Axios Highlights Key Online Dating Moments from 2019

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, business news outlet Axios has been examining and summarising current online dating trends, as well as speculating as to what the future of the industry might hold. 

The article noted that the stigma around online dating is quickly disappearing. It cited Stanford research from 2017 that found 39% of heterosexual and 65% of homosexual relationships in the US began online.

eharmony estimated that the overall number could increase to 70% by the year 2040.

Facebook Dating has had a slow roll-out thus far, and it is still being tested in Colombia, Canada and Thailand. 

Axios questioned if the social media giant’s chequered history with data privacy would turn people off the new service. It asked: “Will disenchanted users want to come back to Facebook for its dating service and share even more personal data about themselves?”

Security concerns has been an industry-wide issue over the past 12 months, especially within the LGBTQ community. A third-party app was successfully able to reveal the exact location of millions of Grindr users, while private images connected to Jack’d profiles were susceptible to hackers. 

A year-old investigation from Axios highlighted the way a number of dating platforms were using trackers to monitor its users’ data and activity.

They also touched on how dating apps are tackling the issue of discrimination. Grindr released new community guidelines as part of the ‘Kindr’ campaign to encourage inclusivity, and OkCupid users now have the option to display their preferred pronouns on their profile. 

Read the full Axios overview here.