Does Online Dating Promotion Vary Across Cultures? A Cross-cultural Analysis of Homepage Advertisements of Online Dating Services in 51 Countries

Abstract

This study extends our understanding of the influence of culture on advertising within the novel context of online dating. People around the world have come to depend on online dating services (ODSs) to participate in the dating process. Since the norms and expectations of dating are influenced by a country’s cultural values, we expect ODSs to adapt their advertising messages to be congruent with these values. Using the Pollay–Hofstede framework, we examine the relationship between advertising appeals used by 1,003 ODSs from 51 countries and the cultural dimensions of these countries. Results showed that ODS advertisements appealed to people’s need for relationship, friendship, entertainment, sex, status, design and identity. The use of these appeals was congruent with only the individualism/collectivism and uncertainty avoidance cultural dimensions. Based on these results, we argue that ODS’s overwhelming use of culturally incongruent advertising messages can lead to a global transformation and homogenisation of the dating culture.

Keywords

advertising research cross-cultural Hofstede online dating

Scholars and practitioners alike have acknowledged the important role that culture plays in determining the effectiveness of advertisements (Hornikx & O’Keefe, 2009; Pashna et al., 2019; Zhang & Gelb, 1996). Consumers internalise the values, beliefs and norms of the cultural systems in which they grow up. The advertisements that tap into and reflect these cultural values are more readily accepted by consumers, which, in turn, enhances the persuasiveness of the advertisements. Examining the relationship between culture and advertising has, therefore, garnered persistent interest in the scholarly community. Lee’s (2019) meta-analysis showed that 246 out of the 3,417 articles published in advertising and marketing journals between 2008 and 2017 assessed the role of culture in advertisements of a wide range of products across different communication mediums. Most of these studies used Hofstede’s (2001) model to analyse the cross-cultural differences in advertisements.

One product category that has received little to no attention in cross-cultural advertising literature is online dating. In the past two decades, people worldwide have come to increasingly depend on online dating services (ODSs) for finding potential dating partners instead of relying on their limited social network (Rosenfeld & Thomas, 2012). In 1995, Match.com was the only website that provided ODSs. Since then, online dating has transcended the borders of the United States, with ODSs now available in almost all countries. According to recent projections, by the year 2024, the total number of registered online dating users across the world will be close to 441 million (Tankovska, 2021).

Despite the homogenous global adoption of ODSs, the utilisation of ODSs has varied across cultures. This variation in ODS use can be attributed to cultural differences in the interpretations and expectations from dating. In countries such as Turkey, where dating is considered a precursor to marriage, online daters are more inclined to use ODSs for long-term relationships. In comparison, in countries such as the United States, where dating is considered an exploratory affair, online daters are more likely to use ODSs for casual relationships (Özüstün, 2015). In this study, we examine if the advertisements used by ODSs reflect the diverse cultural values their consumers associate with dating. In other words, to what extent are ODS advertisements culturally congruent?

We conduct a cross-cultural analysis of homepage advertisements used by 1,003 ODSs in 51 countries across Europe, North America and South America to answer this question. First, we identify the type of appeals used in these homepage advertisements. Previous research has shown that ODSs frequently appeal to people’s need for love, companionship, friendship, fun and sex. Additionally, ODSs also highlight the superiority and uniqueness of their technology in their advertisements (Ayalon & Gewirtz-Meydan, 2017; Finkel et al., 2012). Next, we investigate how the use of these appeals vary across cultures using the Pollay–Hofstede framework. This framework, developed by Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996), establishes a link between advertising appeals identified by Pollay (1983) and Hofstede’s (1980) cultural dimensions. Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) based these relationships on the assumption that consumers respond favourably to advertising appeals that conform to the dominant cultural values of the society in which the consumers reside.

With global revenue of over $600 million and a rapidly increasing market penetration, ODSs have proven to be among the most influential contemporary communication technologies. However, despite the social and economic impacts of ODSs on an international level, very little attention has been paid to the advertisements used by these online match-making services to attract customers. To our knowledge, this is one of the few large-scale studies to perform a systematic analysis of ODS advertisements and also empirically measures the impact of culture of ODS advertisements.

The remainder of the study is organised in the following way: an overview of the advertising appeals used in ODSs followed by the relationship between cultural values and dating. Next, using Albers-Miller and Gelb’s (1996) framework, we propose six relationships between ODS advertising appeals and Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. Then, drawing on a content analysis of 1,003 websites from 51 countries across three continents, we conduct an empirical investigation to examine our hypotheses and research questions.

Literature Review

Online Dating Advertisements

Over the years, online dating has gone from being a socially stigmatised practice to being the preferred way of meeting potential dating partners (Finkel et al., 2012). There are over 26 million registered online daters in North America, 16 million in South America and 37 million in Europe. The exponential growth of ODSs has also made it a profitable business. In 2020, the revenue generated by ODSs in North America alone was $798 million, while European and South American countries accounted for $391 million and $74 million (Johnson, 2020).

