To solve the marriage problem of many single Christians in Chinese churches, Christian programmers decided to develop a dating website for single Christians.
Brother Song, a Christian programmer, analyzed that the main reasons for a large number of single people in churches were information asymmetry and narrow channels for making friends. Most single Christians had little contact with other Christians during the weekdays except that they come to church on Saturday and Sunday. Even in the church, they couldn’t possibly know each other that well.
Song said, “If one million single believers gather on the platform, single members from all over the world can meet and get to know each other through the platform, and it will be much easier for everyone to find the right one for them. Then the marriage problem among single believers will be greatly alleviated.”
With such a vision, the website “Glovem.com” (My Beloved & Lover) was launched in June 2019.
Song and his fellow workers originally planned to turn the dating website into a public welfare platform for singles, charging only 25 yuan for real-name authentication for registered members.
In the early days, Song and his workers came into contact with many single Christians from different places, most of whom were very pious and sensible. However, they also had to face a painful fact: there were many believers with low quality, low level of education, low cognitive level, and no manners...
“A brother with a junior high school degree on the platform said that the construction of this website cost no more than 100 yuan. He said this website should not charge fees,” said Song helplessly. “The logic goes something like this: Hotels and restaurants run by the believers should all be free.”
In fact, after several rounds of secondary development, the web development cost tens of thousands yuan, and the annual server and security expenses also reached more than 20,000 yuan, let alone the daily maintenance fee.
The low threshold for website registration caused many problems. For example, some heretics tried to recruit believers in the name of dating or marriage-seeking; some people tried to lure people to do direct selling or pyramid selling in the name of making friends; some members were married, but they claimed that they were divorced and tried to date single women; a number of so-called Christian men sent the nude photos of some women to them as a way of extorting money; some people were in multiple relationships at the same time, which caused the heartbreak of some others who were so furious that their personal profiles turned hidden.
Facing this situation, the website staff also experienced disappointment, pain, and helplessness. However, in May 2020, they decided to change their strategy: from then on, the website would no longer be a public welfare platform. Instead, they would make it a commercial platform and take a high-end route. They would only serve high-end groups in the church and those who sincerely seek spouses.
This means raising the threshold of registration, strictly checking the information of each member, their church information, faith background, and so on. Those that fail to pass the certification or falsify their data will be directly blacklisted and exposed. At the same time, while the real-name authentication fee of the website remains 25 yuan, the permissions of ordinary members are appropriately reduced (for example, the former 30 private messages can be sent every day, but now only 10 private messages instead), and the fees of various VIP levels are increased accordingly.
Since its launch about two years ago, more than 1,500 Christians, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total members, have found their partners (including those who have obtained marriage certificates, are planning to get married or are in a relationship) on the website.
The workers of the website also organize offline activities of single Christians from time to time.
Just on October 30, the in-person activity of single Christians born in the 1970s and 1980s was held in Beijing Olympic Forest Park, with more than 20 believers participating.
- Translated by Nicolas Gao
面对中国教会普遍有众多单身基督徒的婚姻问题，主内程序员决定开发一个单身基督徒交友网站。
宋弟兄认为，各个教会大面积单身，主要的原因是信息不对称、交友渠道狭窄。大多数人除了周六日来教会接触到主内信徒外，周间几乎接触不到基督徒。即使在教会里，对彼此的了解也很有限。
“平台如果能聚集100万单身信徒，让天南海北的单身肢体通过平台相遇、相识，那么大家找到心仪的另一半会容易很多，主内婚姻难的问题将会大大缓解”，带着这样的异象，“良人佳偶”网站于2019年6月上线。
宋弟兄和网站同工们原本打算把“良人佳偶”做成一个主内婚恋公益平台，只收取注册会员实名认证费25元，终生免费。
在服侍过程中，宋弟兄和同工们接触到很多各地的单身基督徒，大部分都很敬虔爱主、明事理。但是，他们也不得不面对一个让人痛苦的客观现实：主内也有很多素质很低的肢体，文化程度低、认知水平低，没有礼貌、没有教养......
