Vietnamese Model (Source: Flickr)
Here is the quick list of my top three dating sites and apps in Vietnam. I’ll go into more detail in my reviews later in this article.
My first trip to Southeast Asia was way back in 2008. At that time, dating sites were just beginning to emerge in Vietnam. There were no dating apps to speak of, and Tinder didn’t even exist.
Since that time, online dating (dating via your smartphone or your personal computer) has taken off in the same way it has in the Philippines and in other countries in Southeast Asia. There are now a lot of sites and apps out there which have lots of members, good messaging functionality, and an interface that doesn’t require a degree in rocket science to figure out.
A good dating site or app increases your odds of success because, at the end of the day, dating is a numbers game. Even in Vietnam (which in my humble opinion is easier to get dates in than in many cities in the U.S. and Europe), you have to plant a lot of seeds. Online dating is also way more efficient given the culture in Vietnam. Walking up to a random woman on the street is just not the way things are done here. It is not even the way things are done in the major cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
Perhaps due to a history of having a large foreign presence in the country, Vietnamese are pretty open to the possibility of dating foreigners. If you are an English native speaker, people will be curious to learn about you and ask you about your interest in their homeland.
And in contrast to my experiences dating in the U.S., it was a pleasant surprise to see a lot of Vietnamese women being the one who initiated contact (often for no other reason than to practice their English).
Here are some things I think you should be aware of before you start dating in Vietnam:
- Coffee shops not bars: While in the U.S. and Europe, the bar scene is one of the most common places to meet women, in Vietnam, coffee shops (e.g. Starbucks is now all over the place) are way more popular.
- Vietnamese women are caring: Vietnamese women remind me of women from Latin America. Don’t be surprised if she wants to cook or clean for you once she starts to develop a certain level of comfort.
- Gold diggers everywhere: The income disparity between the Western world and Vietnam unfortunately leads to a lot of women joining these sites and apps so that they can be wined and dined and hopefully go back with you to your home country. The way to avoid gold diggers is to make sure that the first few dates you go on are cheap dates (coffee, park, picnic, etc.).
- Women who just want to practice their English: Make it clear that you want something romantic. You are not there to be her English teacher.
- Send a lot of messages: I can’t stress this enough. If/when you get frustrated on the dating scene in Vietnam, don’t forget that it is a numbers game. You will have to plant a lot of seed to reap a good harvest.
Ok, now that you know what to look out for, let’s get into my reviews.
Miss Vietnam Contestants (source: Wikimedia Commons)
VietnamCupid is the best dating site in Vietnam (they have an app as well). If I only had money to spend on one site, this is the site that I would spend it on. If you log on at any given time, there will be hundreds of singles online.
Vietnam Cupid
VietnamCupid is run by one of my most favorite online dating companies, Cupid Media. Cupid Media owns sites that I’ve used in the past like Afrointroductions.com and BrazilCupid.com, when I was living in Africa and Brazil, respectively.
The site has a vibrant community, a polished design and killer features. The translator app in particular is an amazing feature, massively growing the pool of matches you are able to connect with.
Sign up Process
Signing up for VietnamCupid is quick, simple, and costs you nothing. All that’s needed to begin is your name, gender, password and an email. Next step is to write a few words about yourself, and what your ideal partner would look like, and you’re done.
At this point, you can either finish your profile, or jumpstart your search for that perfect match right away. Occasionally the site will prompt you to fill out more of your profile to continue, which can be bothersome if you’re not looking to complete your profile right away.
How to Locate Potential Matches
After designating your ideal partner’s qualities, you can look through the matches VietnamCupid gathers for you. You can sort these matches by Newest Members, Photos First, Last Active, and Relevance, and either browse just their photos, photos with basic information, or their full profiles, one-by-one. These options also apply to your personalized searches, which can be narrowed down by age, location, body-type, etc.
How to Communicate with Other Members
Basic messaging on VietnamCupid includes a few different communication options, none of which are useful for actually connecting with other Standard members (there is unlimited communication with premium members). As a non-paying member, your options are limited to “sending interest”, adding to your favorites, or simply visiting their profile.
Whenever you do one of these actions, VietnamCupid will notify them, and they can visit your profile or respond. You can send messages to each other, but they’ll be “locked” and unreadable. As a premium Gold or Platinum member, you’ll have IM, audio, and video chat all at your disposal. It is well worth the extra money.
Unique Site Features
Some of VietnamCupid’s best features are its anti-spam measures, which I experienced first-hand.
When first signing up for this site, I filled out a cursory profile, refraining from uploading photos and barely including any information. Immediately after signing up, my profile was promptly suspended for 48 hours while they performed a background check.
A quick phone-call and an email with copies of my ID later, and the problem was solved. The whole experience assured me that I’d be safe from spammers moving forward.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Standard – Sign up, fill out profile, upload photos, customize searches, send interest to other profiles, communicate Gold/Platinum members
- Gold – All of the above, plus: Unlimited communication with all members (including audio/video/IM chat), no ads, hide your profile for incognito browsing
- Platinum – All of the above, plus: Better search rank for your profile, double the profile space, access to advanced matching algorithms, message translation, VIP profile highlighting, extra search features
Dating is a Numbers Game
As I mention in my online dating e-book, just like the real world, there will be men or women who you will not click with or who don’t respond to your messages (or just disappear). There will be men or women who might only be interested in helping you to part with your hard-earned cash. That is life.
Just keep sending out messages and reach out until you find the person you are looking for and get success. As is typical with online dating, expect a response rate of around 1-10% depending on how good your profile is. (response rate = people who will respond back to you to whom you sent an introduction message).
