OkCupid

Match Group shared its fourth quarter earnings this week, offering investors some cautious optimism on what to expect in 2021. 

Last year the company saw record highs in new users and activity, but faced with economic recessions and a global pandemic, revenue growth remained uncertain. The company delivered slightly better than expected results for the last quarter of 2020, with revenue of $651.4 million for the quarter, up from $547.2 million. Analysts had been projecting $649 million according to Market Watch. Match Group also reported net income of $140.6 million, up from $94.7 million this time last year. 

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.

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.

Dating app usage has increased significantly this year, in part due to the global pandemic. But as we go into cuffing season and usage continues to skyrocket, privacy experts from the Brookings Institute are cautioning dating app users to be careful with sharing their personal information.

The research firm notes that online dating has been increasing rapidly in the last decade, especially since the debut of dating app Tinder in 2012. Thirty percent of American adults had tried online dating in 2019, compared to just 13% in 2013.

This year however, there has been an explosion of new online daters. Match Group (which controls 60% of the dating app market with apps like Tinder, OkCupid, and Hinge), reported a fifteen percent increase in new subscribers in the second quarter of 2020, and a record-breaking 3 billion swipes on Tinder in one day in March when lockdowns began. From March to May of 2020, OkCupid saw a 700% increase in dates and Bumble had a 70% increase in video calls, Brookings points out.

Match Group has had a stellar year, with its most recent earnings surpassing last quarter’s by 3.8 percent. Analysts however pointed out that the stock has underperformed based on year over year analysis, despite the company’s increased revenues.

Match Group reported third quarter earnings of 45 cents per share, which was a decline of 13 percent from third quarter 2019. However, Match Group’s revenue paints a different picture of the company’s success, with third quarter reports of $639.8 million, an increase of 18% year over year according to Yahoo! Finance. This was driven by an increase in the average subscriber base this year, likely with more people flocking to dating apps overall as the pandemic raged on.

The average subscriber base increased 12 percent to 10.8 million according to Yahoo!, and average revenues per user (ARPU) were up 4% year over year. Still, analysts are considering how much the pandemic is affecting revenue growth in 2020, and if it will continue as we go into the new year.

Image: OkCupid

As we go into 2021, the pandemic and increased political engagement have shifted dating culture and the priorities of singles, according to a new study by OkCupid. The dating app found that its users are into so-called “Thunberging” and “Advo-dating,” according to Australia’s Body and Soul Magazine.

Advo-dating has come into vogue for 2021, with about 310,000 OkCupid users calling themselves activists, and even more sharing that political values are most important when choosing a match. The global protests for Black Lives Matter played an important role in placing politics front and center in new relationships, especially among young daters, who want their dates to share their values.