While numerous studies have analysed advertisement messages in various industries across multiple media platforms (Boateng & Okoe, 2015; Sohal & Kaur, 2018), to our knowledge only two studies to date have examined advertisements related to online dating. Ayalon and Gewirtz-Meydan (2017) analysed the homepage advertisements of the 39 most popular ODSs geared towards older adults in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Canada. Qualitative analyses revealed that 37 of the 39 websites appealed to users’ need for finding long-term romantic relationships, while 34 websites promoted companionship and friendships. Only four promoted non-traditional relationships, such as finding partners for sex and hook-ups. Finkel et al. (2012) claimed that ODS homepage advertisements often highlighted the uniqueness and superiority of their technology that provided online daters with access to millions of potential dating partners. Unlike Ayalon and Gewirtz-Meydan (2017), Finkel et al. (2012) based their claims on an informal analysis of the advertisements used by three websites: OkCupid.com, PlentyofFish.com and eHarmony.com.

The results of both these studies have shown that advertisements used by ODSs, by and large, appeal to the needs of its users. Multiple studies have found that online daters frequently cite using ODSs to find romantic partners, make friends, find sexual partners, for fun and entertainment, and gain status and popularity (Clemens et al., 2015; Sumter et al., 2017). Apart from these reasons, users have also cited using ODSs to take advantage of two unique affordances of these sites. The 1st affordance is the use of efficient match-making algorithms and money-back guarantees provided on membership fees. LeFebvre (2018) labelled this user motive as design. The 2nd affordance of ODSs is that they allow identity curation for their users. All ODS users need to create an online dating profile and populate it with their photos, videos and biographical statements. Online daters use these profiles to present their real-life selves or curate a version of themselves that highlights desirable attributes to attract potential partners (Ellison et al., 2006).

Although Ayalon and Gewirtz-Meydan (2017) and Finkel et al.’s (2012) studies make significant contributions to the online dating advertising literature, the limited sample of these studies limits the generalisability of the results. We address this limitation by expanding our sample to include 1,003 ODSs across 51 countries and examining the extent to which the advertising messages used by these ODSs incorporate the commonly cited user needs (relationship, friendship, entertainment, sex, status, design and identity). Thus, at the 1st step, we propose an exploratory research question examining the presence of these appeals in ODS advertisements.

RQ1: To what extent do ODS advertisements appeal to the seven commonly cited user needs?

Online Dating and Culture

Dating may have started as a ‘western heterosexual courtship practice’ (Mongeau et al., 2007, p. 526), but this practice has been universally adopted over time. However, during the adoption process, the norms and expectations associated with dating were significantly influenced by each country’s cultural values. Researchers have explained these cross-cultural differences in dating using Hofstede’s (1980, 2001) cultural dimensions framework. Hofstede (2001) defined a country’s culture on six dimensions: individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, time orientation and indulgence. All six dimensions are quantified on a scale of 0–100, and each country has an index that demarcates its position relative to other countries.

Out of these six dimensions, scholars have frequently used individualism/collectivism to account for the cross-cultural variances in dating norms. They have argued that individualist and collectivist values influence the way people interpret intimacy and love, which affects their dating expectations and behaviours (Dion & Dion, 1996). Studies have shown that in the United States, a highly individualist country, dating is viewed as a casual affair compared to Japan or China, a highly collectivist country, where dating is considered a step that leads to marriage (Tang & Zuo, 2000).

These cross-cultural differences also manifest in the online dating context. Wan’s (2018) content analysis of 600 online dating profiles of North American and Chinese users showed that North American online daters preferred casual and open relationships while Chinese online daters preferred romantic and committed relationships. North American users were also more likely to employ self-enhancement strategies in their online dating profiles than Chinese users. Kale and Spence’s (2009) comparison of 238 dating profiles of Indian, Korean and Australian users revealed that Australian users are more often dated for entertainment and fun than Indian and Korean users.

Since online dating use differs across cultures, we also expect online dating advertisements to differ accordingly. Specifically, we expect ODSs to use advertising appeals that are congruent with the target audience’s cultural values. Therefore, we employ the Pollay–Hofstede framework (Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996) to examine the extent to which ODSs in 51 countries employ this strategy of using culturally congruent advertising appeals to promote online dating.

Online Dating Advertising Appeals and National Culture

Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) were the 1st to establish an association between the advertising appeals identified by Pollay (1983) and the cultural dimensions of Hofstede’s (1980) model. This association between advertising appeals and national culture hinges on the assumption that people respond favourably to advertising messages that appeal to cultural values that are salient to them. Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) coded advertisements in business journals across 11 countries regarding Pollay’s (1983) taxonomy identifying 42 advertising appeals. This analysis established a relationship between Hofstede’s cultural dimensions with 30 of the 42 advertising appeals.

Subsequent studies have used Albers-Miller and Gelb’s (1996) framework to examine if the most commonly used appeals in advertising messages across various industries and media relate to their customers’ cultural values (Alt & Săplăcan, 2019; Chang, 2006; Cheong et al., 2010; Hoeken et al., 2007; Moon & Chan, 2004; Mortimer & Grierson, 2010; Tsai & Men, 2012). Based on the findings of these studies and Albers-Miller and Gelb’s (1996) framework, we hypothesise relationships between the seven ODS advertising appeals and their association with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. The ODS advertising appeals, the corresponding appeals from Pollay’s classification and their relationship with Hofstede’s cultural dimensions are provided in Table 1.

