Tinder in Vietnam: Waste of Time or Goldmine?

(Updated for 2020): See the bottom of article for updates

Intro

If you’ve ever used tinder abroad in the west and you don’t look like Channing Tatum, then chances are you probably know how bad the dating situation is like. Your typically looking at dating 1-3 points down at the minimum.

But how are things like in Vietnam? Are they just as bad as the west or is it a goldmine?

I had my first taste of tinder here in Vietnam, a few years back. At that time, I didn’t see that many girls on it, and the ones that I did see, were nothing special. Think your average plain Jane. I did get a lot of matches though, which was something foreign to me coming from the west, where girls list on their profiles that they demand some guy spends money taking the girl out to a movie because she’s bored sitting on her butt at home reading trashy magazines like Cosmopolitan.

On my second trip back to Vietnam, things were different. There were way more girls on Tinder then ever before. Everyone’s going on it, your friends, your neighbors, even your cousins can be found on tinder. With this new found popularity, the dynamics of online dating using tinder has changed.

In today’s post, we’re going to explore the inside outs of Tinder and see whether or not if Tinder in Vietnam is worth it.

What is Tinder?

For those of you not familiar with the dating app Tinder, it is a popular dating/hooking up app that was launched in 2012. It quickly became popular in North America due to its ease of use. To show interest in someone, you simply swipe to the right until their picture is no longer on the screen. To show disinterest in someone, you swipe to the left. If the other person likes you as well, you will get a pop up message in the app informing you of the match.

You can only message girls after they have matched with you. There are additional features such as super likes, boosts, etc that you can pay for with upgraded memberships to increase your odds of getting a match or being seen.

The Talent

Based on my opinion, I would say that the average chick on Tinder is about average quality by local Vietnamese standards, so something like a 5. If your a foreigner and still viewing all Asian girls through rose colored glasses then your probably gonna bump up the value by 1-2 points. Nearly 95% of the girls will be slim on Tinder. You will see an obese girl rarely, and a few chubby girls once in a while.

I did see a lot of very beautiful and attractive girls on Tinder though, although most of them I suspect aren’t really using it for dating but instead to promote their instagram accounts and modeling careers. The other hot Vietnamese girls that you will see on Tinder are almost 99% pros or semi-pros. Lastly, you got your western tourist or “English Teacher” roaming about on Tinder.

Here are some pics of what you might expect to find on Tinder.

Types of Girls On Tinder

Here is a breakdown of the types of girls that you will most likely encounter on Tinder and their key characteristics and attributes.

The Wannabe Model

You will find loads of these women on Tinder, however they will never respond to you. I suspect they are either fake accounts or there are bots spamming Tinder with their profiles and pictures to help promote the girl. You will usually see on their description to visit their Instagram account because they rarely go on Tinder.

The Working Girl

There are a tonne of pros on Tinder unfortunately. Usually if you see a number plastered on their photos, its a 100% sign she’s a pro. Excessive cleavage and really seductive poses are also surefire signs that the girl is a pro. Lastly, if she messages you first, its usually a sign that she’s a pro too. Hot chicks just don’t go messaging guys first on Tinder no matter what you think.

The Semi-Pro

In addition to having to fend off pros, you’ll most likely encounter semi-pros/ girls looking for rich guys. Some of these girls don’t reveal their true intentions until you get them back to your place or they won’t start asking you to buy them stuff after the deed is done. Notice the US dollar phone case on her phone? A classic sign of a semi-pro.

The Plain Jane

The majority of girls will fall under this category. She’s just average or slightly cute. Expect to match a lot with girls in the 5-6 range on Tinder. If your looking for a lot of casual flings, this will be your bread and butter. You will see that a lot of them list no ONS, no FWB, and serious relationships only though.

The English Practicing Platonic Friend

I detest these girls because not only are they naive but they also feel entitled and offended that you would want to sleep with them, even though they are on a dating app looking to use some foreigner for free English lessons. Complete waste of your time. Get rid of them as soon as possible!

The Girl Just Looking For Attention

Some of these girls have bad attitudes and are quite elusive when talking with you. They have had their egos stroked to god like levels due to the amount of thirsty foreign men hitting them up. Better try to get her out as soon as possible. Out of all the girls, these girls are the biggest time wasters, who are often just using the app to boost their egos and have no intention of actually meeting any guys on the app.

