Dating Preferences of Office Workers
Gap Between Ideal Type and Real-Life Meeting Criteria
Looks and Financial Power Still Key Variables
When male and female office workers imagine an ideal dating partner, they most often pick "good conversation" as the most important factor, yet in the actual criteria that lead to real-life dates, they still tend to prioritize appearance and financial conditions. Analysts say this highlights a clear gap between outwardly stated ideals and realistic choices.
On February 8, Bleet, a dating app based on an office-worker community, analyzed approximately 667,000 preference settings made by users throughout 2025 and found that both men and women chose "someone I can talk well with" as their No. 1 ideal type.
Office workers name conversation as their ideal type, but in actual choices they tend to prioritize appearance and financial status. Pixabay
Among male users, "someone who speaks nicely" was the second most selected trait, followed by "someone with good back-and-forth (tiki-taka)," "positive," and "expressive," which all ranked near the top. Female users likewise chose "affectionate" as their No. 2 trait, followed by "someone with good back-and-forth (tiki-taka)," "someone who speaks nicely," and "expressive."
Putting these ideal-type keywords together, the standout point is that, regardless of gender, "communication" and "conversational ability" have become core values.
A similar pattern appeared in preferred dating styles. Both men and women most frequently chose "traveling together" as their favorite type of date. This is interpreted as a preference for relationships where they can spend a relatively long time together and naturally engage in conversation, rather than having brief encounters.
However, the picture changes when looking at the conditions required to actually secure a date. In contrast to conversation-centered ideals, it turns out that external attributes and economic circumstances function as key criteria.
For male users, the most frequently set external condition was "a curvy body type," which accounted for 10% of all selections, making it the single most common item. This was followed by "top-tier popularity," "similar interests," and "same religion."
For female users, preferences regarding financial capacity and appearance were more pronounced. The share of those who specified "type of company," such as public corporations, large corporations, or IT companies, was highest at 15%. Job category that requires expertise, such as finance or healthcare, ranked second, and "height of 180 cm or taller" came in third. "Top-tier popularity" and "financial affluence" were also cited as major criteria.
In particular, among female users there were cases where, if a man did not meet a certain height threshold, the relationship struggled to progress further even if conversation flowed well. There was also a marked trend toward hyper-personalized conditions, such as savings habits, whether the person supports their parents, pace of physical intimacy, and standards for choosing a job.
Industry observers interpret this as showing that while office workers emphasize values and communication when describing their ideal type, in the actual selection stage they still operate within a "dual decision structure" in which appearance and financial power are not excluded.
Bleet stated, "Users are expressing fatigue with having too many options when using dating apps," adding, "Now they are looking for partners with whom they can share a way of life, such as values and hobbies."
Bleet is a dating social platform based on the office-worker community app Blind. It currently has a cumulative user base of 500,000 people. Bleet aims to rank within the top three in terms of domestic dating app usage rate by next year. As of January this year, users aged 30 to 34 accounted for 42%, the largest share.
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