Table 1.

Relationships Between Appeals and Cultural Dimensions

ODS Advertising Appeals	Pollay’s (1983) Appeals	Hofstede’s Dimensions Relating to Pollay
Relationship	Family (getting married) and Succorance (to receive expressions of love)	Collectivism
Friendship	Affiliation (to be social, bond in friendship)	Collectivism
Identity	Distinctive (unique), Freedom (at liberty) and Independence (autonomy, nonconformist)	Individualism
Status	Status (social status, prestige, power), Popular (Commonplace, well-known, conventional)	High power distance
Entertainment	Adventure (thrills or excitement)	Low uncertainty Avoidance
Sex	Casual (Unkempt, casual, irregular)	Low uncertainty Avoidance
Design	Safety (stability), Security (secure) and Convenience (quick, easy)	High uncertainty Avoidance Masculinity

Source: The authors.

Individualism/Collectivism

The fundamental difference between countries with a higher individualism score compared to countries with a lower individualism score (i.e., higher collectivism score) is that the former is ‘I’ focused versus the latter is ‘we’ focused. Individualist countries value personal gratification, freedom and independence, versus collectivist countries value interdependence and interconnectedness with others in society (Hofstede, 1980). These cultural values, in turn, influence people’s expectations from dating. As a result, individuals from collectivist cultures are more likely to date to foster partnerships, while individuals from collectivist cultures are more likely to date for self-satisfaction (Tang & Zuo, 2000). Thus, advertising messages targeting collectivist countries will appeal to people’s need for love and affiliation (Moon & Chan, 2004), while individualist countries will use advertising messages that appeal to people’s need for asserting their identities (Tsai & Men, 2012). Based on this, we hypothesise,

H₁: ODS advertisements in countries with a lower score on individualism will have greater use of (a) relationship and (b) friendship appeals than countries with a higher score on individualism.

H₂: ODS advertisements in countries with a higher score on individualism will have greater use of identity appeals than countries with a lower score on individualism.

Power Distance

The power distance cultural dimension indicates how the unequal distribution of power is accepted in society. The higher the country’s power distance score, the more the country’s powerful individuals are likely to advocate for inequality as a valid basis of social order (Hofstede, 1980). This unequal distribution of power is also preserved in their dating practices, whereby one partner has more power and status in the relationship than the other. Individuals belonging to these countries may also look at dating as an opportunity to gain status by pairing up with partners who belong to a higher social stratum compared to them (Cionea et al., 2019). Thus, advertisements targeting high-power distance societies will appeal to people’s need to gain status and dominance to preserve this social disparity (Cheong et al., 2010). Therefore, we hypothesise,

H₃: ODS advertisements in countries with a higher score on power distance will have greater use of status appeals than countries with a lower power distance score.

Uncertainty Avoidance

The uncertainty avoidance cultural dimension indicates society’s tolerance for ambiguity. Individuals from countries with low uncertainty avoidance scores are comfortable with change and do not feel threatened by situations and people out of the norm (Hofstede, 1980). Conversely, individuals from countries with high uncertainty avoidance scores experience intense negative emotions such as anxiety and stress when faced with ambiguous situations (Matsumoto, 1989). To avoid experiencing these negative emotions, individuals from such cultures prefer stability and order instead of giving in to the vagaries of life. These emotional tendencies also translate to the relational context—individuals from high uncertainty avoidant countries expect their dates to turn into serious relationships. In contrast, individuals from low uncertainty avoidant countries have no such expectations and treat dating more casually (Ueki, 1997). For this reason, advertisements in low uncertainty avoidance countries will underscore adventure-seeking, entertainment and unconventional pursuits (Mortimer & Grierson, 2010), while advertising messages targeting the audience with high uncertainty avoidance proclivities will promote guarantees and warranties provided by their products (Mortimer & Grierson, 2010). Hence, we hypothesise,

H₄: ODS advertisements in countries with a lower score on uncertainty avoidance will have greater use of (a) entertainment and (b) sex appeals than countries with a higher score on uncertainty avoidance.

H₅: ODS advertisements in countries with a higher score on uncertainty avoidance will have greater use of design appeals than countries with a lower score on uncertainty avoidance.

Masculinity/Femininity

Lastly, countries with high masculinity index (i.e., masculine countries) prioritise efficiency and productivity, while countries with a low masculinity index (i.e., feminine countries) value nurturance, modesty and quality of life (Hofstede, 1980). Furthermore, research has shown that individuals from masculine countries value instrumental communication, whereas individuals from feminine countries value relational communication (Stewart et al., 2003). In terms of online dating, users from masculine countries may be drawn towards ODSs for their technological prowess in facilitating effective communication with potential partners. On the other hand, users of feminine countries may be motivated to use ODSs for their ability to foster personal relationships. Thus, ODS advertisement messages will emphasise their product’s effectiveness and performance capabilities when promoting their services to people belonging to masculine countries (Alt & Săplăcan, 2019). Conversely, advertisements for feminine countries will appeal to family and communality needs (Chang, 2006; Hoeken et al., 2007).

Hence, we hypothesise,

H₆: ODS advertisements in countries with a higher score on masculinity will have greater use of design appeals than countries with a lower score on masculinity.

