Match Group

Recipient of Gold
Tinder

Recipient of Silver
POF

Recipient of Bronze
eHarmony

This past year has been an interesting one from a dating perspective thanks to the pandemic that took hold of the world and the lock downs and social distancing that resulted from it. Most of the popular dating services found an increase in visitors especially during lockdown when people were forced to stay home. Seeing this trend, dating services that did not have a video feature rushed to get one added to their service to ensure daters had a way to interact virtually through live video streaming since meeting in real life was out. The funny thing with this is most services that have been around for the past 5 years probably had implemented video dating at one point, but had removed it by 2020 due to members not using it. While a lot of dating services did see increase numbers of visitors that did not necessarily mean increased revenue since online daters are looking to spend less during these uncertain times.

Right on schedule this year the 2021 Dating Sites Reviews Single's Choice Award poll went online October 1^st, 2020 and closed for voting on December 31^st, 2020. In 3 months, 334 visitors took time and cast their vote in the poll. This is down about 35% when compared to last year. I think part the reason for this was singles had decided to stay with the popular dating options instead of looking for new services thanks to the pandemic. For 2021, the poll asked the following question:

OkCupid has partnered with vegetarian food brand Sweet Earth to help vegetarians and vegans find love ahead of Valentine’s Day.

The companies will host a virtual event along with Outer Banks actor Chase Stokes, a “flexitarian” who is dating co-star and actress Madelyn Cline, who is vegan, about how to navigate dating when you and your match follow different diets. The Veggie Lovers Virtual Dating Event will take place online on Wednesday February 10th.

OkCupid’s Dating Expert Damona Hoffman will lead the Q&A session along with Stokes to discuss the challenges daters feel when it comes to navigating dietary preferences. Participants can also enter for a chance to win a spot in a private and exclusive speed dating event, according to Veg Times.

Recipient
Plenty of Fish (POF)

The Editor's Top Pick - Over All award recipient for 2021 is Plenty of Fish. This dating service also won our best free dating service award as well. It should be no surprise that POF is a winner of both awards thank to their large member base which makes it easy to find potential partners. In fact, compared to other dating services, you are 2.7 times more likely to have a conversation with another member in the first 24 hours of joining. That is because thanks to free messaging for all members, in one single day more than 17 million conversations happen on POF.

A new investment scam targeting dating app users has been detected by Interpol, according to ZDNet.

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) issued a “purple notice” to 194 member countries, describing a new money-making scheme on dating apps, according to ZDNet. Interpol stated that the scam “takes advantage of people’s vulnerabilities as they look for potential matches, and lures them into sophisticated fraud scheme.”

The scammers have set up fake profiles in apps like Tinder, Bumble, and eHarmony, and match with users who don’t know they are scammers. The scammers then message their targets pretending to be interested in them romantically in order to build trust, occasionally giving them investment “tips” to turn the conversation towards money.

Recipient
Plenty of Fish

The recipient of the Editor's Top Pick - Free award for 2021 is Plenty of Fish. POF has won this award 4 times since 2016 and this year makes it the fifth time in a row. The free dating service category is extremely competitive and POF has managed to stay on top over the last decade and a half thanks to their continued improvements along with the success their members find when they use the service. A statistic that points to this services popularity is, in the last 5 years the POF dating apps have been downloaded over 73 million times (for iOS and Android). The reason that POF members enjoy a 30% success rate in only 4 short weeks or less, is because over 17 million conversations are exchanged every day. Singles who join POF are on their to find dates, and since it is free to use, everyone participates making your chances of finding love that much better.

Dating app users are advertising when they have received the COVID-19 vaccine in the hope of capturing more matches.

As more people are able to get vaccinated, it has become a selling point for singles who are eager to date in person again. Healthcare workers, grocery store clerks, politicians and teachers are all in the front of the line to get the vaccine, along with other at-risk populations, and many of them are using dating apps to share their vaccine status. 

According to Vice, people are sharing details in their profiles for maximum visibility, like when they got their last vaccine or if they are still waiting for the second shot.