Translation result.
As prices keep climbing, seven in 10 people in their 20s and 30s say dating has become a real financial strain.
Notably, women were twice as likely as men to say they’d actually broken up with a partner to cut costs.
On May 15, Enrise, the operator of social dating app Wipi, surveyed 1,485 male and female Wipi users in their 20s and 30s and found that 70% reported the burden of dating expenses has increased. By gender, 47.1% of men and 50.5% of women said costs had “increased a lot.”
The gap between ideal spending and reality was stark. Young adults said a reasonable amount for a single date is 30,000–50,000 KRW (about $22.50–$37.50), but actual spending fell in the 50,000–100,000 KRW range (about $37.50–$75.00) — roughly double what they consider psychologically appropriate.
Women felt the pinch more sharply. Some 29.5% of men and 38.6% of women said they’d given up on a relationship because of dating costs, and 8.6% of men versus 17.9% of women said they’d broken up with an actual partner to ease financial strain.
Lee Jeong-hoon, Wipi’s marketing team lead, said, “Dating costs used to be viewed mainly as a men’s issue, but recently women in their 20s and 30s are reporting significant financial and emotional pressure when it comes to maintaining relationships.”
To cut costs, the most popular tactic was spending more time at home. That was followed by reducing the number of dates and reporting no major changes to dating habits.
Even with the financial stress, the relationship itself remains the biggest reason couples stick together. More than half of respondents — men and women alike — said they continued dating because they liked their partner (59.3%). Other top reasons were “the relationship matters more than the cost” (46.8%) and “we share the burden” (15.9%).
The survey also spotted shifts in how couples split expenses. Paying “depending on the situation” (men 40% · women 31.5%) or “taking turns” (men 32.1% · women 40.8%) has become common, signaling a move away from the old norm of one gender footing most of the bill and toward a more balanced, practical approach to spending.
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