It's big business and growing all the time: in 2007 the global mobile dating market was pegged at £200 million, that figure rose to just under £332 million worldwide in 2008 and is expected to more than double over the next five years, reaching nearly £784 million by 2013. By the same year, subscriptions to mobile location-based social networking are predicted to reach 82 million.
Grindr, which launched in March this year, is presently most popular in San Francisco, with its dense concentration of gay men and iPhone customers, but gained more than 30,000 British users after Stephen Fry mentioned it on an episode of Top Gear. Clarkson was absolutely fascinated by the idea.
Grindr founder Joel Simkhai, 32, says he created the app to make finding gay guys easier: "Even if you're in a gay bar you're not totally sure who's actually gay. It's about finding the gay and bi guys who are around and available." Equally, "if you're straight, it's still hard to know who is actually looking for someone".
Joel says he gets hundreds of emails a month from people asking when he's going to start a straight version (early next year, he promises). It seems we're all eager to connect with the people on our doorstep — not an easy task in a city such as London.
"The goal with Grindr is to meet the people right under our noses at any particular moment. In cities, we all live in these solitary worlds, plugged into our iPods, tapping away at our phones. Why not harness the phone to reacquaint ourselves with our community?"
If you can't wait for non-gay Grindr to launch, don't panic.
GPS-enabled dating apps aimed exclusively at the straight market have just arrived, StreetSpark, Skout and Are You Interested being some of the latest.
"It's all about immediate gratification," says Skout CEO Christian Wiklund.
"If you feel like going on a date that night, you log into the system, which knows your exact location. Photos of users who meet your basic requirements and are in the area pop up on the screen."
But, he continues: "Skout is not meant to replace how we meet people online or in the real world, but to marry the two scenarios into a new experience that will increase your likelihood of finding someone special."
So now imagine that your app hooks you up with "someone special". If you're a New Yorker (and a particularly nosy type) you can tap your date's name and telephone number into the Date Check app while he's at the bar to find out if he's got any nasty little secrets.
The app conducts a background search, looking up criminal records, indicating if he owns property and what the value is and telling you who else lives at his home.
Hopefully, he doesn't live with his mother. Things go well and you spend the night together.
Then it's time to download Passion, a new app that uses the iPhone's microphone, accelerometer and various other features to determine an accurate "score" for your sexual activity.
It's a brave new dating world out there — just make sure you disable the GPS while you're actually on your date, or you could be in trouble.
