Contents
Basic information and facts
POF, or Plenty of Fish is a world famous dating site & app for casual relationships and more.
Like the majority of dating platforms that gained a big popularity, this one had been started on the beginning of 2000s: to be exact, in 2003. Along with it, the Match Group has launched such successful projects as Tinder, OurTime, and several others.
But POF outshined all platforms except Tinder. To a present moment, the number of active members has reached 90 million and it keeps on growing.
By age range, POF is qualified as the dating app / site for young and middle-aged singles. Unlike Tinder that is mostly used by singles in their late teens of under 35, Plenty of Fish is in favour among 25 – 45 y.o. folks.
Why so popular?
Like already mentioned platforms, POF is using its previous achievements to keep the audience interested. In fact, success stories connected with it, are over since approximately 2016. But since there isn’t too much negative experience, it keeps on going.
The case of POF proves once again that a good advertisement is everything. The name of the owner also means a lot. There are hundreds of platforms in dating market, but only a few become real giants.
Surprisingly, POF has quite a simple design, it can even be called minimalistic. While some apps and sites put many efforts to catch a customer’s eye with very trendy design, POF is showing it just doesn’t care. And we really see it isn’t the main thing for getting popular.
But intensive advertising isn’t enough. To stay so many years on the peak and keep millions of members in its base, the platform definitely needs strong technical resources. It means lots of regular investments, too.
However, POF is obviously saving funds on customer support. Let’s be honest, it’s nearly absent there. The users may receive a response to their request from time to time, but the database is never cleaned from fake profiles, bots, scammers, or obvious abusers. The members should weed out and avoid such profiles by themselves.
An important reason why all disadvantages are forgiven to POF, is free usage. That is also why the platform is so popular among the students and less prosperous people around 40. It’s easy to find a partner there who wouldn’t have high requirements regarding your income.
Secondary convenient features
Plenty of Fish wouldn’t be that appreciated by youth if not its handy features. Particularly, such an important element of online dating as photos, is managed very easily. They can even be re-uploaded from FB or Instagram. Perfect for lazy people or for someone who doesn’t have access to his gadget with favourite pictures.
Although POF looks absolutely plain and it is often used for hook-ups, it offers a detailed questionnaire and encourages the users to have exactly detailed and informative profiles. It is quite idealistic but it responds to people’s inner needs.
Experts notice that we like to tell about ourselves even if the relationship isn’t meant to last long. That’s why people are usually so frank with complete strangers. The same phenomenon is observed on platforms like POF, which aren’t very meaningful but give an illusion of sharing things.
The matching algorithm on POF is automatic. It isn’t good or bad, some people prefer find matches by themselves especially if they have got a lot of free time, and others prefer the system to do the job for them. In any case, it matches singles quite well, without ridiculous mistakes or mixed locations.
The Dating Intent feature is intriguing and helpful as it allows to see the user’s status and goals from the beginning. This status in the profile can be changed which is helpful as well: sometimes a person doesn’t tell you what’s on their mind, but it is already said in their modified Dating Intent.
The most recent feedback
POF is regularly updated, but realistically, new features are rarely added. At the same time, technical improvements do not take place anymore. Bots and scammers aren’t removed when reported, and other technical issues aren’t solved anymore either.
Although Plenty of Fish is in the market for so many years, there’s still no such option as video chat or ID verification. Also, like almost any free dating platform, this one is overloaded with ads and commercials. There are much more complaints on that lately than success stories.
“I used to have great results on POF years ago, but not today. Now it’s so annoying and full of fake accounts, I really had to move to other applications. There were too many youngsters before I left, and I could not find anyone for the real thing”, Tom from NYC says.
Many other users confirm this opinion. POF is obviously relying on its previous success and does nothing to evolve. It’s quite budget-saving to follow such a passive strategy without making steps further. As a result, income keeps on coming to the developers although they aren’t putting any extra efforts anymore.
By an experts’ forecast, every business including dating platforms can remain stable on the account of previous achievements only, for 2-5 years depending on the level of popularity. It seems, the team of POF is considering this period sufficient before they make new successful projects.
Perfect for middle-aged adults
Although POF did everything to keep things simple even for teenagers and seniors, including the absence of payments, it just isn’t addressing these target audiences. Their requirements aren’t met here.
The youth prefers more trendy apps and sites with elements of social networks that would be obviously for hook-ups, while seniors prefer very classical, romantic platforms and not such minimalistic ones.
Let’s be clear, if Plenty of Fish was the most appreciated 4-5 years ago, then its followers keep on using it, especially those ones who are still single. It means, they are definitely over 25 y.o. Now, new users that remain satisfied with the quality and other specific of the platform, are usually around 30 and older.
Why: because in this age, people aren’t so often after hookups only; the majority of them aren’t looking for marriage as yet either; this age is suitable both for traditional dating and dining out as well as for pleasant flirting and fun online.
If we take a look at the gallery of POF, we’ll see exactly people of 30-35 y.o. approximately, of different social status, but mostly line managers, women with small own businesses, and the majority of them live in the USA.
Since in America, people get married even later than in Eastern European or Asian countries, and prefer to date without boundaries in between their career, we make a final conclusion that POF as we see it today, is mostly meant for middle-aged singles.
The critics and summary
Although Plenty of Fish owners aren’t even trying to hide the absence of necessary efforts lately, and the atmosphere in the app is quite bothering, it still remains useful for many groups of people.
The majority of dating platforms nowadays are extremely commercialized. Not only they charge users enormously without the possibility of refunding, but also shower them with the same kind of problems: fake accounts, bots, scammers, constant ads and pop-ups.
Taking into account this sad situation in the dating market, alive persons on POF that actively reply to all messages, are very refreshing for the users. After all, every person is getting what he or she wanted with the help of POF: virtual flirting, real dating offer, or just going out together on the weekend. Opportunities are many.
We really think that people who always seek innovations and very unusual features or design, have nothing to do on POF. They should rather follow the news and catch new interesting apps as soon as they are launched.
But singles who aren’t very demanding, and who mostly care about the good reputation of the platform checked with time, should be happy with Plenty of Fish. Its primary conception and its outcome are pretty fair and have the right for existence.
We would just insist that safety measures are as crucial for using POF as on any other free dating platform. Its members should make sure this or that user is real and safe, on their own. It is recommended to avoid people who immediately start to tell sad stories and ask for money. It’s always suspicious and inappropriate.
At the same time, for experienced users it makes no difficulty to surf through the profiles and find someone nice to spend an evening with. That’s why we still rate POF a bit above average.