OkCupid Sees Surge of Usage Around the World                   

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, dating app OkCupid is seeing a surge of user activity across the globe.

In a recent blog post, the company shared some interesting statistics – including a 900% increase in mentions of “coronavirus” and “social distancing” on OkCupid profiles between February and March. And this translates to user activity as well. OkCupid reported a 20 percent increase in conversations and a 10 percent increase in matches globally as people are messaging and going on virtual “dates” in increasing numbers.

OkCupid also reported a 30 percent increase in messages since the beginning of March when people began to isolate at home. Women in particular are reaching out more than ever – they have increased the amount of first messages they send to matches by 40 percent.

Dating apps in general are seeing a significant spike in activity – Tinder reported its most active day yet on March 31st with over 3 billion swipes, and other apps have reported an increase in user activity over the last few weeks as people around the world have been social distancing.

And while friends are going on Zoom for virtual get-togethers – dating doesn’t necessarily follow. A vast majority of daters (51%) that OkCupid surveyed prefer getting to know someone the “old fashioned” way over text messages, compared to only 26% who like video chatting with their dates. Only 17 percent said they prefer to speak on the phone with matches, but only a mere 6 percent said they are waiting to date until the pandemic is over.

OkCupid users who are virtual dating have different preferences, too. The majority – about 31% - said they wanted to do a shared activity, like a game. Twenty-nine percent wanted to have dinner or drinks virtually together, while about a quarter of respondents said just a simple chat would be best. Only 15 percent said they would watch a movie or TV show together.

The pandemic has upended dating culture in a more fundamental way too, with people taking it more seriously according to OkCupid’s numbers. Its users looking for hook-ups are down 20 percent, while those looking for long-term relationships have increased 5 percent.

Virtual dating is lending itself to creating better connections, because daters are now having longer and more meaningful conversations. A whopping 85% of OkCupid users said it was important to develop an emotional connection before a physical one. (Though 51% still said they enjoyed phone sex.)

OkCupid based these numbers on answers from 70,000 of its users who responded to the survey.