Joan Ball (born 1934) is a British businesswoman who started the first computer dating service in England in 1964.
[1] In 1949, Ball finished her last year of school and got a job as a shop assistant at The London Co-operative Society.
[1] Ball claims that she had trouble advertising the service in newspapers because of the belief at the time that marriage bureaus were actually fronts for prostitution.
"[2][3] Ball's company focused on long term match-ups and relationships—primarily trying to achieve marriages for clients—and catered to an older crowd who were looking to settle down or who had been previously divorced.
Ball used a time-shared computer and acquired a matching program that would pair couples based on questionnaire responses.
[2][3] In 1965, Ball merged her company with another marriage bureau to form Com-Pat, or Computer Dating Services Ltd.
She sold it to John Paterson of Dateline on the condition that he pay all of the company's debts as part of the purchase.