“平台上一个初中学历的弟兄，说我们做这个网站顶多100多块钱，说主内的婚恋网不应该收费，”宋弟兄无奈地表示。“这个逻辑就好比是：主内家人开的饭店都应该免费吃、开的民宿都应该免费住。”
实际上经过几轮的二次开发，“良人佳偶”网站仅仅开发就花了十几万元的费用，而且每年的服务器费用和安全防护费用也需要两万多元，这还不包括网站日常维护的时间成本。
网站注册门槛低也使注册会员中出现了鱼龙混杂的情况，比如有异端借交友征婚之名拉人；有人借交友之名拉人做直销、传销等；有人明明已婚却声称自己离异，欺骗姐妹感情；有人给姊妹发裸照，跟姊妹要钱，骗财骗色；有人同时和多人确立恋爱关系，脚踏N条船……导致有些会员心灵受伤、怒而关闭个人资料。
面对这种情况，宋弟兄和同工们也经历了失望、痛苦和无奈的心路历程。然而痛定思痛，2020年5月份，他们决定改变方向：以后不再做公益平台，要做成商业性质的，走高端路线，只服务主内的高端群体、真诚找对象的，不再为低素质群体提供服务。
这意味着，提高注册门槛，对每个会员都严格审核资料，严格把关其所在教会、信仰背景等。没有通过认证的或者资料弄虚作假的，直接进入黑名单曝光。同时，在网站实名认证费保持25元的同时，将普通会员的权限适当缩小（比如，之前每天能发30条私信，现在只能发10条私信），并相应提高各个VIP等级的费用。
上线两年多以来，已有1500多位弟兄姊妹在“良人佳偶”网站成功觅得另一半（包括已经领证的、计划结婚的、在交往中的），占全部会员的10%以上。
网站同工不定期组织各地单身基督徒线下活动。
就在刚刚过去的10月30日，北京70后80后单身弟兄姊妹线下活动在北京奥森公园举行， 20多位弟兄姊妹参加。
https://www.gospeltimes.cn/article/index/id/58900
“良人佳偶”网站：1500名单身基督徒在这里找到了另一半……
To solve the marriage problem of many single Christians in Chinese churches, Christian programmers decided to develop a dating website for single Christians.
Brother Song, a Christian programmer, analyzed that the main reasons for a large number of single people in churches were information asymmetry and narrow channels for making friends. Most single Christians had little contact with other Christians during the weekdays except that they come to church on Saturday and Sunday. Even in the church, they couldn’t possibly know each other that well.
Song said, “If one million single believers gather on the platform, single members from all over the world can meet and get to know each other through the platform, and it will be much easier for everyone to find the right one for them. Then the marriage problem among single believers will be greatly alleviated.”
With such a vision, the website “Glovem.com” (My Beloved & Lover) was launched in June 2019.
Song and his fellow workers originally planned to turn the dating website into a public welfare platform for singles, charging only 25 yuan for real-name authentication for registered members.
In the early days, Song and his workers came into contact with many single Christians from different places, most of whom were very pious and sensible. However, they also had to face a painful fact: there were many believers with low quality, low level of education, low cognitive level, and no manners...
“A brother with a junior high school degree on the platform said that the construction of this website cost no more than 100 yuan. He said this website should not charge fees,” said Song helplessly. “The logic goes something like this: Hotels and restaurants run by the believers should all be free.”
In fact, after several rounds of secondary development, the web development cost tens of thousands yuan, and the annual server and security expenses also reached more than 20,000 yuan, let alone the daily maintenance fee.
The low threshold for website registration caused many problems. For example, some heretics tried to recruit believers in the name of dating or marriage-seeking; some people tried to lure people to do direct selling or pyramid selling in the name of making friends; some members were married, but they claimed that they were divorced and tried to date single women; a number of so-called Christian men sent the nude photos of some women to them as a way of extorting money; some people were in multiple relationships at the same time, which caused the heartbreak of some others who were so furious that their personal profiles turned hidden.
Facing this situation, the website staff also experienced disappointment, pain, and helplessness. However, in May 2020, they decided to change their strategy: from then on, the website would no longer be a public welfare platform. Instead, they would make it a commercial platform and take a high-end route. They would only serve high-end groups in the church and those who sincerely seek spouses.
This means raising the threshold of registration, strictly checking the information of each member, their church information, faith background, and so on. Those that fail to pass the certification or falsify their data will be directly blacklisted and exposed. At the same time, while the real-name authentication fee of the website remains 25 yuan, the permissions of ordinary members are appropriately reduced (for example, the former 30 private messages can be sent every day, but now only 10 private messages instead), and the fees of various VIP levels are increased accordingly.
Since its launch about two years ago, more than 1,500 Christians, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total members, have found their partners (including those who have obtained marriage certificates, are planning to get married or are in a relationship) on the website.
The workers of the website also organize offline activities of single Christians from time to time.
Just on October 30, the in-person activity of single Christians born in the 1970s and 1980s was held in Beijing Olympic Forest Park, with more than 20 believers participating.
- Translated by Nicolas Gao
1500 Single Christians Have Found Partners Through Christian Dating Site