H₇: ODS advertisements in countries with a lower score on masculinity will have greater use of (a) relationship and (b) friendship appeals than countries with a higher score on masculinity.

Time Orientation and Indulgence

Two additional cultural dimensions, time orientation and indulgence were later added to Hofstede’s model, and were not accounted for in the Pollay–Hofstede framework. The time orientation dimension explains the values that a country ascribes to time. Countries with high time orientation indices (i.e., long-term oriented countries) focus on the future and prioritise pragmatic values such as frugality and persistence, while countries with low time orientation indices (i.e., short-term oriented countries) prioritise the past and value traditions (Hofstede, 2001). The indulgence cultural dimension explains the extent to which individuals control their desires. Countries with a high indulgence index favour relatively free gratification, enjoyment and pleasure-seeking behaviours. In contrast, countries with a low indulgence index (i.e., high restraint) prefer curbing such desires (Minkov & Hofstede, 2011).

Compared to the original four cultural dimensions, a limited number of studies have examined the relationship between time orientation and advertising appeals. These studies have also varied in their conceptualisation of time-orientation; some studies adhered to Hofstede’s short versus long-term dichotomy (Cheong et al., 2010), while others followed Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck’s (1961) past, present and future time orientation (Song et al., 2014) or Hall’s (1976) schema of polychronic and monochronic cultures (Paek et al., 2004). This variation in conceptualisation has resulted in time orientation being associated with a broad range of appeals (including progressive, classic, traditional, youth, health and nutrition appeals) instead of a consistent set of appeals.

The indulgence dimension was added to the Hofstede model in 2011 and has not yet been widely adopted in cross-cultural advertising studies. Research linking these two dimensions of Hofstede’s model and relationships has also been sparse. While some studies have shown that individuals from countries with varying time orientation and indulgence levels differ in their partner choices and relational goals (Karandashev et al., 2020; Lu et al., 2021), there is no conclusive evidence if and how their dating motivations and practices differ. Because of this lack of research, we propose a research question to explore possible associations between the two cultural dimensions from Hofstede’s model and corresponding advertising appeals.

RQ2: How are (a) time-orientation and (b) indulgence associated with the seven advertising appeals used in ODSs?

Method

Sampling

In this research study, we limited our examination of ODS advertisements to Europe, North America and South America. The 20 most popularly used ODSs were shortlisted for each European, South American and North American country. The minimum number of ODSs was set at 20 to ensure the power of any statistical analyses and enhance the generalisability. The countries that did not have at least 20 ODSs were eliminated from the study. This led to the selection of 29 European countries, 12 North American countries and 10 South American countries. The list of countries per continent is provided in Table 2.

We used Google.com with Virtual Private Network (VPN) masking to search for the most popular ODSs. The non-sponsored results obtained from Google.com were used for the analyses. Some of the keywords and phrases we used were ‘online dating sites (country name)’, ‘popular online dating sites’ and ‘top 20 online dating sites’. This strategy of using search engines such as Google with keyword combinations has been used by other researchers examining web content (Boepple et al., 2016; Grana & Ling, 2014). The final count was: 557 websites from 29 European countries, 204 websites from 10 South American countries and 242 websites from 12 North American countries. We deleted 17 websites from the initial list because they were spam.

Coding Procedure

An undergraduate coder and the 1st author unitised the advertising messages and coded the appeals used in the ODS advertisements. The unit of analysis for this study was the advertising message appearing on the homepage of each ODS. The ODS’s tagline and the text immediately following the tagline were coded for each ODS. For instance, Figure 1 shows the screen capture of an American ODS, Zoosk.com. The advertising message chosen as the unit of analysis was ‘More singles who are more your style. 40,000,000 singles worldwide and 3 million messages sent daily’. For ODSs, where the advertising message was not in English, Google’s language-translation tool was used to translate the message to English. The median length of advertising messages was approximately 15 words.

Figure 1.

Source: https://www.zoosk.com/

The manual for identifying the seven types of appeals used in the advertising messages in ODSs drew from the definitions of these appeals provided by Clemens et al. (2015), LeFebvre (2018) and Sumter et al. (2017). The appeals were: relationship, friendship, entertainment, sex, status, design and identity. Advertising messages that appealed to people’s need for romance and finding a significant other were coded as relationship. Advertising messages that promised to satisfy people’s need for making friends and meeting new people were coded as friendship. Advertising messages were coded as entertainment if they appealed to people’s need for fun, adventure, novelty and combating boredom. Advertising messages were coded as status if they incorporated appeals relating to being trendy and cool. Advertising messages that used appeals, such as finding a sexual partner, hook-ups and other sexual fantasies, were coded as sex. Advertising messages that promoted the technology used by ODSs or emphasised the warranty or monetary value provided by ODSs were coded as design appeals. Lastly, advertisement messages that appealed to people’s need for freedom and experimentation with self-expression were coded as identity.

Each of the 1,003 advertising messages was coded in terms of these seven appeals. Whenever an advertising appeal was present, it was coded as 1, and when it was absent, it was coded as 0. For example, while coding the advertisement message used by the ODS Cupid.com in Finland, ‘Your new love life starts here. You can launch an unforgettable experience with free online dating.’, the coders identified three advertising appeals: relationship (‘Your new love life starts here’), entertainment (‘You can launch an unforgettable experience’) and design (‘free online dating’). Additional examples of ODS advertising messages and the corresponding appeals are provided in Table 2.

