Patent ID: 8903907

Claim:
A relationship support apparatus, in which information of a plurality of users looking for a relationship partner is registered, which supports the plurality of users in seeking an opportunity to have a relationship with each other, and which is communicably connected to terminals of the plurality of users, the relationship support apparatus comprising: a receiving unit that receives, from a terminal of a first relationship-seeking user, identification information of a desired relationship partner user, with whom the first relationship-seeking user desires to have a relationship, and further receives, from a terminal of the desired relationship partner user, identification information of a second relationship-seeking user, with whom the desired relationship partner user desires to have a relationship; a determination unit that determines, based on the identification information of the desired relationship partner user and the identification information of the second relationship-seeking user that have been obtained through the receiving unit, whether or not an agreement has been reached on the relationship between the first relationship-seeking user and the desired relationship partner user; and a suspension unit that, when the determination unit determines that the agreement has been reached on the relationship between the first relationship-seeking user and the desired relationship partner user, suspends the first relationship-seeking user and the desired relationship partner user from carrying out a relationship-seeking activity with respect to other users, wherein: a mode of enabling the relationship-seeking activity to be carried out is defined as an active mode and a mode of disabling the relationship-seeking activity from being carried out is defined as a suspended mode, and when a status of the first relationship-seeking user and a status of the desired relationship partner are in the suspended mode, the suspension unit prevents the first relationship-seeking user and the desired relationship partner from retrieving and viewing profiles of the other users and from contacting the other users.