If you are looking for a site that offers focused efforts to help you meet the partner of your dreams, forget Facebook and Friendster.

Eteract.com is the first portal in Singapore to offer speed dating online.

Yesterday, it was launched as a new local dating platform for singles looking for a safe and convenient way to meet potential partners online.

You get to invite your virtual friends to a session of online speed dating, play a round of pool or just chill out and chat – without having to doll up and head out. And at the end of each session, feel free to exchange details with the other party if you feel inclined to do so.

The dating platform is the brainchild of the creators of Lunch Actually, a private matchmaking agency set up by Violet Lim and her husband, Jamie Lee. The founders are marketing the site as a safe and secure environment in which to meet like-minded individuals who want to look for a special someone, but cannot find time away from a hectic work schedule to do so. Members are screened against the records of the Registries of Marriages and Muslim Marriages to ascertain that potential members are not married, with the accreditation process estimated to be completed in 2008.

Ms Lim said: "We created Eteract.com especially for the busy Singaporean Individual in mind. With Eteract.com, they now have more flexibility and will be able to attend activities like online speed dating anywhere they are, as long as they have Internet connection."

It is one of four agencies that were given a total of $141,000 in grants by the government in March 2007to privatise the matchmaking industry. This is out of the $1 million that is set aside over three years to privatise matchmaking services in Singapore. Each of the portals offers various virtual get-to-know-you options in different set-ups that can result in real-time meeting-up sessions.

The other three dating sites are Who Works Around You, which allows individuals who work late or are on shift duties to find others like themselves in the same work vicinity GoMovieDate.com, which provides dating concierge services to make a movie date enjoyable and Singles Mingle, which promotes socials interaction amongst singles online.

Ms Claire Chang, co-chair of The Partner Connection Fund which paid out the grants, said: "I see dating as a growth industry that is not just a Singapore phenomenon, but one that is growing all over the world.

"People will always want to find a partner. The Partner Connection Fund is catering to these people who feel embarrassed about telling other people that they are looking for a mate."