JOIN USUnder coronavirus lockdown, love for virtual dating
Lockdown blues are driving people towards virtual dating apps, which are seeing a surge in activity as people seek to combat isolation.
Tinder is seeing more members swiping right, more conversations and conversations lasting longer globally.
At Tinder, daily conversations have gone up an average 20% around the world, and the average length of conversations is now 25% longer. In India, conversations have been up an average 39% and the average length of conversations is 28% longer.
In fact, there were more than 3 billion swipes on March 29, a few days after the nationwide lockdown was announced, which is the maximum number of swipes on a single day in the history of Tinder.
Bumble has also seen an 11% increase in Generation Z registrations, a 29% increase in messages sent and a 17% increase in video calls during the week ending March 27 compared to the week ending March 13.
All metrics are up by 30-40% at Indian dating app TrulyMadly. Snehil Khanor, Founder, TrulyMadly mentioned that conversations/messages have increased dramatically and the female liking rate has spiked.
Filter Off, a video dating app, has also witnessed a remarkable rise in the number of users during the lockdown period. “We have grown about 17,000 users in just 4 weeks. We now have about 20,000 users. This is a huge increase,” said Zach Schleien, Founder, Filter Off.
Virtual dating apps have also seen many users around the world mentioning Covid-19 in their profiles.
Stay home, be safe, social distancing, “how are you”, wash your hands and face emojis are being seen in bios at Tinder.
According to Khanor, a lot of people at TrulyMadly are putting up profile pictures with masks.
The apps are also gearing up to meet the growing demand by bringing in new features or making the existing premium features free.
The passport feature at Tinder, a paid feature which allows members to search by cities, is now free for all users. Bumble has also expanded its distance filters and has launched new features like video calls.
“I believe virtual dating is here to stay. Prior to the pandemic, people were still unsure of it, but they are now becoming more comfortable. Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown have accelerated the acceptance of virtual dating,” said Schleien.