If you look into dating apps in the US, there's one that keeps showing up alongside Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge.
It's Coffee Meets Bagel, or CMB for short.
From the name alone it almost sounds like a coffee-ordering app, but it's actually been running in the US for quite a while now.
If you search for a Korean or Asian dating app in particular, you'll likely come across a post recommending CMB at some point.
So what makes Coffee Meets Bagel different from other US dating apps?
What kind of app is Coffee Meets Bagel?
Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating service that launched in the US in 2012.
Its biggest distinction is that, rather than letting you swipe through an endless stream of profiles from the start, it focuses on showing you a somewhat curated set of matches.
You can see the concept in the name itself.
It's meant to evoke pairing two things that go well together, like coffee and a bagel.
With Tinder, you're used to continuously swiping through profiles looking for someone you like. CMB, by contrast, is designed to limit how many people it shows you at once, so you look at each profile a bit more closely.
Of course, it now has more varied browsing features than it used to, so it's not quite accurate to call it simply "an app that only introduces you to a few people a day" anymore.
Still, the app's basic direction remains closer to connecting more carefully than to showing you as many people as possible.
Why Korean-Americans bring up CMB
If you look into CMB, you'll notice a lot of talk from Asian-American users specifically.
Coffee Meets Bagel genuinely is one of the dating apps with name recognition among Asian-American users in the US.
Its founders are Korean-American sisters, and as the app grew mainly around major US cities, it also became known among Asian-American users.
So when someone in the US looking to meet a Korean or Asian partner goes looking for a dating app, CMB tends to come up as a candidate.
That said, there's something to be careful about here.
CMB is not a Korean-only dating app.
It's a general dating app used by people of many races and backgrounds, so it's hard to say with certainty that "using CMB means you'll meet a lot of Korean people."
Who you actually see can vary quite a bit depending on where you live, your age range, and the preferences you set.
How is it different from Tinder and Hinge?
The three apps each have a somewhat different feel.
Tinder has the advantage of a large user base and lets you browse profiles quickly. People use it for a wide range of purposes, accordingly.
Hinge is built so profiles include not just photos but answers to prompts and values, giving you a bit more to go on when it comes to understanding someone's personality or way of thinking.
CMB also emphasizes looking at a profile and getting to know someone's background, rather than matching on photos alone.
That doesn't mean using a particular app guarantees you'll only meet people looking for something serious, though.
In the end, an app is just a space where people can meet, and within any single app, people with very different goals can all be present.
Personally, I think the more useful question isn't "which app is the most serious?" but "which structure makes it easiest for me to find the kind of person I'm looking for?"
The reality of using dating apps in the US
In the US, dating apps have become an extremely common way to meet new people.
Once you graduate and start working, the chances to naturally meet someone new are smaller than you might expect.
Add "Korean" as a condition, and your options shrink further.
Even if you like someone at work, dating a coworker can feel risky, and being introduced through a Korean church or friends isn't an option available to everyone.
So apps like Tinder, Hinge, and Coffee Meets Bagel become a new channel for meeting people.
But having more options isn't always a good thing.
Keep swiping through profiles, and you can end up with plenty of matches that never turn into an actual meetup.
On the other hand, some people meet someone great after just a few matches and delete the app.
In the end, everyone's experience with dating apps is fairly different.
Some people click with apps, some click with being introduced
If you enjoy the process of looking through profiles and starting conversations yourself, an app like CMB might suit you well.
On the other hand, some people feel worn out by having to review countless profiles and figure out what the other person is actually looking for, one by one.
Among the members we work with at Neorang, our Korean matchmaking service in the US, quite a few have already tried Tinder, Hinge, CMB, and more.
It's often not that the apps were bad — it's that they wanted to be introduced to someone who fits their lifestyle and values.
In the end, there isn't a single right answer.
Coffee Meets Bagel is just one option among several, and whether it fits you is something you can really only judge by trying it yourself.
What matters more than which app you use may be knowing, first, what kind of relationship you're actually looking for.