This Valentines Day, many romantics found dates through 2RedBeans, an online dating service focused on matching Chinese - Americans.
"I met her 6 months ago through 2RedBeans and I felt a growing chemistry throughout our conversations," says Li, a Chinese-American who works for a high-tech company in Silicon Valley and declines to give his first time. "I was already in love with her before I even set eyes on her."
"I was skeptical at first about using a dating website to find love," he says, adding that he had no prior experience with online dating. "I'm so glad I gave it a try."
Now, they have officially been a couple for three months, and Li said he is confident about his new relationship.
More and more people are finding love online. Even Zhao Qinghua, the founder of 2RedBeans, met her future husband on the website she established to help Chinese-American singles find love.
Zhao, who has a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California-San Diego, started her entrepreneurial endeavor after working at Broadcom as a software engineer.
"Like many entrepreneurs, I started 2RedBeans with my friends to solve our own problems, finding dates that could lead to a life partner," Zhao says.
Zhao said it was difficult to meet other people with similar cultural backgrounds and values.
"Since popular US dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony are not focused on matching Chinese-Americans, it is often hard for us to find people who have the same cultural values," she says.
In contrast, 2RedBeans' matching algorithm focused on characteristics that are more relevant to the Chinese, such as arrival date in the US and zodiac signs.
Zhao and her team also decided to make the site very interactive to encourage people to communicate with each other early on.
"Chinese by nature are very shy, which decreases their opportunities to meet other people," she explains. "We try our best to increase the interaction and in turn to increase their chances of finding someone."
Over the past three years, the website has hosted more than 200 offline dating activities across North America. On Valentine's Day, it held singles parties in cities including Washington DC, New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Vancouver.
A partner with China's popular dating show If You Are The One, the dating website assisted on the 2012 North American special episode. 2RedBeans is now the co-organizer of the 2014 US edition of One Out of a Hundred, another popular Chinese matchmaking show hosted by Shanghai Dragon TV.
"The US edition of the show One Out of a Hundred is intended not just to be a dating show, but also a window for people in China to have a peek into the lives of people in the US, their value systems, their criteria for a mate, and their lifestyle," Zhao explains.
"In only 10 days, we've already had more than 290 applicants to the show, including actresses, engineers, professors, real estate agents, many amazing singles," she adds.
As the largest Chinese dating site in North America, 2RedBeans has more than 200,000 registered users. Zhao expects 2RedBeans will grow and saturate the US and Canadian market in 2014, adding it will then be expanding to other countries where there are many Chinese immigrants.
"We are pushing out our mobile apps so that singles can get access to other singles on the go. We are also working on something that can bring singles offline to meet each other quickly," she says.
As for the total number of 2RedBeans matches that lead to marriage, Zhao said the conservative estimate is at least one couple per day. "For matches that become girlfriend or boyfriend, I'd imagine that's a much larger number," she adds.
Jin, a 38-year-old Chinese American who lives in Fremont, California and declined to give his first name, started a relationship two months ago through 2RedBeans.
After some general chitchat and the first date, Jin said things moved really quickly.
"I have tried Match.com and eHarmony before. However, unlike 2RedBeans, I never had a serious offline date with someone," he says. "I feel US dating sites are more casual dating oriented.
"To me, or many Chinese-Americans, we start our experience with the purpose of marriage. 2RedBeans has narrowed the dating pool based on the same background and that made it much easier for me to find the right person."
By Yu Wei in San Francisco ( China Daily)
今年的情人节，许多浪漫主义者通过“两颗红豆”成功约会。“两颗红豆”是专为美籍华人寻找另一半的交友网站。
“6个月前，我通过‘两颗红豆’认识了她，交流后便对她产生了好感。”李先生说。只愿意透露姓氏的李先生在硅谷的一家高科技公司工作。“没见到她之前，我便爱上她了。”
“开始时我对网上寻爱也有所怀疑。”他说。他还补充道，他对网上约会没有经验。“我很开心自己做了尝试。”
现在他们已经结婚3个月了。李先生说他对这段婚姻很有信心。
越来越多的人在网上寻爱。“两颗红豆”的创办人赵清华也是在她自己创建的网站上遇见她未来丈夫的。这个网站旨在帮助单身美籍华人寻找真爱。
赵清华在加利福尼亚圣地亚哥分校获得电气工程博士学位，毕业后在美国博通公司做一名软件工程师。
“与许多企业家一样，我和朋友创建了‘两颗红豆’帮助解决我们的个人问题，与可能结婚的人约会。”赵清华说。
赵清华说，想要遇见拥有相似文化背景和价值观的人很困难。
“美国流行约会网站如Match.com和eHarmony并不关注美籍华人。对我们来说找到拥有相同文化价值观的人实属不易。”她说。
相对而言，“两颗红豆”的配对法专注于中国人关注的特性，如抵美时间和属相。
赵清华和她的团队还决定采纳网站互动模式，鼓励人们彼此交流。
“中国人天性比较害羞，这就降低了他们与其他人相遇的机会。”她解释道，“我们尽力增加交流，这样会提高他们找到另一半的机率。”
在过去的三年，网站在北美举办了200多场线下约会活动。在情人节当天，网站还在华盛顿、纽约、波士顿、旧金山、洛杉矶和温哥华等城市举办了单身派对。
网站还与中国流行约会节目《非诚勿扰》合作，协助举办2012北美专场。“两颗红豆”现在是2014年美版《百里挑一》的合作商，《百里挑一》是上海东方卫视举办的一个流行相亲节目。
“美版《百里挑一》不仅是一个相亲节目，同时还是中国人了解美国人生活的窗户，看看他们的价值体系，他们对另一半的标准还有他们的生活方式。”赵清华解释道。
“10天内就有290多位报名者，包括演员、工程师、教授和房地产商，众多优秀的单身者。”
作为北美最大的中国约会网站，“两颗红豆”有超过20万的注册用户。赵清华希望“两颗红豆”网站在2014年可以扩展进入美国和加拿大市场，然后慢慢扩展到其它拥有众多华人移民的国家。
“我们正在推出自己的手机应用程序，这样单身者在忙碌中也可以与其他单身者交流。我们也在努力工作，让单身者下线时也可以快速见面。”她说。
赵清华说，通过“两颗红豆”喜结连理的夫妇总数量据保守估计每天至少一对。“成为男女朋友的要多得多。”她补充说。
38岁的美籍华人金住在加利福尼亚菲蒙市，他只愿意透露自己的姓氏。两个月前，他通过“两颗红豆”开始了一段新恋情。
金说，我们就是随便聊天，然后有了第一次约会，事情进展的非常快。
“以前我也试过Match.com和eHarmony网站。但是，和‘两颗红豆’不同，我从没试过一次正式的线下约会。”他说，“我觉得美国的交友网站大都是休闲约会型的。”
“对我，或对众多的美籍华人来说，我们都是以结婚为目的。‘两颗红豆’为我们缩小了约会范围，大家拥有相同的背景，这让我更容易找到自己的另一半。”
