With Specs Including Appearance and MBTI... As Standards Rise, Decision-Maker Sales Also Soar

Number of Marriage Counseling Centers Up 22.6% Compared to Five Years Ago
"Outsourcing Marriage Enables Efficient Decision-Making"
Ability, Appearance, and Even MBTI Now Considered

As the perception that 'marriage is not a necessity' grows among young people, marriage information companies have reportedly seen an increase in sales.

On the 7th, Yonhap News cited the Statistics Korea National Statistical Portal (KOSIS) and reported, "As of November last year, there were 1,974 marriage counseling centers, showing a 22.6% increase compared to 1,610 centers in November 2019, five years earlier." According to this, some companies also saw a rise in sales; for example, the marriage information company Duo recorded sales of 40.4 billion KRW in 2023, a 40.7% increase from 28.7 billion KRW in 2019.

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Professor Kim Nando of the Consumer Studies Department at Seoul National University explained to Yonhap News, "Outsourcing the various efforts involved in finding a marriage partner to companies reduces risk and allows for the most efficient decision-making to find the best match at one's own level."

This so-called 'outsourcing of marriage' is also said to have changed women's perspectives on the ideal future husband. A manager at a marriage information company explained, "In the past, appearance was not given much weight and specs (qualifications) were prioritized, but nowadays women pay a lot of attention to the groom's appearance. This is because women themselves have become more perfect." The manager added, "In the past, women often showed an inverse relationship between specs and appearance, but nowadays, there are many who show a direct correlation to an extent that even surprises us," and "There are practically more female members who are good in both specs and appearance and are versatile."

In addition to ability and appearance, personality tests (MBTI) have also become an important condition for meetings. According to a survey conducted by the marriage information company Gayeon in 2022, the percentage of people considering MBTI when meeting a potential partner tripled from the previous year to 24.7%.

Meanwhile, while outsourcing marriage has somewhat reduced the risks associated with marriage, it has not reduced the risks related to childbirth and parenting, leading to continued declines in birth rates. According to the '2024 Marriage Perception Survey' conducted by Gayeon targeting unmarried men and women aged 25 to 39, 50% of men and 58.8% of women responded that a 'marriage penalty' exists. In contrast, the percentage who answered that a 'childbirth penalty' exists was 77.2% for men and 92.8% for women, indicating that both men and women perceive greater disadvantages in parenting than in marriage.