Liftoff’s Annual Dating Apps Report: User Engagement by Region

Mobile app marketing and retargeting firm Liftoff has released its 2018 report on the dating industry.

Drawing from an analysis of nearly 12 billion ad impressions across 4.4 million app installs spanning from December 1, 2016 to December 1, 2017, Liftoff’s Dating Report revealed a number of trends in the sector.

The fourth section of the report concerns annual trends in user engagement by region.

It cites 2016 data from the BBC that suggests over 50 countries worldwide have a significant user base on dating apps.

Badoo was the top dating app in 21 countries, while Tinder was top in 18.

It then delves into data from Sensor Tower focused on Russia, India, China, USA, Brazil, Turkey, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.

Across all the markets, dating apps represented approximately 0.22% of total app downloads.

There is huge variation in the costs of user acquisition between regions, with North American users costing 96% more than APAC users to acquire.

APAC is described as an exciting emerging market, with a huge population under the age of 25 and gradually relaxing cultural norms creating a perfect environment for dating tech to flourish.

The authors note that in this region, “The install-to subscribe rate (1.59%) is impressive, but the cost to acquire a user who commits is steep ($149.67)”.

In Europe, it is reportedly easy for marketers to get user attention, but more difficult for them to drive through a registration.

Latin America had low costs per download and registration, but users are highly unlikely to subscribe. The cost of a subscriber in this region was 10X more than in North America, at $1,509.38.

GDI will cover the findings on seasonality in an upcoming article.

See our article on the conversion rate findings here, on conversions by OS here, and on gender-based trends here.

Download the full report here.