Asian dating is one of the more prominent niches of the dating and hookup areas on the Internet. While it’s not unsurprising at all, one should also ask a question what ‘Asian dating’ means in this context.

This sort of dating has been rather well organized for something so obscure – there are countless apps designed specifically with dating Asians in mind. And in addition to that, many Asian nations have distinct apps meant specifically for use at home. It’s a massive market, in other words.

But still, what even is ‘Asian dating’ and how do you get efficient at it as a regular user? Here are some answers.

What is even ‘Asian dating’?

‘Asian dating’ and other word combinations that basically mean the same thing are umbrella phrases that attempt to describe exceptionally wide concepts. However, they mostly don’t even mean what they are supposed to mean.

When someone says this phrase, it may sound like a reasonable concept. However, there are 48 countries in Asia, and even more if you count some unrecognized nations. It’s such a diverse cultural area that this combination of words doesn’t really mean all that much.

It’s not at all the same as ‘European dating’, where you expect to meet roughly the same sort of people with similar characteristics and mindsets. Asia is massive. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using this word as a label for a series of informative articles, seeing how it’s feasible to describe many sorts of Asian people.

However, if your app is described as made for ‘dating Asians’, it doesn’t give much context. Factually, it can mean one of the few things:

1. A service aimed at literally all countries of Asia
2. A service aimed at just East Asia
3. A service aimed in particular at dating East Asian people (those who mostly look Japanese)
4. A service aimed at dating Asian people overall

In the first instance, it really doesn’t work all that much, because, again, it’s a bizarrely vast cultural space. In addition, the prospect of dating also invites many non-Asian users who create accounts there and eventually make the service just the usual dating app, like all others.

The second service is a much more subtle. They are usually location-based websites that provide coverage to countries East of India – so, East and Southeast Asia. It’s a tall order, but a much more feasible task than trying to provide service to all countries of Asia. In fact, there aren’t too many of these first types anymore, at least de facto.

And lastly, the third and the fourth types are the most common ones. Giving service to people from Asia in particular and some Asians is much more understandable. Most people still imagine Japanese-looking individuals when they think about Asians, anyway, so they are pretty much the same.

There are many types of services, but for the purposes of this overview let’s focus on the last two sorts, because, by contrast, they actually make sense.

How do these apps work?

There are many apps that give you the service described above. However, it’s much more common for the usual dating apps to just incorporate an ability to sort by Asian appearance. The same logic applies to this as to the last two types explained above, actually.

Different apps understand ‘Asian’ differently, which means that they’ll either give you lots of matches with varying ethnicities and appearances (Hindu, Arab, Korean, Japanese, etc). Most will understand it as a request to show the East Asian users.

Many worthwhile dating apps and services actually have distinct criteria for various groups of Asians that don’t really inspire precision but still get the point across. The usual ‘ethnicity’ options menu would include:

1. Asian
2. Indian
3. Middle-Eastern

This basically divides users into East Asian individuals (this appearance is scientifically called ‘mongoloid’) and others.

Most of the time you wouldn’t even need to install specific apps for Asian dating. You would just need to pick one of the popular apps and select the specific appearance (usually labeled ‘Asian’) to then sort by it and find the required matches in accordance to your preferences.

But even then, what types of apps do you need?

App types

Now that we settled on what the word ‘Asian’ even means in this context, we can now delve into the world of apps that allow you to date these people. There are many, but we can pick a few broad types that rip the most efficient results. Here are the three types that may interest you:

1. Usual big apps with settings for appearance
2. Apps designed specifically for people to find Asian matches
3. Matches meant solely for Asian (not that it should stop you

Usual apps

In terms of the big popular apps, there are several that can help you out most effectively. The group in general includes Tinder, Badoo, Bumble and several others, and they are pretty good for their own specific reasons.

Tinder is amazing simply because it provides the biggest pool of people. It gives you more potential matches to work with, but there is a noticeable caveat – the app doesn’t allow sorting by ethnicity, race or nationality. That means that you can’t express your preference for certain appearances in the open.

However, there is a loophole. 

Tinder doesn’t allow you to sort by race – they had to remove this feature after protests. However, you are more than welcome to select languages you prefer. If they didn’t remove it, it’s possible to select several of these. So, in addition to English, you can pick Korean, for instance. This will show you matches near you who are most likely Korean.

Bumble has the same problem and the same solution. However, you might prefer this app over Tinder for its hash-tag system. It has little to do with Asians, but you pick the interests you want your potential match to share. It is crucial if you care about anything other than appearance.

