Bluetooth-enabled proximity dating service

According to the software developers, the target audience for this service is the "young, urban and connected". "The generation that has the latest mobile phones, all with Bluetooth functionality" confirms Matthieu Palmade of Marseille-based Kangourouge.

The Proxidating software is now available in a dozen languages and is being released in 20 countries, highlighting the lofty ambitions of developer Kangourouge. The proxidating site is multi-language and allows direct download of the software. Kangourouge is also preparing for the launch of a WAP site that will enable mobile phone browsers to navigate the web site more efficiently and download the software direct to the phone.

The Proxidating site currently lists 25 models of mobile phone that are compatible with Proxidating, and Kangourouge expects its software will be compatible with almost all Bluetooth enabled phones within a few months.

Kangourouge is also preparing Proxidating for the next generation of Bluetooth technology, capable of providing 100m coverage, and giving an even greater chance of meeting your dream date. This simple improvement in coverage area will significantly increase the chances of meeting a match (44 times more likely) when it becomes available. Who knows, for office workers in big cities, it may even be possible to set up a Bluetooth-enabled base station in a shopfront outside a subway station or a busy downtown mall and scan the crowd for potential partners.

As the service has only just launched, the biggest problem will be driving the installed base to critical mass. There may well be 1.7 billion mobile phone users in the world, but it's the number of compatible Proxidating users that counts, and right now there aren't many. It's sort of like having the first telephone - very cool, but there's no-one to call.

We figure that unless there's a significant uptake in the singles community in specific locations, the idea might just fizzle out. If you wander around your town for the next six months and don't find a match with anyone who fits the profile you're seeking, you'll probably turn it off, uninstall it, or not bother to install the software next time you upgrade your handset (the "life" of a mobile phone before upgrading to a new model continues to reduce in most countries as new and better handsets with more functionality becomes available).

Looking at the functionality of this system from another perspective, if the software were developed to be better at matching needs (buyers/sellers/, boy/girl and other mating pairings, investors/entrepreneurs/intermediaries) it would be able to offer a significant subset of the capabilities of the nTAG system. By no means would it offer all of the functionality of the ingenious nTAG system, but enough to be much better than paper badges, and at a fraction of the cost of dedicated servers. Whatsmore, with everyone in the close proximity of a networking event, it would ensure that you found the key people you wanted to speak to rather than having to shake a hundred hands and make polite conversation long after you'd decided that your initial contact would never bear fruit.

It's a cute idea though and perhaps gives us a glimpse of the future of new forms of electronic matchmaking that will evolve as technology advances and offers new possibilities. The Internet Dating Industry is now both massive and mainstream

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