Table 2.

List of 51 Countries

Europe	Europe	North America	South America
Austria	Lithuania	Bahamas	Argentina
Bulgaria	Netherlands	Canada	Bolivia
Croatia	Norway	Costa Rica	Brazil
Czech Republic	Poland	Cuba	Chile
Denmark	Portugal	Dominican Republic	Colombia
Estonia	Romania	El Salvador	Ecuador
Finland	Serbia	Guatemala	Paraguay
France	Slovakia	Honduras	Peru
Germany	Slovenia	Jamaica	Uruguay
Greece	Spain	Mexico	Venezuela
Hungary	Sweden	Panama
Ireland	Switzerland	USA
Italy	Turkey
Latvia	UK
	Ukraine

Source: The authors.

The inter-coder reliability of each of the appeals is provided in Table 3. Cohen’s kappa values ranged from 0.56 for design to 1.00 for identity and sex, and an average kappa of 0.76. Thus, kappa values were deemed substantial (Krippendorf, 2004). Examples of some of these advertising messages are provided in Table 4. The descriptive of the advertising appeals are included in Table 5.

Table 3.

Types of Appeals and Inter-coder Reliability

Category	Cohen’s Kappa
Relationship	0.67
Sex	1.00
Status	0.62
Friendship	0.64
Entertainment	0.76
Design	0.56
Identity	1.00

Source: The authors.

Table 4.

Sample Advertising Messages

Advertising Appeals	Indicators	Examples of Advertising Messages with These Appeals
Relationship	Find romantic partner/future husband or wife, fall in love, look for c ommitment.	Your new love life starts here. (Cupid.com)
Sex	Find a casual sex partner/friend with benefits, one-night-stand/hook-up or live the sexual fantasy.	Dates, not for everyone. Discover great erotic world. (Erodate.hr)
Status	Call for belonging/joining/becoming a part of a community, do it because everyone else is doing it, gain status.	Selective Dating, Join our exclusive community and meet other inspiring singles (Theinnercircle.com)
Friendship	Meet new people, make new friends, improve social skills.	Meeting new people has never been so easy and fun.… Get Connected, Chat and Date - Find Online Dating Profiles in Ecuador Today! (Besocial.com)
Advertising appeals	Indicators	Examples of Advertising Messages with These Appeals
Entertainment	Seek adventure, novelty, for fun, combat boredom and pass time.	Meet, chat, and have fun with new people — free! (Meetme.com)
Identity	Experimenting with new identities, live out a non-sexual fantasy.	#1 Avatar based social experience. Customise your avatar (IMVU.com)
Design	Superior technology and features, such as geo-locality, sophisticated algorithms for matching, ease and simplicity of use.	Dating with free registration. Secure, dating, effective easy (Parom.Hu)

Source: The authors.

Table 5.

Descriptive for Advertising Appeals

	Mean	Std. Dev.
Relationship	0.52	0.50
Sex	0.02	0.12
Status	0.27	0.45
Friendship	0.54	0.50
Entertainment	0.11	0.31
Design	0.92	0.27
Identity	0.00	0.05

Source: The authors.

Hofstede Cultural Dimensions

For each country, the numeric values of the six cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity/femininity, time orientation and indulgence) were derived from Hofstede’s (2001) model. Further, for hypotheses testing between low and high cultural-dimension countries (e.g., low and high-power distance countries), we grouped the countries based on their relative value to the overall median value (the low-high cut point at respective median value).¹ This approach has been frequently used to compare groups (Colliander & Dahlén, 2011; Lin et al., 2020). The descriptive of the cultural dimensions are included in Table 6.

Table 6.

Descriptive for Cultural Dimensions

	Mean	Median	Std Dev.
Power distance	57.88	61.00	21.26
Individualism	44.68	38.00	23.97
Masculinity	47.87	44.00	22.14
Uncertainty avoidance	71.63	76.00	21.14
Time-orientation	46.11	46.00	20.27
Indulgence	50.81	53.00	22.86

Source: The authors.

Results

To answer RQ1, we compared the presence of the seven user motives in ODS advertising appeals. Overall, based on the chi-square goodness of fit test (Table 7), we observed that there were statistically significant differences in the presence of all the appeals except relationship (52.1%). Online dating websites were more likely to incorporate design (92.4%, χ²(2) = 722.04, p < .001) and friendship appeals (53.7%, χ²(2) = 5.61, p < .05) than identity (0.2%, χ²(2) = 955.02, p < .001), sex (1.5%, χ²(2) = 943.90, p < .001), entertainment (10.8%, χ²(2) = 617.52, p < .001) or status appeals (27.4%, χ²(2) = 204.60, p < .001).

Table 7.

Percentage of Types of Appeals Used in ODSs

	Overall	Chi-square
Relationship	52.1	1.84
Sex	1.5	943.90***
Status	27.4	204.60***
Friendship	53.7	5.61*
Entertainment	10.8	617.52***
Design	92.4	722.04***
Identity	0.2	995.02***

Source: The authors.