Badoo is the better choice, because they allow you to sort by ethnicity, and there is an option for ‘Asians’. The only problem is that the pool of people available on Badoo is a bit smaller. There are still millions of people active at a time, but there are fewer of them here than on Tinder. There is still enough, just not as much.

Since it’s a well-established niche in the Internet, there are countless other apps. Many big ones don’t differ all too much from one another, thus capitalizing on the mutual success. Generally, however, the apps that allow you to pick your location are pretty convenient if you don’t know whether there are Asian matches in your immediate area.

Apps for Asian matching

There aren’t too many of these apps and services – mostly because you’d actually need Asians to register in your apps en masse. The logic basically amounts to providing Asian singles a place where they could wait for other people to match up with them. But that doesn’t often work.

Most people of Asian descent or appearance simply use the usual apps, and there are good reasons to do so:

1. Tinder and other apps provide the same results, but better and bigger in quantity
2. It can actually be felt as humiliating to leave your profile on one of these apps – it’s fine that many people prefer Asians for their looks, but that’s another matter completely if that’s all they need you for

So, these apps are usually much smaller than even the less popular standard apps. The good thing about them is an ability to change your location down to a city, so that you could establish a long-distance relationship or just see what sort of people there are in the particular town, for your own reasons.

However, it should be noted that using these apps can also be dangerous. 

Men from all over tend to sexualize some Asians extensively – in particular, the Japanese women. It often becomes some sort of fantasy for them to be in a relationship with a Japanese female. That’s exactly what scammers are counting on.

It’s a common practice to create several fake accounts in such apps and services and then just ask for money from the hapless users who don’t even realize they are talking to a man who doesn’t have any traces in Japan.

So, you also need to be careful on such apps and websites. They often can’t provide sufficient protection and at times even participate in this scamming on their own accord. Be vigilant, in short.

Asian apps

There are some apps that were initially and ever only meant for use by Asians in their respective countries. These are local services that were developed by the local companies. Generally, they are small in size and not available for most people. However, there are rather popular exceptions.

It’s not an advised route, unless you are software-savvy or fluent in the respective languages of East Asia (Chinese/Japanese/Korean). Since we’ve already covered a lot about just these three nations, that’s what we are going to continue doing.

1. Momo

Momo is one of the interesting, but also probably not very convenient choices. It’s a Chinese social network that is also often used as a dating website. It’s technically available in other countries, but it won’t be any use outside the creator country. Not too many people use it even among the émigrés.

If you find yourself in China, however, it’ll be very useful. It’s available in iTunes, and there’s even an English version of this app. Notably, it works very much like Tinder, which means it’s a location-based service that shows people around you.

2. YYC

YYC is a rather similar story to Momo – it’s a Japanese app that mostly just works in Japan. It is completely available and operational outside the country, but it’s also pretty worthless if you aren’t travelling through Japan. In this nation, however, it is very much useful.

Again, it works like Tinder, there is an English localization, and if you ever wondered how dating looks like for the Japanese, you can try this one.

Top apps for the job

From all the services we mentioned, you’ll have to pick a few to start your search. Depending on what you want, it can be anything, but we’ve gathered a few of the best examples just for you.

#1 – Badoo

It could be counter-intuitive to what you might initially expect to see, because it’s a general-use app with tons of users active at the same time. It’ll be so difficult to find an Asian person, seeing how so many non-Asians are also there, won’t it? Well, seeing you can sort by ethnicity, and there is an ‘Asian’ option, it simplifies the problem.

The good thing about the East Asians is that there are tons of them all over the world. It’s not like Middle-Easterners or Latin Americans who generally don’t travel too far to settle. Asians have a long history of migrating to the most distant places just for the fun of it. In short, try it out.

#2 – AsianDating

That’s the entire name – very expressive of what the purpose of this app is. It is one of the bigger Asia-specific apps. And when one says ‘Asia-specific’, they mean just the East Asian people, as we mention. That’s exactly the case as with other apps of this sort, this one is just more popular.

In addition, it’s also more trustworthy. You can still be deceived, but the odds are much less likely than what you’d get on a random website called ‘japanesesingles.com’ or something. In addition, you get to change your location, which is neat.

#3 – Zoosk

Zoosk actually amalgamates some of the both previous types. It is good for trying to date niche groups of people, even Asians. There are lots of languages, many options for customizing stuff such as even race and ethnicity. And in addition to that, you can change your location.

It is pretty popular, but maybe not as massively beloved as Tinder or even Badoo. There are fewer users, although this little drawback is negated by the fact that you can move between locations as you please. If you don’t find anyone at your city, just see some nearby.