The Naive Virgin Looking For Friends

About 1/4 of the girls you see on Tinder will fall in this category. They usually list looking for friends only, no ONS, no FWB. Most of them are virgins or have very low partner counts. If your planning to hook up, be prepared to spend months or even years dating them before getting any action. Most of them are saving their virginity for marriage. If your looking for a girlfriend then perhaps this will be your cup of tea.

I usually don’t bother with these chicks neither since they aren’t hot enough to justify the extra effort.

The Naughty Girl

She’s been around the block and has slept with pretty much most of the expats living in the city. Lots of guys have become Eskimo brothers due to sleeping with these girls. She likes to get down to business right away and will get turned off if you don’t make it happen quickly. It’s best to invite her to a bar near your place and then extract her back to your place or ask her directly to come over.

The Ladyboy

About 5% of the people you see will fall under this category. Most of them aren’t even Vietnamese but from neighboring countries like Thailand and the Philippines. The good honest ones put down on their description that they are ladyboys, while some of the other more devious ones don’t let you know about their big secret until its too late and their back at your place.

One of my friends didn’t find out his Tinder date was a ladyboy until she was down at his lobby waiting for him!

To find out more about how to tell if someone is a ladyboy click this article here.

The Backpacker English Teacher

You didn’t think I would leave her out of this, did you? About half of them will be here on vacation whereas the other half will work as “English Teachers”. Most of them have bad skin from being out in the sun too much and seem to like wearing long elephant pants because they think its fashionable. In addition, compared to the local Vietnamese women, often times they are poorly dressed. About 10% of the girls you find on Tinder will fit this category. I rarely get any matches from these girls and they seem to only want to date white guys, often to their own detriment. The longer they stay here in Vietnam, the more agitated they become because they can’t get dates and compete with the local women.

In turn they try to shame western men for dating Vietnamese girls.

Dating Or Hooking Up App?

In nearly every single English speaking country, Tinder is known as an app for hooking up and just having casual sex with strangers but things are a bit different here.

A lot of the girls list serious relationship only and no ONS and FWB, even though they know Tinder is a hookup app. I actually had one girl that I matched with tell me that she is only looking for a long term serious relationship and then proceeds to ask me what I was looking for. After I give her an ambiguous answer (I’m looking for a girl), she then goes on to tell me that Tinder is used as a hookup app.

Hmm… so she knows the app is used for hooking up yet she chooses to ignore that fact and then gets offended when guys try to hookup with her. Women logic eh?

Don’t despair because despite there being a large user base of girls only looking for relationships, there is still plenty of naughty girls to be found on the app.

Male Competition

I think it’s always a good idea to examine your competition to arrive at some estimated sexual market value (SMV) for yourself when doing any kind of dating. It can give you clues on what you need to do and also what you shouldn’t do. If your male competition all look like models and high value guys, then your gonna have to step up your A game, but if they all look like fat nerds that stay at home and collect action figures and play video games, then you know that your gonna stand out from the rest.

Let’s have a brief look at your competition here in Vietnam.

Local Guys

This was a mixed bag. There were a lot of beta males, gay guys, and a few good looking guys. The majority of the guys on tinder come from this category as expected. Surprisingly though, a lot of them mention that they are looking for friends only.

Foreign Guys

Viet Kieu (Overseas Vietnamese)

Out of all the categories, I would have to say that Viet Kieu’s had the best profile pics and were the best looking out of the bunch. Since they speak Vietnamese as well and are westernized, I would argue that they will do very well on tinder and are probably on top. There are of course some beta males thrown into the mix that brings the average down.

Other Asians

This category also had some good looking guys mixed in with some beta males for good measure. There were a lot of guys from Singapore, and Taiwan. I would argue the guys in this category would come in second place in terms of dating options. A saw a few old creepy Korean dudes on there lying about their age as well, which brings down the average.

Westerners

Surprisingly I did not see that many westerners on tinder, which was a good thing because the profiles were just god awful. The guys were horribly dressed with dirty shirts and cargo shorts. A lot of them were unshaven and looked like they needed a good shower.

There were a lot of nerds and hippies, and the occasional gay guy. I think if your a well put together white guy, you should easily clean up the competition in this category. Hell just looking like a normal dude should get you pretty far.

My Experience With It

On average, I tend to get about 2-3 matches a day on the free account. I did not pay for the upgraded account. On my last trip I did however pay for it. Although, I don’t think it made that much of a difference to be honest. I would say that my photos are decent and I have a variety of different shots, yet there is always room for improvement. Out of my matches, at least half of the girls either unmatched me immediately or don’t even respond to my initial text. Out of the ones that respond, I get numbers about half of the time if they appear at least somewhat enthusiast during the conversation.

