people to find their ‘ true love’ from his website.
Since this website has generated such a great response from people, a variety show was created for it, 速配男女 (Super Match) , hosted by a famous Taiwanese host, 陶晶莹(Momoko Tao). In every week of the show, a combination of 4 guys and 3 girls or 4 girls and 3 guys will be brought overseas for a show trip and all these participants in the show will be chosen from some of the lucky ‘tenants’ in i-Partment.In this trip, activities were pre-planned for them and throughout the show, the participants are to interact with one another through chatting or their actions of interest and see if anyone of them will click with him/her. If there is one that he/she like, on the last day of the trip,they will be able to do a confession to their loved. The person who received the confessions can choose whether or not he/she would like to give that person a chance.
Here is a commercial clip for the variety show:
Written By: Zhi Ning
com101b.wordpress.com 
legongsimihuh Said:
on February 28, 2009 at 12:52 pm
this looks like a spin-off off The Hills or Laguna Beach from MTV. it’s pretty controversial… i really wonder sometimes if the media is just exploiting them by injecting melodrama in some of the ‘games’ they play… and feeding the audience with unrealistic portrayals of love and romance, while exposing them to scandal and decrepit moral values. or is it just for the dubiously attractive contestants they all seem to pick out so randomly from the net. a really thought provoking post about the influence of online social media:)
com101b Said:
on February 28, 2009 at 2:23 pm
yup…sometimes i really wonder..are all those ending preset, like who and who should be together and who should be the one without a partner. Sometimes it looks like some acting are involved.
wumingke Said:
on March 10, 2009 at 1:23 am
Whether be it a loving or a tragic ending, it is always reflect on how the story progress as and when a desicion is made at every different stage. A desicion have to be made through careful thoughts, if not when things goes beyond control then everything will be too late.
com101b Said:
on March 12, 2009 at 8:55 pm
wumingke: yes!! making the correct decisions in a relationship is important as it determines how the relationship will go on in the future. =)
WootSK Said:
on March 16, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Technology has advance, even matchmaker are getting hard life :p Anyway this is one of the few online dating sites. Now a day, internet is almost everywhere and even a common sight in developing countries. It has even made long distance relationship possible. But my personal point of view is that relationship is best that the two person are closer together and spend quality time with each other rather than emails and webcam.
NAUX Said:
on March 19, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Media is really very influential, esp the internet. Other than friendster and facebook, i never knew this web actually exist. I think its kind of creative to meet friends, or even partner through webs. However, i am quite negative towards meeting friends through web. I think its quite dangerous cause you will never know what kind of people will you ever meet. Different people have different point of views i guess.
hello hello (: Said:
on March 19, 2009 at 9:58 pm
I saw this on Channel U, wanted to catch it but kept forgetting. One thing I can never understand, is the rush into a relationship, what is even worse is that you get only less than one week to start going out with someone.
First thing first, the website game, I just feel that it encourages people to turn away from facing reality, and trap them into this sort of disillusioned world where they can hide their lack of self-confidence behind. I guess in a sense its addictive, because you get to become popular because of the false image you build up, and you feel like you’re more accepted and so people just get hooked on this game.
As for the dating show, honestly, personally it sounds pretty ridiculous. What is the rush into a relationship, why the need to show everyone the drama about two people getting to know each other. But on the other hand, I admit its fun for television viewers to watch people in these situations to pass time. Well, in certain ways the world may be improving but with these games and reality television shows it is probably encouraging people into bad conduct. <<< I don’t know if my conclusion makes sense… haha
wumingke Said:
on March 22, 2009 at 12:32 am
This is just a alternative ways for people to get to know each other. Most working adults nowadays are just plainly lazy to bring themselves forward to get contact with strangers. Some people are just to into their work, so they just drown themself into the working life.
The show is just basically to encourage the opposite sex to know each other through variaous activities. In the end, it is still up to individuals to decide whether they going to take it or leave it.