Employee Dating App Usage Spikes At 11.23am During Work Hours

With usage of the top online dating apps growing over the past 12 months, singles are increasingly checking dating apps while at work.

This is according to a new report by mobile data monitoring company Wandera, who studied online dating usage on corporate mobile devices.

The report found that usage of some of the most popular mobile dating apps has grown by 69% in the past year alone, with Zoosk seeing the most growth over the period (348%).

Close behind was Match.com (285%) and Bumble (187%), which also saw daily usage spike sharply.

Interestingly, OkCupid and Tinder apparently saw the least growth over the 12 month period, with daily usage only rising by 24% and 49%.

Wandera also looked at where dating apps are most popular, revealing that Match.com dominated in the US, with Tinder top dog in the UK.

Overall, Tinder, Bumble and Plenty of Fish seemed to be popular with both UK and US-based singles.

The report also found that female-focused dating app Bumble uses almost three times more data than Tinder, despite the apps offering a very similar experience, with Match.com found to use the least amount of data.

When it comes to the time of day, UK employees were generally found to wait until 11pm-1am to check into dating platforms, this period representing 15% of total daily activity, whereas US singles tended to use mobile dating platforms “just after traditional working hours”.

During working hours, employees logged into dating platforms most between 11am and 12pm, with 11:23am being the peak.

Wandera said: “Regardless of whether the usage is happening during the working day or not, it’s still sucking up huge amounts of data and costing businesses money.

“The problem is only made worse when single employees are swiping on a 4G or roaming connection where the data consumption and related cost can quickly spiral out of control.

“When we looked at days of the week, it was concerning to find that the most popular days of the week for employees to swipe were in fact during the working week.

“Our research suggests dating app usage is the highest on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday with a noticeable peak on Thursday.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Wandera found that the lead up to Valentine’s Day was the most popular time for singles to turn to dating platforms – there was a 26% rise in dating app usage in the three weeks prior to Valentine’s Day, compared to the previous period.

Christmas Eve is the least popular day for online dating, which Wandera puts down to people spending more time with family and travelling.

To read the full report please click here.