Relationships

“Money can’t buy me love,” said The Beatles, but Australian singles are determined to prove them wrong. According to ING Direct’s 2017 Cost of Dating report, Aussies happily hand over nearly $12 billion per year in the name of finding their happily ever afters.

The exact figure is $11.65 billion, a price tag that’s sure to induce sticker shock in almost any dater, regardless of how deep their pockets run. Australians reportedly spend an average of $79 on a first date, with one third of singles going on at least one first date per month, and a further 32% going on two or more first dates per month. Additionally, almost one in five (18%) have paid for dating services, an expenditure that tallies up to $80.7 million each year.

When it comes to first dates, Australians err on the side of tradition. More than half (56%) of single men are prepared to pick up the tab. Baby Boomer males (33%) are particularly committed to this classic notion of romantic chivalry, followed closely by Gen X men (27%) and Millennial men (26%).

Though a dating app may seem like the closest thing tech-obsessed Millennials have to a matchmaker, the ancient art of playing cupid isn’t dead yet.

Wingman, a new mobile matchmaking app, recently conducted its first Wingman Assisted Romance Survey. The study reveals that most Millennials (90%), whether they’re single or in a relationship, say they would enjoy acting as matchmaker for their friends. And what’s more, they’re confident about their skills. Almost 70% said they thought they’d be better at picking matches for their friends than their friends would be at picking their own dates.

“A large majority of the people we spoke to at length felt that they knew their friends well enough to pick people they should meet and many felt they absolutely knew them better than their friends know themselves,” said Wingman founder Tina Wilson. “Millennials tend to be confident and that confidence clearly extends to the widespread belief we found that many millennials are convinced they can be great matchmakers for their friends." 

Online dating companies are thinking outside the box, thanks to the flooded app market and growing consumer base. Popular dating apps Tinder and Hinge are now offering wedding competitions to users who meet through each of their respective dating apps.

Tinder announced that it would offer to pay $100K towards the cost of an LGBTQ wedding for a couple who met through the app. The move was a nod in honor of Pride Month in June.

Tinder launched a new feature last year to include “transgender” as a gender choice, along with almost 40 other options with which users can choose to identify. The company saw an additional 250,000 new matches made as a result of the inclusion, and now, they want to encourage one lucky LGBTQ couple to tie the knot. Tinder also discovered via a recent study that these users are more likely to want a serious relationship, rather than a hook-up. According to an article in Elite Daily, the large majority of gay users (66.4 percent) and lesbian users (62.1 percent) agree that using Tinder will lead to a long-term relationship.

Spring cleaning isn’t just for your home. According to Facebook data analysts, the season is also prime time for daters to “clear the clutter” in their love lives - in other words, it’s breakup season.

In a paper from 2014, Lars Backstrom of Facebook and Jon Kleinberg of Cornell University analyzed user data from Facebook in search of insight into modern love lives. Amongst other things, they found that:

• About half of all Facebook relationships that have survived three months are likely to survive to four years or longer
• Heterosexual couples are generally around the same age, even as they get older
• Same-sex couples display the stereotypical age gap as they grow older, leveling off at about 4.5 years difference after age 38
• How much interest couples have in each other is a better predictor of love than having a lot of friends in common

Have you met someone over your favorite dating app and questioned their honesty? Chances are, if you’re an active online dater you have, and you’re not alone. Many daters are distrustful of other daters, and can’t tolerate even a small “white lie” – whether it’s fudging your weight, age or income, according to a new study by dating site Match.

This is because many of us aren’t exactly honest with our dates. In fact, Match’s annual Singles in America study surveyed over 5,000 daters in the U.S. across a range of ages, ethnicities, and regions to determine how much (and what type) of small lies they would tolerate on a first date before turning down a second date.

Match found the majority of daters – 57% - claim they do not tell white lies while they’re dating. Moreover, two thirds of daters believe any small fib is unacceptable. In fact, your chances of getting a second date or having sex aren’t made better by lying, so the consensus among singles is: just don’t do it.

Slack, a popular messaging app used in workplaces to schedule meetings and chat with your co-workers, has entered into new territory. Now, you can date your co-workers over Slack, too.

Dating app Feeld announced its integration onto the Slack platform late April. It works like this: when you download the Feeld app in Slack, you can let the app know who of your colleagues you’re interested in. If Feeld notices your co-worker has admitted to being attracted to you, too, it will let both of you know and you can take it from there (and start your flirtatious messaging over Slack). If your co-worker doesn’t return the affection, he’s never alerted to your interest.

So essentially, you can get confirmation of your crush without him or her knowing.