Dating programs find users looking for partners, not sex, in the world of COVID | Business and Financial Issues

I just came out with a long closure. Can we be friends?

Mouth braces are not the most important thing in the minds of many people who go out for a long time to isolate themselves. Instead, he yearns to associate with the groups he left behind last year.

This is the idea of ​​dating programs like Tinder and Bumble, which are launching or finding new jobs that focus more on creating and maintaining friends.

“There are some interesting developments that have taken place in the interconnected world, which is the desire to have platonic relationships,” said Bumble founder and CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd.

“People are looking for boyfriends in ways they would not have been online before the epidemic.”

His company is investing in Bumble BFF (close friends forever), which is said to have about 9% of Bumble users every month in September 2020 and “has room for growth as we develop our interest in the site”.

Meanwhile his Match team – which has a number of programs including Tinder and Hinge – is also pushing beyond love and passion. It paid $ 1.7bn this year to South Korea’s social media company Hyperconnect, whose programs allow people to chat from around the world in real time.

Hyperconnect revenue jumped 50% last year, while Meetup, which helps you meet people with similar interests on the site or online, has seen a 22% increase in new members since January.

The words Meetup most analyzed this year were “friends”.

‘Find and communicate’

The partnership has intensified in response from users since the COVID-19 ban was gradually lifted around the world, allowing for more face-to-face contact, according to Evercore expert Shweta Kharjuria, who said it makes sense for business customers. .

“This opens up a whole new market for single people to both singles and couples,” she said.

The value of communication is linked to Amos, a 22-year-old French man who uses Bumble BFF in London.

“Progress is hard on the internet and if anything IRL (in real life) is blocked,” he said. “You don’t connect until you meet face to face.”

Rosie, a 24-year-old medical nurse living in Bristol, southwestern England, had difficulty communicating with her longtime colleagues when she began using Bumble BFF three weeks ago to meet new people.

“I’m a friendly person and I like to meet new people, but I didn’t get a chance. I just texted Vodafone on the app and it sounded a little weird, which is great, it seems like a lot of girls are in my place,” she said.

Nupur, a 25-year-old teacher from Pune in western India who uses Tinder and Bumble, said the programs’ efforts to present themselves as a way to make friends instead of just connecting with love “could work very well”.

“I’ve met a number of people online and we’ve met and we’ve been dating for over a year now.”

The truth of making friends like MeetMe and Yubo has also spawned some of the most popular dating apps these days in recent months, according to market research company Apptopia.

Jess Carbino, an online consultant and former cultural activist at Tinder and Bumble, told Reuters that isolation has been “difficult” due to the epidemic, especially for unmarried people who live alone.

“(This) has encouraged people to use the tools they can use, such as technology, to find relationships and connections.”

‘Current events are just ahead’

LGBTQ + dating programs have done a lot to help people get engaged, according to brokerage Canaccord Genuity, and a Chinese group Blued that provides fertility support, for example, and Taimi is offering demonstrations.

The Gay Hornet dating app, meanwhile, wants to be a social networking site that focuses on the needs of users, rather than just using those links related to physical appearance and proximity.

Hornet’s founder and CEO Christof Wittig said it was unlikely that people would return to the “old ways” of communicating with members of the community in particular online, such as at night, violence or LGBTQ sports events.

Witting said the number of users displaying comments, comments and videos increased by 37% in May.

He also said that the number of people looking for friends and social networks increased during the blockade as people turned to the platforms of the self-defense groups where bars, gymnasiums and pride events were closed.

“This is happening here,” he added. “Like a video conference with computers.”