Note: *p < .05; ***p < .001.

As an additional exploratory analysis, we explored the extent to which the type of appeals these incorporated in ODS advertisements differed across the three continents: North America, South America and Europe. A focus on continents is exploratory before we delve into national cultures with hypotheses testing. Such an analysis gives us an insight into the larger overall patterns.

We conducted a one-way analysis of variance to test the differences among continents. The results suggested that the ODSs across continents significantly differed in the ways they used status (F(2, 1,000) = 6.499, p = .002), friendship (F(2, 1,000) = 13.538, p < .001), entertainment (F(2, 1,000) = 4.169, p < .05) and design appeals (F(2, 1,000) = 3.786, p < .05). No significant differences were found for relationship (p = .92) and sex appeals (p = .31). As a motivational appeal, identity was not included in the cross-continental comparison since we found no cases of identity appeal use in South America.

Post-hoc tests were conducted to test the differences between continents for the above discussed statistically significant advertising appeals. The results are included in Table 8 (Refer to the appendix for the percentage of types of appeals used per continent). A Tukey post hoc test revealed that North American ODSs were significantly more common in using status (p < .01) and friendship appeals (p <.001) than the ones in Europe. However, no statistical differences were found between North American and South American ODSs for other motivational appeals. Further, South American ODSs are more frequent in using friendship (p < .001) and design appeals (p < .05) than European ODSs.

Table 8.

Post-hoc Analyses for Differences in Advertising Appeals Across Continents

Advertising Appeals	Continent (A)	Continent (B)	Mean Difference (A−B)	Sig.
	North America	Europe	0.11	0.003
Status	North America	South America	0.03	0.767
	Europe	South America	−0.08	0.055
	North America	Europe	0.16	0.000
Friendship	North America	South America	−0.01	0.982
	Europe	South America	−0.17	0.000
	North America	Europe	−0.05	0.059
Entertainment	North America	South America	0.00	0.984
	Europe	South America	0.06	0.050
	North America	Europe	0.03	0.233
Design	North America	South America	−0.02	0.636
	Europe	South America	−0.06	0.026

Source: The authors.

Next, we ran independent sample t-tests to test the culture-focused set of hypotheses. The results suggested that ODSs in collectivist countries (M = 0.56; SD = 0.50) were more likely to use relationship appeals than the ones in individualist countries (M = 0.48; SD = 0.50), t(923.22) = 2.45; p < .05 thereby supporting H_1a.

Collectivist countries ODSs (M = 0.59; SD = 0.49) were also more frequent in using friendship appeals than individualist countries (M = 0.47; SD = 0.50), t(922.24) = 3.71; p < .001 thereby supporting H_1b.

No statistical differences were found in how collectivist or individualistic countries used identity appeals (p = .158), denying support for H₂. Similarly, no differences were found in how countries differing in power distance used status appeals (p = .19). Therefore, H₃ was denied.

Support for H_4a was found as low uncertainty avoidance countries (M = 0.13; SD = 0.34) were more frequent in using entertainment appeals than high uncertainty avoidance countries (M = 0.09; SD = 0.28), t(909.513) = 2.28; p < .05. H_4b was denied as no statistical difference in how low and high uncertainty avoidance countries used sex appeals (p = .86).

Marginal support for H₅ was found as high uncertainty avoidance countries (M = 0.94; SD = 0.24) were more common in using design appeals than low uncertainty avoidance countries (M = 0.91; SD = 0.29), t(904.96) = −1.92; p = .055.

No differences in design appeal use were found between masculine and feminine countries (p = .77), thereby denying support for H₆. Similarly, countries with low and high masculinity scores did not statistically differ in their use of either the relationship (p = .21) or friendship appeals (p = .69). Therefore, support for H₇ is denied.

The exploratory analyses for the difference in advertising appeals across countries differing in time orientation (RQ2a) suggest that short-term orientation countries were more common in using status (M = 0.29; SD = 0.46) and friendship appeals (M = 0.57; SD = 0.50) than long-term orientation countries (status: M = 0.23; SD = 0.42; friendship: M = 0.46; SD = 0.50); (status: t(806.72) = 1.98; p < .05; friendship: t(810.93) = 3.35; p < .001).

Conversely, long-term orientation countries are more common in using sex (M = 0.03; SD = 0.16) and entertainment appeals (M = 0.14; SD = 0.35) than short-term orientation countries (sex: M = 0.01; SD = 0.07; entertainment: M = 0.09; SD = 0.29); (sex: t(549.97) = −2.53; p < .05; entertainment: t(786.11) = −2.09; p < .05).

We also ran analyses to examine the differences in usage of the advertising appeals across countries differing in indulgence dimension (RQ2b). Statistical differences were found only for the use of status appeals. Countries with high indulgence scores (M = 0.30; SD = 0.46) were more likely to use status appeals as compared to low indulgence countries (M = 0.22; SD = 0.42), t(780.85) = −2.53; p < .05.

