Matching

Dating app Bumble is taking the popular Lunar New Year holiday and launching a promotional celebration for its user base in Asia.

The “Bumble Lo Hei: Toss Love into Your New Year” campaign says it will “spice up” holiday traditions and give the celebration a romantic twist for those seeking love in 2024. Bumble will give away exclusive gift packages for users to help them “manifest” a great love life this coming year, and encourage them to take charge of their own love journeys.

The promotion was inspired by the traditional Lunar New Year “prosperity toss,” or “lo hei.”

OkCupid just celebrated its 20th anniversary and released some interesting dating trends as we start 2024, driven mostly by its younger users. The irreverent dating app has attracted a wide array of singles over the years, thanks to its unique question and answer format for people to get to know each other.

The dating app surveyed close to one million of its users and found that almost 80 percent consider themselves independent daters, and those who declare themselves as independent are receiving 5 percent more likes compared to people who say they aren’t.

In fact, according to the company's blog post, in 2023 there was a 181 percent increase in mentions of “independent” on OkCupid profiles, which points to healthier dating trends in 2024. Other dating apps have also found their users (especially younger Gen Z daters) want to focus on their mental health and well-being before getting involved in a new relationship, so it seems to be a trend.

Dating app BLK has launched a new ad campaign in support of black women, encouraging them to be their “authentic selves.”

The “New Year, Real You: #RealNotPerfect” campaign launched in January. The ad was created by Arxna in conjunction with BLK’s in-house marketing team, according to Black Enterprise magazine. The campaign is meant to encourage black women to be their authentic selves in all areas of their lives - professional, educational, and in their personal/ dating lives.

BLK also intends the campaign to challenge societal expectations and to create a “safe space” for black women to express themselves without fear of judgment, according to Black Enterprise.

Bumble has shared the best time to be on a dating app – down to the exact hour. According to the popular dating app platform, being on the app on Mondays between 7pm and 8pm in the U.S. and between 8pm and 9pm in the U.K. will boost your chances of matching.

The dating app shared that these are the busiest times with the most people active on the app - and will give you more opportunities to match and set up dates. Other good times to be active on the platform is Tuesday evenings at 9pm, Thursdays at 7pm, and Sundays at 5pm, according to recent user data.

Dating Sunday (the first Sunday in January following the holidays) might be the busiest day of the year for online dating. But on a regular basis, searching for potential matches on the weekend won’t yield the same results as looking during weekday evenings. More people are with friends and family (and on other dates), and only log back in after work during the week to match with more people.

Birth rates have gone down in Japan, so the local Tokyo government wants to tackle the problem with a new government-issued dating app in hopes of sparking some romance.

The big selling point for this dating app is that you won’t have to endure the high numbers of bots that come with regular dating apps, and that the platform offers a more secure online dating experience for users. The new app is backed by a government-approved vetting process, which requires users to prove their marital status and income and to take part in an online interview to confirm their identity, according to Sora News 24.

The app will be run by a private company, but the government will require official documentation from users to prove their marital status and identity, according to Nikkei Asia.

Clean Slating is the newest dating trend in India to kick off 2024, at least according to dating app Bumble.

The term refers to letting go of past relationships and baggage that you no longer want to hold onto, and starting the year on a clean slate, according to The Deccan Chronicle.

According to the nationwide study, an overwhelming 71 percent of Indians said they are starting the new year on a clean slate, leaving the past behind. Bumble’s findings also revealed that 70 percent of respondents feel that making peace with exes and past relationships going into 2024 gives them a fresh start. Sixty-nine percent say that it will “open them up to new experiences and people,” and 67 percent said it will allow them deeper connections, according to the Chronicle.