Worldfriends is not exactly a dating site; it’s a social network with a focus on connecting internationally minded people around the world. You can use it as a way to look for romance, find a language-exchange partner or just make international friends.
If you use Geoexpat and go to the “personals” section, you are directed to the Worldfriends home page. Worldfriends runs the online dating portion of a few partner companies like Geoexpat and Japan-zone.com. So one of the things you need to know about any site that you use is that the people running the site may not be the same people who run the dating platform. Just something to think about, since many people have built up a level of trust with particular web sites. Worldfriends is definitely trying to leverage that kind of goodwill.
Initially, Worldfriends looks a lot like your standard dating site, but with a heavily international bent. They have the standard member slide shows, a “My Hotlist” link and lots of reasonably pretty people on their home page. They also have a pricing model that is pretty much the industry standard, which is something I dislike about most online dating sites, but it is at least not as annoying as that of match.com, for example.
You can sign up for free, but then Worldfriends charges for a variety of “upgrades” that determine how much access members have to one another and to tools like video chat. The problem I have with this is that I find most “extras” on this and other sites to be totally unnecessary and, especially in the case of Worldfriends, rather confusing.
To wit: There are a number of membership options and bundled packages, including Open Club, VIP, VIP + Open Club and Regular for you cheapskates. Figuring out what you do and do not get with each package is not rocket science, but it’s not exactly a walk in the park. I am a big believer in ease of use, and the Worldfriends subscription model does not get good marks.
That said, there are some good things. First of all, unlike the ridiculous limitations at Match and the Friendfinder sites, you can at least see the email message and full profile of anyone that contacts you. Second, the majority of profiles seem to be from honest-to-God real people, though sadly most profiles are not particularly insightful as most people appear to have just slapped up a picture and written a couple sentences like, “I really enjoy traveling and having a great meal with friends.”
Overall, I have to say that Worldfriends is somewhere in the upper echelon of online dating sites and you could do a lot worse. How’s that for a ringing endorsement?
Pros: Large international network with 2,000,000 members (take with large grain of salt), decent price, is not E-Harmony
Cons: A few too many bells and whistles, confusing subscription options
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