The cold hard facts about Internet dating_其他

The cold hard facts about Internet dating

His observations, statistics and enormous database have produced some rather surprising findings.

"Despite the feminist argument in recent years, we find that women still care far more about profession, social status and income than looks," he says.

"Men are better off dressing as close to a business style as possible, but it's not the most important thing at all."

For the men - salary is barely important, but the women should be 27, either teachers or nurses, and 1.62m tall.

"There are two approaches to matchmaking," says Dr Li.

"One is that you come up with a psychological theory and predict the results based on your theory, but because my background is more mathematically inclined, I don't have a theory to begin with.

"What I do is based on statistical results, reverse engineering, and is a learning process.

"We operate on two matrices: how many of our callers get at least one date (we aim at 93 per cent) and the time it takes between establishing contact and the actual date. This should be within two and a half weeks."

So much for the language of poets: better speak equations, qualitative finance and probability are more important if you want success in the romance department.

A former finance PhD student at Cornell, the bespectacled, mid-40s Li does look just like a mathematician.

There are no roses or chocolates in his very ordinary double room at the Beijing International Hotel, and he wears a slightly marked, pale orange sweatshirt with baggy grayish slacks.