Online Personals Watch: News on the Online Dating Industry and Business

Key Findings About Online Dating in the U.S.

PEW RESEARCH - A new report from Pew Research Center explores the upsides and downsides of online dating by highlighting Americans' experiences and views. Here are 12 key takeaways.

1. 3-in-10 U.S. adults have used a dating site or app.
2. Online dating is more common among younger adults.
3. LGB adults are more likely than their straight counterparts to say they have ever used a dating app (51% vs. 28%).
4. Men are somewhat more likely than women to have tried online dating (34% vs. 27%).
5. Adults who have never been married are much more likely than married adults to report having used online dating sites or apps (52% vs. 16%).
6. There are no significant differences in the shares of adults who report ever using an online dating platform by race or ethnicity.
7. Tinder tops the list of dating apps the survey studied and is particularly popular among adults under 30.
8. Online dating users are somewhat divided over whether their experiences on these platforms have been positive or negative.
9. 35% say they have ever paid to use one of these platforms - including for extra features - but this varies by income, age and gender.
10. Those who have ever paid to use dating sites or apps report more positive experiences than those who have never paid.
11. Women who have used online dating platforms in the past year are more likely to feel overwhelmed by the number of messages they get, while men are more likely to feel insecure about a lack of messages.
12. 42% say online dating has made searching for a long-term partner easier.

by Emily A. Vogels & Colleen McClain
See full article at Pew Research

20% of Singles Run a Background Check on Their Dates

NEW YORK POST - Around one in five people run background checks on their online dates before meeting them, a new survey says. 38% of respondents say they "stalk" their first dates online instead. The survey was conducted by the Thriving Center of Psychology. 35% of the survey's participants revealed they do not feel safe when using dating apps, despite 67% claiming to have used them at one point. However, of those who have used platforms like Hinge, Bumble and Tinder, 69% despise the apps.

by Brooke Kato
See full article at New York Post

The App Economy Slowed for the First Time in 2022

TECH CRUNCH - An annual review by data.ai (previously App Annie) found that consumer spending on mobile apps declined for the first time in 2022 after seeing 19% YOY growth the year prior. The report said that consumer spending dropped by 2% in 2022, reaching $167B. Meanwhile, downloads grew by 11% YOY to 255B. Non-game apps have proven to be more resilient in a down economy, data.ai found. In 2022, spending on games dropped 5% to $110B, while spending on non-game apps increased 6% to $58B, driven by streaming subscriptions, dating apps, and short-form video apps. Video and dating apps continue to pull in the most revenue, with Tinder and Disney+ still highly ranked, behind TikTok.

by Sarah Perez
See full article at Tech Crunch

See the top news on Tinder

Dating Sunday Is the Best Day for Those Returning to Dating Apps

STYLIST.CO.UK - Some experts predict that 'Dating Sunday' will be the best day to be on a dating app in 2023. 'Dating Sunday' (which this year falls on Sunday 8 January 2023) refers to singles joining new dating apps or returning to old favorites on the first Sunday of the year. Typically, dating apps experience a massive surge in users and activity on Dating Sunday. In 2018, Coffee Meets Bagel saw a 75% increase on the first Sunday of the year compared to the previous 30 days, while Tinder experienced a 41% jump in downloads. Inner Circle, meanwhile, is expecting a 40% increase in new members on Dating Sunday 2023. 

by Leah Sinclair
See full article at Stylist.co.uk

See the top news on Coffee Meets Bagel
See the top news on Inner Circle

63% of Men Use Dates to Become 'a Better Version of Themselves'

CNBC - The dating experience is more rewarding for men than women, according to recent data from Match. 63% of men said dating helps them be a better version of themselves, but only 46% of women said the same. 44% of men said dating over the last year helped them grow and improve as a person. Why are men leaving dates more self-actualized than women? Perhaps because they are using their date as free therapy. Men have less intimate friendships: Only 30% of men reported having a private conversation with a friend during which they shared a personal feeling in the last week, according to a survey by the Survey Center on American Life. For women, this number was 48%. It's not surprising that they also report being more lonely than women, according to a 2021 study.

by Aditi Shrikant
See full article at CNBC

The Five Biggest Lessons of the Year

BBC - In 2022, more folks openly moved away from both gender and attraction binaries. Online daters got increasingly vocal about exploring different types of relationships, from solo polyamory to platonic life partnerships. Gen Z has particularly embraced the grey area of dating by purposefully entering into 'situationships'. Overall, openness towards many kinds of non-traditional relationships has gained visibility, too. Ethical non-monogamy has been all over TikTok, often in the form of polyamorous relationships. For single people, navigating dating apps has still been hard. It's undeniable that dating apps have become the primary way for younger daters to meet, with thousands of online dating sites in existence and 48% of 18 to 29-year-olds in the US using them. 

