Statistics

Dating app Match has partnered with Candace Bushnell, the international best-selling author who inspired the Sex and the City series, to help its members find love during dating’s high season.

According to Tech Crunch, beginning on “Dating Sunday” January 2nd, the highest-trafficked day for dating apps, and through the following week, Candace is overseeing matches for the “Expert Picks” feature. Expert Picks allows users to take a quiz to receive hand-selected matches from Match’s team of experts, (including from Bushnell for the busiest week of the year).

"As the creator of Sex and the City, I know a catch when I see one," said Bushnell in a statement. "I can't wait to play matchmaker for Match members to help them get out on great dates and find the love they deserve in 2022."

Exploring your options and being “consciously single” top the list of dating attitudes going into 2022, according to a new study by dating app Bumble.

The company conducted a survey of its members to find out where they stand on dating compared to before the pandemic began, and to identify new trends and practices as we head into the high season for dating app users. The first Sunday after New Year’s has typically been the busiest day for dating apps, and Bumble expects this year to be no different. Rival dating app Tinder also expects Sunday January 2nd to be the busiest day for online dating in 2022, specifically between the hours of 7pm and 10pm.

Yahoo! News noted the highest volume of messages sent over dating apps in the US are typically exchanged from the first Sunday in January and throughout the month, tapering off before Valentine’s Day.

Match Group announced that the company will go carbon neutral by March of 2022 thanks to its purchase of offsets to carbon emissions, leading the way for dating apps to address issues of climate change.

The company announced the move in a press release, noting that it commits to offsetting its carbon footprint going forward, though the offset purchase made lasts only two years. Match Group invested in Hyundai Green Power Corporation, which captures and recycles waste gases to generate electricity through its Steel Waste Energy Cogeneration Project. (The site’s steel mill reuses waste gases and what remains is used by the project’s power plant.)  

When that energy is repurposed, it supplies power to the local grid in Dangjin, South Korea, instead of that grid relying on fossil fuels. This means a reduction of 1.8 million tons of carbon emissions per year, according to Match Group. 

Bumble says that singles are turning to dating apps more than ever, evidenced by its recent finding that over a billion matches were made on its app in 2021, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.

The dating app also shared that over 9 billion messages were exchanged globally, up nearly 40 percent from 2020, showing that dating app usage during lockdowns wasn’t a temporary thing. Rather, once restrictions lifted, people were more eager to login to the app and start looking for matches as well as virtual date, and were also eager to use dating apps to get back out there and meet matches in real life.  

Bumble said that the highest number of message exchanges were between October and early November, just prior to the holiday season. It’s also worth noting that this was just prior to the emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant of Covid, which has led to global lockdowns and restrictions once again. Still, the company doesn’t see things slowing down as we enter into dating’s “high season,” between New Year’s and Valentine’s Day.

The dating app industry is expected to grow to over $11 billion by 2028, thanks to the increased use of smartphones and people turning to them for connection during the pandemic.

A new report by Grand View Research found that the industry is doing better than ever and will only continue to grow at a rate of 5.6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2028. The increasing global reach of smartphones and internet access has helped to propel the industry forward, as well as pandemic lockdowns and the increased interest in virtual dating.

The study also found that the 18- to 25-year-old market is expected to register the second largest CAGR of 5.8 percent over the same period. Dating apps have their eyes on Gen Z daters who are looking for something more engaging than the typical routine of swiping through profiles on an app, as they have grown up with smartphones and virtual experiences. Many of the new offerings that apps like Tinder are unveiling include interactive content. Tinder and Bumble have both recently announced that they will be offering experiences in the metaverse where daters can create avatars and meet in virtual spaces to date.

Match’s latest Singles In America study found that a majority of daters are looking for maturity and stability in a relationship, a result of people feeling lonely and isolated from the pandemic and longing for deeper connection.

According to the study, only 11 percent of singles want to date casually, while 62 percent say they seek more meaningful, committed relationships. And 65 percent are eager to find a relationship within the next year, particularly younger singles – 81 percent of Gen Z daters and 76 percent of Millennials.

Match also found that 83 percent of singles said they want a partner who is emotionally mature, and 76 percent said they want a partner who is looking to get married. This is up from 58 percent just two years ago, and interestingly, younger adults and men are most interested in marriage.