Discussion

This is one of the rare large-scale cross-cultural studies to examine the association between advertising appeals and cultural values in the online dating context. We collected the advertising messages that appeared in the homepages of 1,003 ODSs from 51 countries across Europe, North America and South America, and identified the type of appeals incorporated in these messages. Results of the content analysis of homepage advertisements used by 1,003 ODSs showed that the advertisements appealed to consumers’ need for relationship, friendship, sex, status, entertainment, design and identity. The design appeals were incorporated in 93% of the ODSs, making it the most frequently used appeal across 51 countries. In addition, ODSs heavily promoted the effectiveness of their algorithms in finding compatible matches for their users, the ease and simplicity of the use of this technology and other features that enhanced user experience. This finding is in line with Finkel et al.’s (2012) claim that ODSs frequently highlight the technological superiority of their services. It is advantageous for ODSs to highlight this aspect of their services because research has shown that people’s trust in online dating algorithms affects their satisfaction with the use of ODSs (Sharabi, 2020).

We also found that relationship and friendship appeals were frequently used in ODS advertisements. This finding is consistent with extant research that suggests ODSs mainly promote themselves as venues for meeting people and finding romantic partners (Ayalon & Gewirtz-Meydan, 2017). ODSs also used status appeals in their advertisement messages, that is, encouraging users to sign up to improve their social standing and be a part of a popular trend. ODSs hardly used sex appeals in their advertisements, even though users often utilise these platforms for seeking out sexual partners (LeFebvre, 2018). Lastly, ODSs’ use of identity curation as a motivating appeal was almost negligible.

Since dating norms and expectations differ across cultures, we wanted to examine if ODS advertisements adapted their appeals to be congruent with the cultural values. The Pollay–Hofstede framework curated by Albers-Miller and Gelb (1996) was used as the basis for hypothesising connections between the seven types of appeals used in ODS advertisements and Hofstede’s four cultural dimensions. Results showed that only two of the six hypotheses were supported, indicating that the types of appeals used in advertisements matched only two cultural dimensions: collectivism/individualism and uncertainty avoidance. First, the ODSs of countries with a lower individualism score (i.e., higher collectivism score) used more relationship and friendship appeals than countries with higher individualism scores. Since collectivist countries value interdependence, ODS advertisement messages that appeal to romantic relationships and marriages were in line with the values of these countries.

Second, the ODSs of low uncertainty avoidance countries used more entertainment appeals than high uncertainty avoidance countries. Since entertainment appeals pertain to novelty, adventure and thrill-seeking, these messages were congruent with the cultural beliefs of low uncertainty avoidance countries comfortable with the unknown. Conversely, ODSs of high uncertainty avoidance countries had more design appeals in their advertising messages than low uncertainty avoidance countries. When ODSs used the design appeal, they promoted their technology’s easy navigability and sophisticated nature that guaranteed its users’ positive results. Together with this, ODSs also included a money-back guarantee if their services did not live up to the users’ expectations. Since high uncertainty avoidance countries value convenience, stability and security, incorporating these design appeals in the advertising messages rendered them culturally congruent.

The Pollay–Hofstede framework (Albers-Miller & Gelb, 1996) did not account for associations between advertising appeals and time orientation and indulgence. Therefore, a research question was proposed to examine these associations. Results showed that ODSs of short-term orientation countries used more status and friendship appeals, and long-term orientation countries used more entertainment and sex appeals. Since short-term orientation countries are suspicious of social changes, they may be apprehensive about using the novel online dating platform for finding dating partners. Therefore, the status appeals in ODS advertisements can be viewed as a strategy for normalising online dating amongst its clientele by promoting the popularity and trendiness of its services. Furthermore, customers with short-term time orientations could also be more open towards using ODSs for friendship formation because using the Internet to make friends and establish social connections is already a widely accepted social norm. In contrast, customers with long-term orientations are comparatively more progressive and receptive to social changes. Hence, they may be more willing to use ODSs for non-traditional pursuits such as entertainment and sex. Thus, ODSs advertisements of long and short-term orientation countries appealing to these corresponding needs can be viewed as instances of culturally congruent advertising.

Lastly, our findings showed that high indulgence countries used more status appeals compared to low indulgence countries. This is because people from high indulgence countries give in to their desires and impulses, value leisure and having fun and are gregarious by nature. Given these audience predilections, it would have been a better strategy for ODSs to use sex, entertainment or friendship appeals instead of advertising messages that appeal to people’s need to gain status or popularity.

Overall, the lack of support for most of the hypotheses indicates that the type of appeals used in ODS advertisements was largely incongruent with the cultural values of the intended audience. Two reasons can explain this cultural incongruence in ODS advertising: Hofstede’s model’s lack of predictive power and the redundant role of culture in promoting technology-based products.

Lack of Predictive Power of Hofstede’s Model

The values of Hofstede’s (1980) model are based on survey responses from the years 1967–1973. Even though cultural values are relatively stable, they are not static. These values evolve and change owing to immigration, media, technology, travel and education. This has rendered Hofstede’s (1980) model out-of-date because it is based on cultural values relevant half a century ago. In addition, researchers have questioned the methodological soundness of Hofstede’s model (Blodgett et al., 2008). Because of these factors, Hofstede’s model may have lost its predictive power, resulting in the lack of association between the advertising appeals and cultural dimensions of the 51 countries.

