The future of dating is less profile, more personality

Before dating apps, we got to know people through shared moments: favorite bands, inside jokes, the places we hung out. These everyday overlaps helped us gain a real sense of connection. Today, dating is more about profiles, one-liners, and swipes. But Qloo’s work with Match hints at a shift back toward something more real, a connection rooted in a user's unique personal taste. By looking at what people genuinely enjoy — music, movies, restaurants, etc., it helps to uncover compatibility that runs deeper than surface-level traits. Because real connection starts with sharing what we love.

Affinity Apps (BLK, Chispa, Upward, and Yuzu) partnered with Qloo to help users share their interests at a deeper level. Qloo has the largest knowledge graph of cultural entities, mapping the relationships between brands, entertainment, places, music, snacking, and more that surround our day-to-day lives. By integrating cultural intelligence into the dating experience, it makes it easier for people to find meaningful connections rooted in shared taste.

Case in point: Yuzu

Yuzu is a dating and social app for the Asian community, built to help people find friendship, romance, and belonging. The platform recently launched a new feature called “Currently Into” (powered by Qloo), giving users the chance to express who they are through the things they love. From music and movies to favorite snacks and go-to apps, users can add interests across categories like “Next Episode” (TV), “Movie Night” (films), “Tuning Into” (podcasts), “Shopping At,” “Rooting For” (sports teams), “Top Artists,” “Reading” (books), “Playing” (video games), “Giving Back To” (NGOs), “Snacking On,” and “Essential Apps.” 

Why does this matter? Because interests say something a profile picture can’t. Since launch, users who’ve filled out 'Currently Into' have seen a 70% increase in Likes.

It’s not just that you both like movies, it’s which movies. It’s not just that you like music, it’s whether you’re into NCT 127, Mitski, or late-night jazz. In fact, Yuzu gives users the ability to connect over those shared interests by letting them wave or like individual interests on someone’s profile. These aspects shape the way we relate to each other and are often the difference between a forgettable swipe and a real spark.

True personalization vs. personalized-looking

What sets this apart from other profile builders is the intelligence underneath. Most platforms offer ways to customize your experience—filters, preferences, prompts. But Qloo adds another layer: true personalization based on cultural interactions. Helping people reflect who they are outside a 6.7-inch glass screen.

With “Currently Into,” users can keep their profiles as in-the-moment as their interests, updating what they’re watching, listening to, or into in real time. These interests appear just below the profile photo, offering a quick snapshot of what matters to that person right now.

Qloo’s models don’t just recognize what users like; they understand how those interests connect and overlap with one another, and how to create more relevant discovery across the platform. 

Affinity Apps is building spaces that allow people to be seen and understood. We’re proud to help make that possible with data insights that reflect the nuance of lifestyle and identity to help people explore who they are, together. It's a joint engineering effort we’re proud to be part of, and it's only the beginning.

What this means for the future of dating

With Qloo’s Cultural AI integrated across Affinity’s platforms, the dating experience becomes more expressive, more dimensional, and ultimately more human.

As the integration evolves, the goal is to surface not just shared interests, but deeper cultural overlaps, helping people connect over the things they didn’t even realize they had in common.

When platforms move beyond bios and proximity and start surfacing connections based on deeper signals—shared cultural context, lifestyle overlap, and aligned values—that’s when people truly discover the kind of connections that last.

And this is only the beginning.