Cherry Blossoms
Cherryblossoms (also known as Blossoms) is a popular pay site in Vietnam (and the Philippines as well) and is ideal for the guy who is really looking to get serious (i.e. find a wife).
Blossoms is a long-standing dating site that’s been up and running successfully since 1995 when the Internet was first introduced. This company has more than 40 years of experience in the dating game, originally having begun in 1974, in the form of a personals’ magazine called “Cherry Blossoms.”
The reason Blossoms has been so successful for such a long time is because it’s easy to navigate, has solid features, strong security measures and a lot of quality profiles. If you want to meet single people from Vietnam, this site is worth checking out.
Sign up Process
To sign up, all you need is to provide your name, gender, email address and password. On the following two pages, you’ll provide basic information about yourself, your age, birthday, location, etc., along with a brief paragraph describing yourself and what you’re like.
Once you’ve done this, nothing more is required. However, if you do confirm your email address, you’ll get a higher-ranking search position. To complete the balance of your profile, you will need to provide:
- Additional personal details, including your current home address, which I found strange because people really should never put this information online for everyone to see.
- You can upload up to 12 photos of yourself.
- Select a profile background from an assortment of colors.
- The Top 10 things you would like others to know about you, plus 10 Top things you’d like to know about them.
You are given the ability to edit certain profile logistics, like chat options, privacy settings, and message notifications. You can also have filter settings for messages and chat.
How to Locate Potential Matches
There are some preset searches on Blossoms: You can search through the active members (people that have been on the site in the past month), profiles of people who just signed up within the last 48 hours, members that are presently online, and members that have already viewed your profile. You can also search on your own using Basic and Advanced searches.
Blossoms will also present matches to you, all based on the criteria you provided, such as age, location, height, lifestyle habits, etc.
How to Communicate with Other Members
There are a lot of different options for sending messages. The basic ones are custom text messages, “smiles,” and saved template emails. You can also Favorite someone, or add them to your Friends.
There are features that are more advanced, like asking someone 10 questions, which are selected from a large list; things like “How do you handle conflict?” or “Do you like cooking?”
You can also do an Instant Messaging chat, live video chat and/or send video messages. My favorite is sending video messages because they’re a good way to revive a lapsed interaction or add more drama to an already lively conversation.
Unique Site Features
Blossoms has an especially unique feature allowing members to find out whether a certain profile is actually genuine or not. This is something that other dating sites should have.
With each profile there is a link to Tineye, which checks the origin of their photo, and a link to Google to find out if the information on their profile is repeated someplace else on the Internet.
Tineye is ideal for spotting fake profiles that use photos of a model or celebrity as their own, which unfortunately happens all the time on these dating sites. If something seems odd or fishy in any way, you can report this and even block members from viewing your profile or communicating with you. This is done right beneath the profile photo.
What is Included in Each Membership Level
- Free – Create a profile, upload up to 12 photos, search/browse/visit profiles, send & receive miles, 10 questions and email/smile/chat invitations
- Full Service – All of the above, plus: send and receive emails, video messages, and video chats
OkCupid
OkCupid is a dating app most are familiar with. It has been around since the dawn of online dating. If you have tried OkCupid in the past and had no success, it has since added a lot of new features.
Unfortunately, OkCupid has not been as active as it once was, but it is still possible to meet some people on there. This review will cover some of the new features OkCupid has to offer.
Sign Up Process
Some sites do the bare minimum, requiring you to enter your email and essential information and fill out your profile. Others need you to take a long personality quiz. While this can improve your chances of matching with someone, it is time-consuming.
OkCupid manages to do both. First, you can register through your email or Facebook. Afterward, create a username and fill out some basic profile info. Then, you answer only seven questions for the site to understand your personality better. You then choose three users to like.
How to Locate Potential Matches
OkCupid recommends users to you, and you can see how well you match up based on the questions you have answered. You can also search by distance and other filters, helping you to find the best match for your situation.
OkCupid also allows you to go live, letting you interact with users in real-time. This feature can give you a better idea of the user, as some photos can be deceiving.
Some users have good success with OkCupid, but others have used the site for years without much success, so the chance for finding successful matches is inconsistent.
How to Communicate With Other Members
One plus to OkCupid is that you don’t have to pay to message people. Instead, if you like someone, you can send them an introductory message. Then, if they want you back, you can communicate with them as much as you like.
Of course, not all messaging features are free. For example, one primary messaging feature behind a paywall is seeing if your messages were read or not.
Unique Site Features
- OkCupid is inclusive, allowing for many gender and sexuality options.
- Unlike many other apps, the free option isn’t too limited, albeit with ads.
- Almost 20 years of experience.
What is Included for Each Membership Level
OkCupid has three levels: the free version, Incognito, and Premium.
Incognito lets you hide your profile to everyone except those you are interested in.
Premium has several features, including:
- No ads
- Unlimited likes
- The ability to set relationship dealbreakers
- See all likes and intros
- See people’s public answers
- Three Superlikes each week.
Unlike some websites, OKCupid’s premium version is a bit lacking in my opinion.
Further Reading
Worldwide Online Dating Site Reviews: Be sure to check out my country-by-country reviews of the best online dating sites in the world.
Worldwide Moving Guide: Everything you need to know in order to plan your move to 65+ countries around the world.
Worldwide Jobs Guide: If you are interested in working in this country, be sure to check out my posts on how to find jobs in this country and other countries around the world.
Worldwide Apartments Guide: If you are interested in renting an apartment in another country, take a look at my articles on how to find an apartment in various countries around the world.
About Addison Sears-Collins
Hey! I'm Addison Sears-Collins, the founder of Visa Hunter. You can learn more about me here. Connect with me by liking my fan page on Facebook, connecting with me on Twitter, or check out my website Automatic Addison where I build robots and embedded systems.
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