Coffee Meets Bagel: Dating app users rue missed connections amid outage

Coffee Meets Bagel is a popular dating app used worldwide

Users of the dating app Coffee Meets Bagel have expressed frustration over an ongoing, multi-day system outage.

The CMB app - which sells itself as the one "for serious daters" - first went down on 27 August, blocking users from their budding romances.

It has now been down for three days with the firm's engineers saying they are working on a "system outage".

The app claims to have more than 10 million sign-ups worldwide, including many across Asia.

"I had a date set up for tonight before it went down. And now I'm drinking alone," one user in Singapore complained.

In a company update on Tuesday night local time, the firm said: "We're making solid progress, and we're on track to get things back up and running.

"We'll send you both an email and a push notification once things are fixed."

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But frustrated users are venting their concern online. It's led to speculation of a ransomware attack, data compromises as well as jokes about employee sabotage.

"Maybe someone got ghosted and in revenge brought down CMB," read one comment on Reddit.

On its Instagram posts celebrating successful "CMB couples", users wrote: "Lucky they found each other before the ransomware attack."

Many are also genuinely upset about missed connections, expiring messages and concerns their matches - known on the app as "bagels"- would think they were being stand-offish.

"This is affecting many people's ability to connect with people they've begun to develop relationships with," one top-liked comment read.

"RIP to the poor souls who scheduled dates yesterday and couldn't coordinate, who had meaningful conversations going and lost them."

Another Reddit user said he and his date had only communicated through the app and had been in the middle of a second date plan when it went down.

He says he then resorted to searching for his match on Google, and "finally" found her LinkedIn profile and messaged her there. "I felt like a creep," he wrote.

Meanwhile, others have been luckier. On the Chinese internet, one romantic posted the time and restaurant setting of the date she'd hoped for with her CMB connection - and her date saw the post on XiaoHongShu - China's version of Instagram. In a follow-up post, the pair confirmed they had met.

However, much of the criticism has also centred around the company's lack of information about the system failure.

"The status update isn't really sufficient. Can you please let us know if this outage is expected to last hours, or days more?" one user wrote.

"I really hope it's not a hack," another said. "I provided a copy of my passport when they asked for verification. Stupid, stupid, stupid."

Others said they would be deleting the app - "Back to Hinge and Bumble," one user wrote.

Coffee Meets Bagel was founded in San Francisco in 2011 by three sisters, Arum Kang, Dawoon Kang and Soo Kang.

The app tries to distinguish itself from other dating platforms through "curated" matches and in-depth profiles. It claims 90% of its users use the app with the intention of finding a long-term relationship.