Statistics

A new study by dating app Bumble found that getting vaccinated is a priority for singles, and if you don’t, it could cost you a date.

The dating app company surveyed about 1,000 of its American users in May and found that 30 percent said they wouldn’t consider going on a date or having sex with someone who wasn’t vaccinated. Bottom line: if you’re holding out, you might also be missing out on your love life.

According to Fast Company, the vast majority of respondents – 90 percent - want to date face-to-face, though Bumble maintains that many people like virtual dating as a way to determine whether or not to meet someone in person, so people will continue using this feature. Thirty-eight percent of respondents agreed that they prefer a virtual first date before meeting in person. Forty-six percent of users said they would be fine with a “normal” date and another 41 percent said they’d still want to keep socially distanced.

Hinge Vaccine Badge

Image: Hinge

Dating apps are offering vaccine stickers for user profiles in the U.K., so potential matches can know vaccination status right away before swiping right.

Tinder is offering an array of stickers, including “Vaccinated” and “Vaxing soon,” according to a report from BBC News. Tinder, Match, Hinge, Bumble, Badoo, Plenty of Fish, OurTime and Muzmatch will all be offering badge options for users to add to their profiles, in partnership with a vaccine push by the U.K. government.

The vaccination badge trend began for U.S. dating app users, thanks to a government initiative to get as many people vaccinated as possible. The Biden administration pursued a partnership with dating apps, hoping they would be a good way to reach out to younger people and give them an incentive to get the vaccine – i.e., they can brag that they did and potentially attract more matches.

People are flocking to dating apps, but as they swipe through profiles, many are basing their choice to swipe right instead of left on superficial factors like attractiveness and race. 

According to a new study, dating app users also make their decisions in less than a second, so their choices tend to be superficial, based primarily on photos. The researchers who shared the preliminary results of their study were Dr. William Chopik, an associate professor in the Michigan State University Department of Psychology, and Dr. David Johnson from the University of Maryland.

The researchers compared two different demographics and the results to see how dating app users of different backgrounds interact with available profiles, focusing on college students and working-class adults, on average in their mid-thirties. They found that men tended to swipe right more often than women, but most people overall did not consider any profile information, including whether someone was interested in a hookup or relationship.

Dating app Bumble exceeded analysts’ expectations when the company reported its first quarter earnings, with revenues and new subscriber numbers significantly higher than what was initially predicted.

Revenue for the dating company rose 43 percent from the same quarter in 2020 to $171 million, up from $79.1 million this time last year, beating expert estimates and even the company’s own predictions. According to Marketwatch, Bumble shared that the number of total paying users also rose significantly, up 30 percent to 2.8 million compared to 2.2 million from the first quarter of 2020. 

This past quarter was also good for Bumbles other dating brands like Badoo. Revenue for them increased year-over-year to $58.1 million.

Dating app Hinge is now offering prompts via their video chat feature to help guide virtual daters towards a more engaging, fun conversation.

According to The Zoe Report, once you start chatting with someone on Hinge, the new feature will let one of you swipe through prompts to ask during the call. There are eight main types of prompts to choose, starting with The Warm-Up (which are ice-breakers to get you started). Hinge then moves on to Dive in Deep (which gets into personal questions), Behind the Scenes (insight into your daily life and habits), Not So Serious (“fun and out-of-the-box” questions), Dim the Lights (if you’re looking to get romantic), Underrated or Overrated (opinions on some more controversial or polarizing subjects), and finally Let’s Delete Hinge. The last one is assuming the call is going well and you’re going to take things offline.

Hinge has called this new offering a “virtual vibe check” so daters don’t feel the pressure to meet someone in person before having a conversation and getting a sense of who they are.

Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona just signed into law a bill that requires online dating companies to inform their users when they have communicated with potential scammers, according to a report from Fox 10 News.

The bill HB2396 was sponsored by Republican lawmaker Regina Cobb of Kingman, Arizona, and requires dating services to inform its members if someone they had been in contact with was banned for a suspected scam, in an effort to reduce abusive and criminal activity on dating apps. These companies were previously prohibited from doing so.

The law requires the notice to be sent my mail or email, and according to Fox News 10 in Phoenix, it also provides immunity for dating app companies to prevent them from being sued.