There is also a large percentage of girls on there just looking for attention and have no intentions of meeting up with guys. I had actually matched with one girl twice and even gotten her number and tried to arrange a meetup but she never picked up my call. Later on, I had a friend also match with her and when he suggested they meet, she was being evasive, giving him lame answers like “oh I don’t know.” or “maybe next week but I’m not sure yet.”

There was another Vietnamese girl that told me she just wanted to talk online because she was bored and that it was fun. I quickly told her to get lost and unmatched her.

Successes

I’ve gotten a handful of dates from there and managed to pull a few times, and even hooked up with a 26 year old virgin, which was shockingly surprising. I initially thought most chicks on there were either looking for short flings or working as pros but things turned out differently.

Although I did get a handful of dates and even bedded some, the quality and difficulty level did not seem worth it to me. Most of my matches were in the 5 to 6 range, with an occasional normal 7 thrown in the mix.

In addition, I got a lot of matches with girls that were in the 7s and 8s range but I suspected a lot of them were pros so I didn’t even bother to pursue them. Did I possibly lose out on a few 7s and 8s by not trying to pursue them?

Perhaps, but I also think I dodged some sketchy looking women on there that could have caused me a lot of drama. If it looked too good to be true, like a smoking hot Vietnamese girl that looked like a model wearing excessive provocative clothes or that she had tattoos in known pro locations then I opted out of contacting them.

The 5s didn’t require much game at all and were really easy to get out. The 6s required a little more work but was still doable. Once you reach the 7s, you start to see an exponential increase in difficulty levels. I managed to get dates with a few 7s but the amount of BS I had to put up with was just not worth it.

Overall, I would give the app these ratings:

• Quality: 3/5
• Difficulty 4/5
• Matches: 3/5

Some of my other friends also had similar results as me. Lots of 5s, some 6s, and the occasional 7, and a tonne of pros/semi-pros.

Based on my experience with online dating, I would recommend VietnamCupid instead if your looking for higher quality and less competition as Tinder has become flooded with hordes of desperate thirsty foreign men that overly compliment nearly every women and ask them straight out to netflix and chill or to come over straight away. This has lead to a lot of profiles saying NO FWB, NO ONS and raising girls guards.

Paid vs Free

Let’s look at the differences between the free and paid versions of Tinder.

Tinder Plus

• $10.84/month for 12 months, $16.17/month for 6 months, and $25.99 for 1 month
• Set location anywhere in the world
• Choose who sees you
• Unlimited rewinds
• 1 free boost a month
• Turn off ads
• Limit what people see on your profile
• Unlimited likes
• 5 super likes per day

Tinder Gold

• $16.25/month for 12 months, $24.17/month for 6 months, and $38.99 for 1 month
• See who liked you
• Choose who sees you
• Unlimited rewinds
• Set location anywhere in the world
• Unlimited likes
• 1 free boost every month
• 5 super likes every day
• Turn off adds

Free

• Limited likes per every 12 hours
• No rewind
• 1 free super like a day
• No free boast
• Can’t change location
• Cannot hide sections or profile
• Cannot see who liked you unless matched

Should You Upgrade?

At $10.84 (tinder plus) and $16.25 (tinder gold) for the cheapest option and a 12 month commitment, tinder is actually quite pricey.

I personally don’t think its worth the money unless your only here in Vietnam for a short period of a month or less. In that time frame, you’d want to have as many matches as possible. Things like having unlimited likes or seeing who has liked you will save you loads of time, instead of having to wait 12 hours to continue swiping again.

If your here for longer term then just stick with the free version. Its more than adequate.

Update for 2020

Tinder is still a decent option for getting dates here in Vietnam in 2020 if your not particularly picking about how your date looks like and you don’t mind having to hustle a bit and deal with a lot of time wasters, and you will, I can guarantee you that. Since the country is open up for shop again and social distancing rules have been relaxed, expect a lot more girls to be more willing to meetup for dates once again!

Conclusion

If your looking for easy lays with average to below average quality girls then give tinder a try. It will feel like shooting fish in a barrel. However, if your after quality like me, then perhaps Tinder may not be worth it except when you’ve got a little free time on your hands to play with it.

Want to know an even better dating website then tinder, where the women actually chase the men and flood their inboxes with messages?

And get this, they are even better looking then the girls on tinder!
Check out my review of vietnamcupid here to find out what you’ve been missing out on all these years.

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