App Annie Details Impact of Coronavirus on Dating App Usage

Leading analytics and data provider App Annie has published some insights into how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the mobile app market.

The report featured a section on online dating products and noted that there has been a small decrease in US activity over the past few weeks. However, the industry annually sees a drop off in the time after Valentine’s Day, following the conclusion of Dating Sunday and Cuffing Season.

Therefore, the App Annie team were reluctant to make any concrete statements about the coronavirus’ impact on dating activity.

Users can still be active while in isolation by swiping, matching and chatting, without the need for meeting in person. This means dating apps will unlikely see the same decline in activity that other markets have, for example ride-sharing.

Several leading brands like Tinder, Bumble, Grindr and Hinge have all issued warnings to their communities, advising singles to look after themselves and avoid going on first dates if they aren’t feeling well.

App Annie also speculates that swipe-based apps will continue to become more popular as they could be a form of entertainment for people who are forced to stay at home.

A spokesperson said in a statement: “We’ve also seen an increase in mobile games downloads and usage of top social apps — an indication that consumers are turning to mobile to stay entertained while they are required to remain indoors during city shutdowns and work from home policies. 

“The gamification of ‘swiping’ in dating apps slots into this behavior to find avenues to pass time and entertain, so we could expect to see a level of resiliency there.”

Tinder postponed the international release of ‘Swipe Night’ after it deemed the apocalyptic themes would be insensitive in the current situation.

Visit the App Annie website here.