Scholars have encouraged the use of other alternative cultural models such as the Global Leadership and Organizational Behaviour Effectiveness (GLOBE) model (House et al., 2004). The GLOBE model identifies nine cultural dimensions, six of which have their origins in Hofstede’s model: uncertainty avoidance, power distance, societal collectivism, in-group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, assertiveness, future orientation, performance orientation and human orientation. Researchers have recommended the use of GLOBE because (a) it addresses the drawbacks of Hofstede’s model and improves upon it (such as the bipolar assumption of individualism/collectivism and splitting masculinity dimension into gender egalitarianism and assertiveness), (b) values of its cultural dimensions are based on data collected in 2004 making it more relevant to current times and (c) it looks at societal practices, that is, the way society performs, versus societal values, that is, the way society should perform. Unfortunately, we could not use the GLOBE model in our study because 24 of the 51 countries included in our sample did not have corresponding values of GLOBE dimensions. We intend to replicate this study in the future using the GLOBE model as and when the GLOBE values become available. This will help us understand if the absence of a relationship between advertising appeals and culture can accurately be ascribed to Hofstede’s (2001) lack of predictive power.

Technology Products and Culture

Research studies on advertising appeals and culture have argued that advertisements of information and communication technologies are less likely to reflect the intended audience’s cultural values because such products are not tied to cultural traditions (Bögenhold & Naz, 2018). Furthermore, the worldwide adoption and use of technologies lead to a cultural convergence whereby different cultures are transformed into a uniform and integrated global culture (Fukuyama, 2006). These factors negate the need to adapt advertising messages to a particular consumer base’s cultural value system.

ODSs present a unique case because, unlike other technology products, ODSs are connected to cultural traditions. These online match-making tools provide a platform for their customers to engage in dating, a process that is tethered to cultural values. As Stoicescu (2019) argues in her essay on online dating, dating as an institution may vary vastly across cultures. However, online dating transforms this otherwise ambiguous practice into a uniform one as ‘users become part of an environment that designates a specific way of doing dating’. (p. 24).

In other words, the standardised format that ODSs use to facilitate dating has led to the homogenisation of otherwise heterogeneous dating norms. Be it in Ukraine, Canada or Argentina—online daters across borders follow a standard set of steps to participate in the dating process. They create their online dating profiles and enter their preferences in dating partners. Based on these preferences, ODSs present them with profiles of other registered users. Online daters can then choose to either connect with these users or pass on them. When two online daters show mutual interest in each other, they are ‘matched’ and then proceed to start a conversation. Because of this homogenisation of dating norms, advertisers of ODSs may have found it redundant to adapt the advertising appeals to match the values of their target audience residing in culturally diverse countries.

Implications of Using Culturally Incongruent Online Dating Advertisements

Since advertising influences people’s values and beliefs, consistent exposure to such culturally incongruent ODS advertisements can transform people’s interpretation and expectations from dating. A person from a low indulgence country like Latvia, who traditionally would not date for fun and entertainment, may now be more likely to participate in online dating for these reasons, just like a person from a high indulgence country like Venezuela. Similarly, a person from a low-power distance country such as Norway may be as likely to date online for gaining status as a person from a high-power distance country such as Brazil. Hence, the traditional cultural values that used to govern people’s dating norms are progressively being replaced by the cultural codes precipitated by ODS advertisements (Boyland & Halford, 2013), thus leading to homogenised global dating culture. This is in line with Mueller’s (1987) prediction,

If such unique cultural traits are increasingly discarded and replaced or transported to other cultures to fit manufacturers and advertisers needs, we will see the onset of the homogenization of all cultures into a world culture, and the ‘manufacture’ of a universal consumer in our very near future. (p. 12)

Limitations and Future Directions

Being the 1st large-scale study to examine the impact (or lack thereof) of cultural values on the use of advertising appeals within the novel context of online dating, it had several limitations that can be improved upon in subsequent studies. First, the reliability for the design category, even though acceptable (Krippendorf, 2004), was not as high as we expected it to be. Thus, our results that pertain to the design category should be accepted with caution. Second, the connotative meanings of non-English advertising messages may have been compromised using the Google translate tool. Third, future studies should employ other cultural models such as GLOBE to assess the relationship between cultural values and advertising appeals. Fourth, our research focused on the Western world, including North America, South America and Europe. Since online dating has a worldwide presence, researchers should incorporate countries from other culturally diverse regions such as Asia, Africa (Alozie, 2010) and Australia to enhance the generalisability of the results. Finally, future studies may consider complementing the content analysis of ODS advertising messages with ODS users’ self-reported dating beliefs and norms. Analysing this association can help us understand if exposure to such culturally incongruent advertising appeals transforms and homogenises people’s beliefs and notions about dating on a global scale.

Appendix

Table A1.

Percentage of Types of Appeals Used Per Continent

	Overall	Europe	North America	South America
Relationship	52.1	51.9	53.4	51.7
Sex	1.5	2	0.5	1.2
Status	27.4	23	31.4	34.3
Friendship	53.7	46.5	63.2	62.4
Entertainment	10.8	13.3	7.4	7.9
Design	92.4	90.5	96.1	93
Identity	0.2	0.2	0	0.4

Source: The authors.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Note

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