"Amazon Dating": Will the online retailer get into the dating business soon? That is behind it

With the new platform Amazon Dating you can order dates instead of gifts for Valentine's Day. The price is between $ 4 and $ 300. Can this be?

• The "Amazon Dating" platform was launched on Tuesday (February 4).
• Instead of books and electrical appliances, you can order dates here.
• But there is more to the platform than a digital single exchange.

Berlin - Amy (29) for $ 59.99. Grace (30) for only $ 39.95. Jonathan (19) is a real bargain at $ 9.99 - and then rated with 5 stars. So a date with him must be a stroke of luck. But does Amazon really offer dates on the " Amazon Dating " platform? RUHR24 * wonders.

Amazon Dating: Here you can "order" dates

Is Amazon using the platform "Amazon Dating" now with Tinder to conquer the dating business after online trading? At first glance, everything looks like it.

At " Amazon Dating " you can currently easily choose between around 40 different profiles. There are people of all ages and hair colors. The advantage over Tinder : No annoying wiping back and forth, here you get what you order. The price range is between around 4 and 300 dollars - so there is something for every budget and nobody has to stand alone on Valentine's Day .

Amazon dating instead of Tinder: does Amazon conquer the dating business?

Amazon Prime customers can get the date "delivered" within an hour. If you click on one of the profiles, you get a more detailed description. For example, Sam (31) likes affirmation, gifts, and physical touch. He also likes to be the first person to get on a plane and he doesn't believe in cell phones.

In addition, there are customer reviews - in the style of Amazon goods. Doesn't that make people at "Amazon Dating" a commodity in the digital single market ? Where does the dividing line to prostitution run here? Exactly these questions were the intuition of the American artists Ani Acopian, Morgan Gruer, Suzy Shinn and the animation studio Thinko.

Amazon Dating is an artist action

And even if you take a closer look at "Amazon Dating", you will quickly find that the platform is not a real dating site, but a parody. So it says in the FAQs that the page is not real, does not work and you just like to span the curve.

If you search under "Help", you will only find instructions on how to take off a bra, under "Prime Video" go to the video chat service Chatroulette and on "Last Relationship" you can hear the song Toxic by Britney Spears.

Amazon Dating: parody with a serious theme

The page "Amazon Dating" looks deceptively real at first glance and the design is in no way inferior to that of the online retailer, but on closer inspection it turns out to be a perfectly choreographed parody. And even if it is fun to browse the site, it also has a serious aftertaste.

come play with us at https://t.co/ticxR7j7CO pic.twitter.com/6V8eFY7s8S

Because the idea that Amazon wants to enter the digital love business soon with a dating platform does not seem so absurd. The reactions on the Internet are also divided. "Man has long been a commodity," says a comment. Others think the project, which is intended as a joke, is too much like human trafficking. In contrast, others find it a shame that the site is not real or simply amuse themselves about the dating parody.

Video: Amazon plans new supermarket chain

Even if the dating platform from Amazon is satire, the shopping giant is constantly conquering markets away from online trading. After a delivery service for groceries and "Amazon-Go", the US company now wants to open another supermarket, where people who do not yet have an Amazon account can shop.

The first branch is scheduled to open this year - but in the United States. It is still unclear whether the supermarkets from Amazon will also come to Germany . The concept of "Amazon-Go" does not yet exist in this country either. Just like "Amazon Dating". libe

* RUHR24.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network