Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has recorded 88 complaints related to matching services and dating apps so far this year, an increase of 46.7 per cent from the same period last year, including one case in which a woman spent HK$70,000 (US$9,000) but was offered no candidate who met her requirements.
The Consumer Council said on Monday it had received 268 complaints about matching services and apps since 2022, including cases in which recommended candidates did not meet requirements, or there were discrepancies between candidates’ stated qualities and their reality.
Among those cases, 88 were recorded between January and November this year, compared with 60 over the same period last year. The figure stood at 49 in 2022, rose to 67 in 2023, then slightly dropped to 64 in 2024 before soaring to a high this year.
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“Most complaints centred on the physical matching agencies in Hong Kong, while only around 5 per cent involved the dating apps,” the council’s director of complaints and advice, Liza Fung Tsz-yan, said.
But Fung noted that the complaints ranged from high‑end to mid-range service providers, with no clear trend indicating which level of service had received more complaints recently.
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In one case, a female complainant, aged about 40 with an annual salary exceeding HK$3 million, paid HK$70,000 to an agency hoping to be matched with a man of similar age and income.