SDN is Something Different Now

As the national matchmaker turns 40, it is pivoting to supporting singles in other ways

- Goh Yan Han

Like two ships passing in the night, Mr Seah Wei Chuan and Ms Ding Ying Yian would never have hit it off but for the Social Development Network (SDN).

Both introverts and aged 32 then, with zero common interests, they met at an SDN-organised tea appreciation event in 2011.

Mr Seah was immediately attracted to Ms Ding, and e-mailed her afterwards to meet up. Ms Ding thought "he seemed like an ordinary guy, nothing very special" but she decided to give him a chance.

In April that year, within two months of their first meeting, Mr Seah proposed. In October, they were married.

Theirs is one of thousands of successful matches by the SDN, the modern-day incarnation of the Social Development Unit (SDU) set up by the Government in January 1984 with an initial mission of coaxing graduates to marry and have children.

But as it approached four decades of helping Singaporeans find love sometimes amid controversy, even derision - the agency known to many as the national matchmaker will no longer be focused on social interaction initiatives.

In November 2023, it quietly shuttered its website, after having sent an e-mail to members a month earlier, thanking them for their support.

SDN's Web address now points to a one-sentence write-up on the Ministry of Social and Family Development's (MSF) website that it "works with partners in the private, people and public sectors to promote a conducive landscape for singles to meet and form meaningful relationships".

Responding to queries, MSF said SDN saw declining membership over the years, though it did not provide figures.