But perhaps we should not have been surprised. Cupid is known the world over for his frilly nappies and tiny wings, but it was some relief to find that our modern-day matchmaker looks very much an everyday Joe.

The tools of the trade have changed, too. Cupid's modern-day incarnation has it easy - magic arrows have been despatched to the waste basket in favour of computers, mobile phones and, of course, the internet. Throw 90,000 lonely online surfers into the mix, sit back and watch the fun. It is clear from the beginning Mr Kar's approach to the love business focuses more on technology than romance.

A self-confessed gadget-junkie, he pulls a laptop, Blackberry, Microsoft smart phone, third generation (3G) mobile phone, Nintendo DS games console, MP3 player, Bluetooth GPS device, Xda II PDA, and a Lumix digital camera from his rucksack within minutes of the start of the interview.

'That's all for today,' he says with a wry smile.

He also arrived in the dating business by chance. A former investment banker at BNP Paribas Peregrine, he left to form a venture capital company in 1999, 'just about the time the tech bubble began to burst', he said.

'I got bored with my paid job, but I saw a lot of companies going public under Peregrine, so we formed an incubation company to see if we could strike gold.'

His first investment was a 20 per cent stake in gaming portal GameEast.com, which became a full acquisition even though dreams of an initial public offering were rapidly fading.

Loverlover.com was part of that deal, but it was not until late 2001, when GameEast's fortunes took a nose-dive on the back declining advertising revenue, that Mr Kar paid any attention.

'Loverlover was like a bonus to the package, we didn't know what to do with it. It was just a chat-room service that was quite popular among tertiary students. I was always very interested in GameEast, but not that interested in Loverlover,' he said.

To prove the point Mr Kar showed his older business cards, with Loverlover.com almost an afterthought on the back. By contrast his current card retains GameEast.com in pride of place, though the service long since bit the dust.

'For sentimental reasons,' he explained.

But when terrestrial broadcaster Asia Television asked to use Loverlover's user database for a cross-border dating series aired in late 2001, it was clear love and romance could be more profitable than fun and games.

Four years later, with a database of 90,000 users spread across internet, as well as second-generation and 3G mobile platforms, Mr Kar is finally making money on the business, though he concedes the only thing he misses from his old job is the pay packet.

Matchmaking services in Hong Kong first came to the fore in the early '90s when agencies such as Dinner for Six flourished, even with an annual $1,000 membership fee and $100-per-head dinner parties for six people looking to hit it off.

But by 1993 the service gave way to a new and much speedier dating phenomenon aptly designed for a market where long working hours leave little time for romance.

Services such as WhirlWindDate organised speed-dating evenings for $350-a-go, where punters were given three-minute windows in which to impress members of the opposite sex before moving on.

The internet offered a far more comfortable environment to meet members of the opposite sex - at home in front of a PC. Hong Kong is now awash with competitors to Mr Kar's Loverlover.com, with local players like Wheresmydate.com.hk competing with multinationals Yahoo! and MSN.

Mr Kar sees localisation as a key to survival.

'Compared with Yahoo and MSN we are very localised. When users log on they are sure they are to be talking to people in Hong Kong - 87,000 of our 90,000 subscribers are from Hong Kong, but we are also looking to expand to overseas Chinese.'

True to form, however, Mr Kar is less excited about any potential spike in users from the run-up to Valentine's than he is about enhancing the service to take advantage of his favoured 3G and wireless Wi-Fi technology.

Loverlover.com is currently available on Hutchison, SmarTone Telecommunications and Sunday Communications on 2G networks, while the service launched on Hutchison's 3G network last November. Mobile users pay a monthly subscription fee while the regular internet website remains free.

Mr Kar expects to launch 3G service on SmarTone next month, and is currently working on a Java-based version to harness the higher bandwidth available on 3G.

'Even the current 3G service is still WAP-based, so you can't do a lot of, say, interactive chatting. With a Java client you can connect with Wi-Fi users and internet users, and there will be a video upload service so users can upload a video introduction of themselves.'

He also looks forward to the day when 3G has matured enough to enable users of say, Hutchison, to place anonymous video calls to a SmarTone user through the Loverlover service.

Not all aspects of the service have taken off as planned, however. Users on Sunday's network have the option of running location-based searches to find users in their vicinity, but there's one tiny flaw.

'The service is quite complicated to use, because you have to obtain permission from the person you are chasing first, and it's very difficult to gain that permission from someone you've never met. It defeats the purpose of having the location-based service attached to an anonymous chatting service,' he explains.

But having witnessed the growth of Bluetooth-based dating software - where users prowl for potential partners within the range of their Bluetooth phones - Mr Kar is convinced location-based dating has a future.

He hopes to launch a Wi-Fi service later this month at the 100-plus hotspots in Hong Kong run by one of Loverlover.com's sister companies - Y5Zone.

'Eventually every device that connects to the internet will be able to make use of our service, so when people log on at hotspots run by us, they will be able to find friends that are actually inside that zone.'

Having talked for over an hour on the technology, however, Mr Kar seemed reluctant to talk about the social implications of the kind of service he offers.

Questioned about the overall safety of Loverlover.com - the website in particular appears to cater to users in their late teens - he sought immediately to allay any fears.

'It is quite safe to make friends through our services. Although it is not possible to review every member's profile, I do personally review each photo,' he says. But he admits it is impossible to verify that users of the website are above the legal membership age of 18.

'On 3G, it will be even safer as we cross-checked every candidate in December and some were even screened out,' he added, declining to explain the grounds on which some members were rejected.

While online dating clearly facilitates meeting large numbers of potential partners literally at one sitting, Mr Kar denied that something may also be lost in the process.

'Loverlover is good for shy people who don't have time to go out and meet people. Many of the messages are sent in the middle of the night,' he said.

He also stressed his service is set up more as a friends network than as a dating site. 'Among my peers I don't have any of them who found their girlfriend or wife from the internet. Because Hong Kong is such a small place, it's more likely that you'll find love from within your social circle, whereas friends that you chat with you can find on the internet,' he said.

One glance at the forums of Loverlover.com suggests Mr Kar may have a point - the topics ranged from Lunar New Year to washing hair in the bath.

Maybe there's still room for wings and arrows after all.