{"text":[[{"start":6.932,"text":"Singapore has launched a dating platform, the latest social-engineering experiment by the city-state’s government to tackle its fast-declining fertility rate."}],[{"start":16.057,"text":"The initiative, known as FirstDate, opened under a pilot scheme this month for public sector employees aged 21-35 and uses a Nobel Economics Prize-winning matchmaking algorithm. An additional tool suggests date activities and allows users — who receive only one match at a time — to rate their experience in a survey."}],[{"start":36.075,"text":"The platform is the product of the annual hackathon held by the Singapore government’s technology agency earlier this year."}],[{"start":42.72,"text":"“FirstDate started with a question among a group of GovTech officers: does having more potential matches necessarily make it easier to find a suitable match?” the website said."}],[{"start":53.317,"text":"The app, which joins a crowded field of dating apps as well as more bespoke matchmaking services, is Singapore’s latest effort to reverse its falling birth rate, which has made the city-state one of the world’s fastest-ageing countries."}],[{"start":66.08,"text":"Singapore, with a population of just over 6mn, registered a record-low fertility rate of 0.87 children per woman last year, down from 0.97 in 2024 and nearing South Korea’s world-lowest rate of 0.8. Demographers believe a threshold of 2.1 is needed to maintain a stable population, absent net immigration."}],[{"start":88.784,"text":"Last month, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong unveiled a package of measures to encourage families to have more children, including offering parents more than $55,000 per child up until the age of 17."}],[{"start":100.198,"text":"The falling birth rate — along with advances in healthcare that have extended lifespans — has put Singapore on course to become a “super-aged” society this year, defined by the UN as a country in which more than 21 per cent of the population is aged 65 or older. By 2030, one in four Singaporeans is expected to meet that threshold."}],[{"start":121.12,"text":"FirstDate is not the first time Singapore’s government has attempted to play Cupid with its population. In 1984, it set up the Social Development Unit, a matchmaking agency aimed at encouraging marriage between graduates."}],[{"start":134.61,"text":"The policy came in response to census findings that marriage rates were declining among women graduates, as men selected partners with lower levels of educational qualification, a trend not replicated among women."}],[{"start":145.98,"text":"The finding sparked a controversial speech by Lee Kuan Yew, the founder of modern Singapore, who advocated for men to choose intellectually superior spouses."}],[{"start":152.8,"text":"“If you don’t include your women graduates in your breeding pool and leave them on the shelf, you would end up a more stupid society,” he said."}],[{"start":159.807,"text":"“So what happens? There will be less bright people to support dumb people in the next generation. That’s a problem.”"}],[{"start":166.49,"text":"Asia has emerged as a key area of growth for dating apps as swipe-right fatigue takes hold in markets in North America and Europe, and as stigma around online dating fades in the region, driving more women on to platforms."}],[{"start":179.12,"text":"Data privacy is another concern in Singapore, whose population is digital native but particularly vulnerable to scams. FirstDate also uses the government’s ID authentication tool — which is linked to a wealth of personal information such as address and marital status — to protect users’ privacy and weed out married users pretending to be single."}],[{"start":200.4,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1790760275_2144.mp3"}