Entry Deterrence: Might It Be High for the Not-Meant-To-Be’s Part 2 of 3

In my last post I talked about examples of when it might be just as well that the couples didn’t end up together. Those freak accidents served as very good tests to determine the couples’ chances of survival in a long-term relationship. In another word, everything worked out exactly as it was meant to. Or not meant to.

In economics, these obstacles are called Entry Deterrence. Basically, it’s a cost barrier to entering a market. For certain large corporations, it could be a license fee set up by the government, or buying an expensive piece of equipment, or the financial ability to stomach a predatory price war. For small businesses, it could be the little guy’s ability to pay a good lawyer, or the initial investment of the time and effort to set things up.

This entry deterrence is generally a one-time deal, with smooth sailing thereafter. But the deterrence is high enough to scare many dreamers away. That’s why the world is full of people who are all about the “coulda, woulda, shoulda.” They can dream, they can see the smooth sailing part of those who succeeded and say “I’ve coulda done that”, but it’s the entry deterrence that they’re either unable or unwilling to pay that stopped them.

I’m proposing here that entry deterrence, as long as it’s not overly harsh, is actually good in a dating market. Here’s why.

Example 1: On some dating sites, it takes five seconds to set up a profile. On other sites, you have to fill out a long questionnaire that asks you tons of details about yourself. It could take a person hours to answer everything, from your relationship with family members, to long term career aspirations.

Now, which site would a player go on, if all he wants to say is: “Lookin 2 play 2nite, r u interested?” And which site should someone who’s looking for a long term relationship go on? In this case, the long questionnaire serves as entry deterrence and helps to eliminate the non-serious applicants. In this age of twitter pickups in less than 140 characters, who would spend hours setting up a profile for quickies?

(continued in my next post...)