General News

Dating app OkZoomer began as a joke, but has unexpectedly taken off among college students across the U.S.

The coronavirus has forced people to find creative ways to connect, and college students have risen to the challenge. Ileana Valdez and Patrycja Gorska, two Yale Juniors, noticed the Ivy League Meme Consortium was growing fast with almost 100,000 members who were posting memes about their new social lives over Zoom. They thought they could do something similar with virtual dating. 

According to The Dallas Observer, they created a Google Form to match people going on blind Zoom dates as a joke, but then they began seeing hundreds, then thousands, sign up. In just two days, almost 2,400 students from 170 colleges across the country had signed up. Gorska and Valdez recruited more students to help, with a total of six people staffing their project, including Valdez’s brother who created an algorithm to help with matches. Now just weeks later, they have over 12,000 sign-ups.

As a growing number of people began social distancing, they are turning to dating apps for connection – and specifically, logging on to Tinder.

Tinder reported that it received over 3 billion swipes in one day – Sunday March 28th – the highest number ever recorded in the app’s eight-year history.

The company also noted in a press release that daily conversations have increased about 20% across the globe, and the average length of conversations is 25% longer. In the US, conversations have been up an average of 19% and the average length of a conversation is 8% longer.

Dating app Plenty of Fish partnered with The Meet Group to launch a new livestream video feature as more people around the world turn to dating apps for connection. But POF has a rocky history with video chat features, and had come under fire as recently as last year because scammers were creating fake invitations and taking advantage of users trying to access the feature. 

The company hopes that the newest version backed by The Meet Group, which provides livestream technology to apps, will give users a more positive and secure experience. The Meet Group also has a few dating apps of its own – Meet Me, Skout, LOVOO, Tagged and Growlr which use video features. In fact, one of the highlights of the new POF feature is that users can earn diamonds from other users in response to a livestream, which is also a part of Meet Me’s platform. 

People around the world continue social distancing as COVID-19 spreads, and as a result, dating apps are seeing a surge of activity among users.

A new study by Dating.com found that there has been an 82% increase in dating app usage since the beginning of March, showing how much people have come to rely on dating apps for connection and meeting people virtually.

The study also looked at where that usage spiked over the month of March when more people than ever began to isolate to stop the spread of the virus, to see how it correlated with positive cases of COVID-19 around the world. The United States takes the lead as the most active country for online dating, notably as the country’s positive cases have significantly increased and it has become the global hot spot of the pandemic.

A new study of online dating practices and attitudes in America has just been released by Pew Research, and the most surprising finding: the majority of dating app users find the experience of online dating positive. 

Fifty-seven percent of those surveyed say they have had an overall positive experience with dating apps, including 14 percent who describe their experience as “very positive” and 43 percent who said it was somewhat positive. About 40 percent of dating apps users describe their experience as “somewhat negative” (including 9% who describe it as very negative).

Image: Tinder

In the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic that is forcing people to isolate in their homes, Tinder is waiving fees for its premium Passport feature. 

Passport provides a way for people to connect with those outside of their current locations. Previously, it was available through Tinder’s Gold and Premium paid services. With this move, Tinder users can connect for free with friends from their hometowns, or with relatives across country or those living in other parts of the world. 

This offer will be available through April 30th and extend to users all over the world. Tinder hopes that it will encourage its members to virtually connect beyond dating, according to Tech Crunch.