Communication

Tinder and Everywell are giving away Covid Tests

To prepare for a surge of daters looking to meet in person, Tinder is giving away free at-home Covid test kits. The kits will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, and will be offered on March 20th at 7pm EST – the first day of spring.

In partnership with Everlywell, the maker of federally approved Covid-19 test kits, Tinder will give 1,000 kits to people (500 couples) who have made plans to meet up, according to CNN. The kits come with a nose swab, which you use and return back to the lab to wait for results to post online, usually 1-2 days later. 

The popular dating app company said that 40 percent of its customers under age 30 haven’t met in person because of fear of the coronavirus, so it’s hoping this will help ease some anxiety.

Garbo is a non-profit provider of Background Checks

Tinder announced that it will offer background checks on potential dates, a new measure that parent company Match Group has taken to improve safety for users of the app. Currently no dating app conducts criminal background checks on users, so this is a huge step forward for safety advocates.

Match Group has partnered with Garbo, a non-profit that provides background checks, and plans to debut an in-app background check feature on Tinder later this year according to The Washington Post. There are no details yet on the cost of the service.

Tracey Breeden, Match’s new head of safety and social advocacy, said in an interview: “This gives [Tinder users] an opportunity and that comfort level. Maybe they want more information before they have a video chat, maybe they want more information before they meet in person.”

India has seen a surge of new online daters thanks to Chinese dating app Lamour, but many are not so happy with the service.

L’amour was the most downloaded dating app in India in 2019 according to Sensor Tower analytics firm, gathering 14 million users in the first six months. (By comparison, Tinder got 6.6 million downloads during this same time period.) Since the lockdowns, the app has been gaining steam.

India is still a growing market with huge potential when it comes to the dating app industry, and Match Group and Bumble have focused resources on expanding their user bases in the region the past few years. However, it’s been dating app L’amour that is garnering attention according to Quartz News, with ads that say “find a girlfriend in a week” to lure new (male) users. When they click on the ad and download the app, they are presented with photos of attractive potential matches and messages directed to them, asking “are you the one I’m looking for?” 

If you’ve been vaccinated, you might want to include it in your online profile. Several online dating apps have now reported seeing increased interest around the topic of vaccines.

According to a report from Vice in early March, a Tinder spokesperson told Motherboard that they’d seen a 238 percent increase in vaccine mentions in user bios in January, and noticed the interest surrounding the subject as early as November. Bumble also reported an increase in the number of people using the words “vaccine” or “vaccinated” in their profiles dating back to December. In the same time period, the number of profiles on Scruff with the word “vaccinated” added has doubled.

Image: FTC

The Federal Trade Commission found that more online dating scams happened in 2020 than ever before, thanks to people flocking to dating apps in the wake of the pandemic. 

The FTC released a new report in February citing the disturbing news, noting that dating app scams are the most lucrative for criminals because they provide an easy way to access and manipulate targets. Scammers are able to create an emotional connection with their victims when they target them on dating apps, and are better able to keep extracting money. The total amount of stolen funds on dating apps in 2020 was estimated to be $304 million, or about $2,500 per victim. This was double the amount stolen from dating app users in 2019, according to Insider.

Dating App Jigsaw Raised Funding

Image: Jigsaw

Dating app Jigsaw has raised $3.7 million in funding after its launch in the U.S., positioning it to be a contender in the industry, according to Tech Crunch. The company is backed by angel investors in the UK and the US.

Jigsaw differentiates itself from other dating apps by slowing down the process for users to accept or reject a match. Sixteen jigsaw puzzle pieces hide a user’s face in their profile photo, with only one small piece revealed as a tease. Over time as a user interacts, the photo emerges as the puzzle pieces disappear, two at a time. After a certain number of interactions, the whole photo is revealed.