by Jessica Klein
See full article at BBC

OkCupid - the Global State of Digital Dating

OKCUPID BLOG - Being vulnerable is one of the more attractive traits to singles these days. 9 in 10 daters on OkCupid say they are sensitive. Men who say they are sensitive are receiving more likes and matches. Nearly all 1.6M respondents on OkCupid believe mental health is just as important as physical health. 97% of OkCupid respondents believe it's important to practice self-love. 30% (~8.5M singles) reveal they would be interested in an open relationship. 40% of people say that inflation is impacting their dating lives. The pandemic and rising costs of living accelerated the number of people being open to sober dates, but also sober relationships.

See full article at OkCupid Blog

See the top news on OkCupid

Dating Apps Now Most Popular Way for Newlyweds in Japan to Meet

JAPAN TIMES - 1 in every 5, or 22.6%, of newlywed couples found love online, according to a recent survey by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance. Online encounters overtook couples who met at work or school, which both came in at 20.8%, and those brought together by friends and acquaintances at 9.4%. In previous editions of the survey in 2012, 2015 and 2016, no responding couples reported meeting via dating apps. 

See full article at Japan Times

50.2% of U.S. Adults Are Single

NEWSBREAK - ~50.2% (124.6M) of American adults are single, according to The Bureau of Labor Statistics In 1950, this figure stood at 22%. Eric Klinenberg is a sociology professor at New York University. He is also the author of "Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone". Klinenberg explains the primary causes of the change. "People are looking for soulmates, and they're not going to compromise. Online dating sites have presented singles with more choices than ever, which also seems to be driving people away from tying the knot."

by Cadrene Heslop
See full article at Newsbreak

4 in 10 Singles in Singapore Have Never Dated

TODAY ONLINE - Four out of 10 single respondents in the 2021 Marriage and Parenthood survey had never dated before. But the proportion of people willing to find potential partners through online dating has doubled since 10 years ago. The 2021 Marriage and Parenthood Survey, which polled 5,800 Singapore residents aged 21 to 45, also found that a limited social circle or lack of opportunities were among the top reasons given by respondents for them not dating.

by Taufiq Zalizan
See full article at Today Online

Highest Earning and Most Downloaded Apps in September

DIGITAL INFORMATION WORLD - Tinder is the highest earning app on Android's Google Play, earning $5M in September. In the iOS store, Tinder holds 4th position, followed by Bumble, earning $39M and $29M in Sep respectively.

See full article at Digital Information World

See the top news on Tinder
See the top news on Bumble

56% of Online Daters Delete An App Because of Talking Stage

MEDIUM - One of the most challenging stages of dating is the "talking stage," a favorite term Gen Z uses to describe the early, undefined stages of a relationship. CanWe has surveyed 1K US-based online daters to understand better and quantify the talking stage and its challenges. According to the survey, 56% of online daters have deleted a dating app because of a poor talking stage experience. 80% of respondents reported spending 1–5 hours per week in talking stage conversations that go nowhere and will pay for a service like CanWe which identifies relationship potential with matches.

See full article at Medium

20% of Daters Are Dating Less Due to Inflation

PR NEWSWIRE - LendingTree, the nation's leading online financial services marketplace, found that 77% of dating Americans say dating would be easier if they had more money, with 1 in 5 going on fewer dates due to inflation. Additionally, LendingTree found that 22% of millennials have incurred debt due to their dating habits - the most of any generation.

See full article at PR Newswire

Online Daters: It's Important to See COVID-19 Vaccination Status on Profiles

PEW RESEARCH - Among U.S. adults who have used a dating site or app in the past year, 47% say it has been at least somewhat important to them that the profiles they look at include someone's COVID-19 vaccination status, according to Pew Research Center survey. This includes 23% who say it's been very important to see this information. The survey, conducted July 5-17, 2022, found that 9% of U.S. adults have used a dating site or app in the past year.

by Coleen McClain
See full article at Pew Research

Which Dating Apps Collect and Share the Most Data From Their Users

TECH BUZZ IRELAND - MoneyTransfers.com has analyzed 15 different dating apps to identify which apps share sensitive information with third parties. 67% of dating apps collect users' personal data to share with third parties. Badoo and Her were discovered to be the dating apps that share most of their users' personal data with third parties (35%), including everything from location, contact information, identifiers (IP address and cookies), and usage data. In joint second place were eharmony and Grindr, and in third place came Tinder and PlentyOfFish. There were 5 apps that did not collect any of their users' personal data to share with third parties. These apps were Hinge, Thursday, Flava, Once and Raya.

by Jim O Brien
See full article at Tech Buzz Ireland